Awkward Squad
Encyclopedia
The phrase Awkward Squad is used usually to refer to any grouping of individuals, normally within an existing organisation or structure, who are incompetent or wittingly or otherwise associate together to resist or obstruct change and are possibly stubborn in doing so.
uttered the words "Don't let the awkward squad fire over me".http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06EFD6133EE13AA15750C1A9669D946392D7CF So at least by the end of 18th century the phrase was already in use in military slang for a group of recruits who seemed incapable of understanding discipline or not yet sufficiently trained or disciplined to properly carry out their duties http://www.bartleby.com/81/1125.html http://abuffalosoldier.com/slang.htm.
In Villette
(pub. 1853) Charlotte Bronte
writes of M. Paul Emanuel: "Irritable he was; one heard that, as he apostrophized with vehemence the awkward squad under his orders."
In Chapter 16 of Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), Charles Dickens describes the character Sloppy as "[A] Full-Private Number One in the Awkward Squad of the rank and file of life."
Norman Cameron
ends one of his poems - Forgive me, sire - with the words 'awkward squad' , which plays with the above definition. This would have been written at least about 50 years before the current use.
ists in the United Kingdom
, marked out by their opposition to the Labour Party
's economic policies. The group includes Bob Crow
, Mark Serwotka
, and Tony Woodley
.
Origin
It is commonly accepted that shortly before his death in 1796 Robert BurnsRobert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
uttered the words "Don't let the awkward squad fire over me".http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06EFD6133EE13AA15750C1A9669D946392D7CF So at least by the end of 18th century the phrase was already in use in military slang for a group of recruits who seemed incapable of understanding discipline or not yet sufficiently trained or disciplined to properly carry out their duties http://www.bartleby.com/81/1125.html http://abuffalosoldier.com/slang.htm.
Literary use
John Clare (English peasant poet) wrote with his own spelling and no punctuation: he complained c.1820-1830 to his editors that people could understand him, and that he wouldn't use "that awkward squad of colon, semi-colon, comma, and full stop" (source - display in Clare's cottage, Helpston.)In Villette
Villette
-Places:Villette or La Villette is the name or part of the name of several places in Europe:-France:*Villette, in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département*Villette, in the Yvelines département*Villette-d'Anthon, in the Isère département...
(pub. 1853) Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
writes of M. Paul Emanuel: "Irritable he was; one heard that, as he apostrophized with vehemence the awkward squad under his orders."
In Chapter 16 of Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), Charles Dickens describes the character Sloppy as "[A] Full-Private Number One in the Awkward Squad of the rank and file of life."
Norman Cameron
Norman Cameron
Norman Cameron was a Scottish poet, distantly related to Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay who, between the two world wars, associated on Majorca with Robert Graves and Laura Riding. Later, as a part-time Fitzrovian, he was a colleague of Dylan Thomas, Geoffrey Grigson, Len Lye, John Aldridge RA,...
ends one of his poems - Forgive me, sire - with the words 'awkward squad' , which plays with the above definition. This would have been written at least about 50 years before the current use.
Trade unionism
The tag of the 'Awkward Squad' is applied to a current group of left-wing trade unionTrade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
ists in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, marked out by their opposition to the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
's economic policies. The group includes Bob Crow
Bob Crow
Robert Crow , who is better known as Bob Crow, is a British trade union leader, the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and a member of the General Council of the TUC...
, Mark Serwotka
Mark Serwotka
Mark Serwotka , is General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union , the trade union for British civil servants.-Early life:Born into a Catholic orphanage in Cardiff, Wales, he was adopted by a Polish British father and a Welsh mother....
, and Tony Woodley
Tony Woodley
Anthony Woodley is a British trade unionist who was the Joint-General Secretary of the Unite union which was formed through the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union in 2007...
.
Other uses of the phrase
- "Awkward Squad" - 1904 movie
- "Fresnel Lens Ø7: An Awkward Squad" - conceptual sound work, 2000
- "Republican Voices" - review of book on Irish republicanismIrish RepublicanismIrish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, 2001 - "The Awkward Squad" - review of novel, 2004
- "Tackling the awkward squad: monadic input/output, concurrency, exceptions, and foreign-language calls in Haskell" - a paper by Simon Peyton JonesSimon Peyton JonesSimon Peyton Jones is a British computer scientist who researches the implementation and applications of functional programming languages, particularly lazy functional languages...
- http://www.reverbnation.com/#/awkwardsquad - contemporary Scottish Blues Band