‘That’s the way to do it! That’s the way to do it!” These are the words spoken in a strange nasal voice by a notorious serial killer every time he murdered his next victim. Whenever I heard him use those words I would laugh helplessly and wait eagerly for the next lethal assault. In my defense, I should say that, firstly, I was only 7 years old at the time, and secondly, I was at a British seaside resort watching the Punch-and-Judy show on the promenade.
If you aren’t familiar with the exploits of the boastful, aggressive, confrontational and violent Mr Punch, I need to explain that he, his wife, Judy, and all the other characters in the show are glove puppets and the show has been a fixture at seaside resorts in Britain for at least the past 200 years. It’s intended as slapstick entertainment for children but there’s undoubtedly a very dark side to the storyline. Basically, the aptly named Punch is the star of the show and, with the aid of his large stick, he kills his baby, his wife and a policeman. He then goes on to outsmart a ghost and a crocodile before hanging the hangman who was supposed to hang Punch for his crimes!
It’s complete slapstick and as a child I regarded it as great entertainment, with Mr Punch no more realistic than the characters in Tom and Jerry cartoons. How wrong I was! I now realize that the Punch-and-Judy show, far from being harmless entertainment, was in fact a key to understanding British culture and politics.
Britain has a long tradition of aggression going back centuries. This may well stem from the early assimilation into the population of violent invaders: Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans. It may also reflect the history of England’s almost constant conflict with its neighbors, most notably the Scots to the north and the French to the south, later joined by the Spanish in the 16th century and the Germans in the 20th century. Or it could just simply be that, like Mr Punch, the British have always liked nothing more than a good “punch-up”. This is seen today in much of British culture, from football hooliganism to drunken fights, to road rage, to belligerent newspaper headlines, to hostile media interviewing techniques. However, nowhere is it more obvious than in Britain’s political debate and institutions.
If you have ever tuned in to Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) you will know exactly what I mean. This weekly televised spectacle sees the House of Commons packed out with members of Parliament (MPs), all baying for blood. The ostensible purpose of PMQs is for the leader of the opposition and other MPs to ask the prime minister questions relating to government policy or other important national issues. In reality, it’s a political version of the Punch-and-Judy show. The leader of the opposition asks whether the prime minister is proud of his latest policy failure; the opposition MPs cheer. The prime minister replies that his disastrous policy is in fact a triumph; the government MPs cheer. The leader of the opposition asks whether the prime minister is living on another planet; louder cheers. The prime minister implies that the leader of the opposition is an idiot; even louder cheers. The whole show then degenerates into a spectacle of accusations, counteraccusations, cheering, booing, shouting and general unruly behavior. The only thing missing is Mr Punch’s stick.
It’s not just in the confrontational and aggressive attacks at PMQs that British politics resembles the Punch-and-Judy show. Mr Punch’s boastfulness (“That’s the way to do it! That’s the way to do it!”) is constantly mirrored by British politicians singing their own praises. Boris Johnson was not the only prime minister to keep on and on about everything in Britain being “world-beating” under his leadership. If you swallowed the rhetoric, you would believe that Britain’s armed forces, universities, scientists, vaccines, doctors, businesses and “hard-working people” are without equal anywhere in the world. What is certainly true is that Britain is a world leader in political boastfulness. Even the disastrous Brexit was acclaimed as a great victory and a wonderful opportunity for the UK’s world-beating businesses to flourish in “global Britain”. I’m not sure that even Mr Punch would have had the temerity to boast about that one.
Britain is often referred to as home to the “mother of parliaments” and many of these Punch-and-Judy political practices have been exported to different parts of the world, often to other Anglo-Saxon countries or countries which it had once colonized. This was certainly true of Hong Kong where LegCo has had its moments of fiery politics and confrontation in recent years. Indeed, prior to the 2021 electoral reform law, some Hong Kong legislators even surpassed the Punch-and-Judy antics of their British counterparts by hurling not just insults but also objects across the Chamber. As for the biggest Anglo-Saxon country, the US, you only have to think of Donald Trump versus Joe Biden to know that confrontational and boastful politics there are alive and well.
To be fair, however, bad behavior in politics long predates Punch-and-Judy, so maybe I’m reading too much into my childhood memories of a violent and bizarre puppet show. The most notorious example of violence in politics is probably from over 2,000 years ago. On the Ides (15th) of March in 44 BC, during a meeting of the Senate in Rome, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of senators. Shakespeare famously portrayed the event in one of his plays, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, but failed to clarify whether the assassins were heard to shout out: “That’s the way to do it! That’s the way to do it!”
The author is a British historian and former principal of Sha Tin College, Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
