In this episode, we shift the spotlight from Ukrainian to English — the language that rarely has to struggle to be heard. We talk about the strange privilege of travelling as a native English speaker: never really worrying whether you’ll be understood, only feeling that quiet embarrassment when your “un café con leche” is answered in flawless English. We ask whether second or third languages create emotional distance, whether they make harder conversations easier, and what it means when your mother tongue follows you everywhere like a passport you didn’t earn. From there, we move closer to home. We touch on Northern Ireland — its history, partition, and how language still carries political allegiance. English may dominate public life, but Irish and Ulster Scots carry identity and memory. We revisit the broadcast bans under Margaret Thatcher, when even the voice of Gerry Adams was replaced by actors on British television. When speech is restricted, walls speak — and the murals of Belfast and Derry still echo that tension. We also revisit the 2011 England riots — how they began after the police shooting of Mark Duggan, how they spread, and how they were framed. We look at how David Cameron described the unrest as a “moral collapse” and a symptom of a “broken society,” and we contrast that with what the independent panel later found: deprivation, distrust of police, lack of opportunity, consumer pressure. We unpack how political language can turn a complex social event into a moral fable — neat, powerful, and policy-friendly. Along the way, we reflect on the difference between calling people a “community” and calling them a “mob,” on Brexit-era imagery that reduced individuals to a faceless crowd, and on the everyday language of welfare — words like “scrounger” and “dependency culture” — and how they shape shame long before policy does. We talk accents too: Received Pronunciation, Yorkshire, Scouse, the subtle signals of authority and credibility that still cling to certain ways of speaking. By the end, one thing feels clear: English may be global, but it is not neutral. Language decides who sounds serious, who sounds dangerous, who sounds deserving. It shapes how events are remembered and how people are judged. That’s Episode 3, Part 2 of Beans on Borscht. Next time, we’re joined by a guest to talk about civilians on the Ukrainian frontline — the strange space between serving and not serving. Until then — may the noble art of podcasting prevail. Get full access to Beans on Borscht at beansonborscht.substack.com/subscribe
