Posted on 02/19/2005 3:13:45 AM PST by kingsurfer
The Italians have Michelangelo, the French Molière and the Germans Beethoven. But, according to an Italian survey, the British - the beer-swilling, tabloid-reading, supposedly sports-crazy British - are more cultured than any of them.
They go to more concerts, films, plays, galleries and libraries than almost anyone in Europe. They even manage to visit more ruins and monuments than the Italians.
But the one area where they lag behind the other major nations of Europe is sport. More French, Italians and Spanish than British go to a course or stadium.
But the British are sportier than the Germans and, proportionately, attendances are above the average for the former European Union of 15 states.
These and other findings are contained in a survey of European cultural consumption commissioned in Italy and due to be published next week. Interviewees in the countries that made up the EU until its enlargement last year were asked if they had been to any one of a series of cultural events in the previous 12 months.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
The one good thing about living in a semi-socialist country is subsidised arts. All public museums and art galleries are free of charge.
Brit Culture Ping..here..here..tut..tut...all right then!
You are to be commended for your persistance, and your cultural quotient it seems.
TBH there are very few newspaper's I like to read in the UK.
I normally just buy a cheap tabloid on Saturdays for the TV guide that comes with it. The Telegraph and the Financial Times are about the only decent Broadsheets. I ahte the Times and the Guardian, the former for its general awful format and content , the latter for its leftism.
"...in a survey of European cultural consumption commissioned in Italy..."
Give those in government money and they'll find a way to spend it, uselessly or not.
IMO hegemony beats culture hands down.
Funny, I was doing the same thing until I found I could get the tv listings on line.I must say that The Guardian is the most consistently awful paper I've ever been exposed to. They could simply coat it with anti-American vitriol and pass it out...no need for actual articles.
Did you note the pitch for more public monies for the arts in Italy?
Pearls are the most cultured.
If things keep going the way they are we will have no Formula One either.
What!!???
The French aren’t the most cultured? I sure hope this article doesn’t get noticed in Paris – it might start a diplomatic incident! (It can’t start a war.)
What kind of hegemony ?
"Britons are most cultured Europeans"
Is this a joke ?
LOL
Actually I went to the Tate Modern and found a lot of it to be great. The installations were pretty damn good. They had teh Weather Project which was a massive hall filled with fale smoke, mirrors and a huge fake sun.
They also had plenty of Picasso's to keep me interested.
A lot of the Modern art is owned by private galleries like the Saatchi which I refusde to pay to enter as most of the stuff there are formaldyhyde based works.
I think they only included the 15 former EU states not the new ones so Poland may still rank highly.
But there has been a huge upsurge in culture in the UK. More people go to galleries, cinemas, theatres and restaurants than ever before.
Library of thinnest books:
Great Briton Chefs
"so Poland may still rank highly."
If they include antisemitic graffiti.
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