Various bloggers are trying to crank up interest in an online No 10 petition politely asking the Prime Minister to resign.

Just over 6000 people have supported so far. Not bad – but also not so many, given the state of the country? Fear not. There is still lots of time for British citizens to add their names before the petition closes in October.

What struck my eye was the list of the petitioners themselves. The latest five first names are Harriett, Stephen, Chris, David and Allan. And so on. And on. And on. All classic English names.

Among the first 500 names listed are only a handful (five or so?) that might be said to reflect, hem, the ‘diversity of modern Britain’ (ie having some sort of Asian/Middle Eastern/African/Islamic/Latin American/European resonance).

Disraeli write Sybil, or The Two Nations back in 1845. The Wikipedia entry has this interesting list of the origins of the exporession: 

  1. Plato writes in The Republic that each city contains two cities "warring with each other, one of the poor, the other of the rich."
  2. 1805: Charles Hall writes, "The people in a civilised state may be divided into different orders; but for the purpose of investigating the manner in which they enjoy or are deprived of the requisites to support the health of their bodies and minds, they need only be divided into two classes, viz., the rich and the poor."
  3. 1835: Alexis de Tocqueville writes of "two rival nations" (the rich and the poor).
  4. 1841: William Channing writes, "In most large cities there may be said to be two nations, understanding as little of one another, having as little intercourse as if they lived in different lands."
  5. 1845: Engels writes that the working class and the bourgeoisie are like "two radically dissimilar nations, as unlike as difference of race could make them."

Not sure that Engels was being politically correct on that last one. But maybe we need to add a few more possibilities?