Nik Butler: ‘Sussex wunt be druv’ - discovering a wealth of history

The phrase is mentioned in poems and discussed in a book by David Arscott and occurs frequently in various Bonfire Societies mottos.

I first learned about the phrase through Dan Thompson’s website ( mrdanthompson.wordpress.com ) wherein he discusses the prospects of Worthing in relation to Greater Brighton.

It appears that historically speaking Sussex has demonstrated through its dialect and its people a propensity for having ‘a mind of its own’ and will not be forced into accepting ideas.

None of which explains the present scenarios we experience; in which we seem to walk almost absentmindedly through council policies and decisions.

Council tax is continuously frozen but there are rarely better questions asked as to how services might be paid?

Those services are reduced, withdrawn or reallocated and apart from a few dissenting voices on websites or letters to the press the occasional response is to wonder why those concerned do not accept what is delivered or why it should need to be questioned.

Maybe the constant flood of entertainment through consumerism and trivial information creates a society more concerned with shops on the high street than services to a community.

A constant focus on twenties plenty might set pedestrian against cyclist or vehicle operator whilst the ongoing murmur of dissent over the disintegrating roadways has fingers pointed all around the county.

This in it itself leads to consistent frustration from the electorate that resolving any local issue can be like nailing fog to the wall as departments shrug shoulder and slope the responsibility for an incoming call to another department.

Those departments in turn find the individual involved currently away from their desk and the fog of information pours forth.

Intellectually forcing a society to keep moving whilst being numbed by bureaucracy and sated through entertainment as it lives in fear of stepping outside their homes means you may be able to dodge the accountability question when it is raised.

The problem with this is you eventually herd a critical mass of individuals who gradually awaken and realise they are a very large crowd.

We may be a while away from Bonfire season but it might behove those in charge to remember “You may push and you may shov, but I’m hemmed if I’ll be druv.”