Topic 8 - Discourse structure and point of view > Ideological viewpoint > Task B > Our answer

Ideological viewpoint

Our answer for task B [1]

Overall, it is clear that, in the week prior to the publication of this table, the majority of the British press had written articles in a way which presented the British forces in a good light lexically and the Iraqi forces in a bad one. Such a contrast might be seen, depending on the circumstances, as laudable (e.g. in times of national emergency) or biased and jingoistic. The Guardian writer is critical of an attitude which he represents as biased and unfair. At first sight, the two coordinated noun phrases of the title 'mad dogs and Englishmen' appear in lexical terms to characterise the Iraqi troops as mad dogs in contrast to the English troops. But the phrase is also a quotation from a famous Noël Coward song, and for those who know the allusion, as most Guardian readers would, the reference to the song will ironically undercut this contrast. In the song 'the mad dogs and Englishmen are humorously characterised as doing unwise things in very hot climates: 'mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun'.
You can also view a website containing a version of the song

The title effectively suggests that we look for a set of ideological contrasts we are meant to be critical of, and the two-column format indicates the lines of the opposition.

It is perhaps also worth noting that for many readers there will be a problem about 'English' vs. British. After all, there are plenty of non-English (e.g. Scots, Welsh) members of the British armed forces. And there is also a bit of a sequencing issue in that the ordering of the columns is opposite to the ordering of the two noun phrases conjoined in the title, thus muddying the rhetorical waters a little.

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