Data shows that for cancer survival, the UK ranks behind many countries, including European countries. One in six of the men and women aged 50-and-over surveyed in the UK was embarrassed about sharing their symptoms with a doctor.
As a nation we are much more likely to say we are embarrassed about going to the doctor or we are worried that we will take up a doctor's time. It may be that we are more stoic and still have a lingering war-time mentality of the 'stiff upper lip'
So where does the saying originate ?
One who has a stiff upper lip displays fortitude in the face of adversity, or exercises great self-restraint in the expression of emotion, and has traditionally been used to describe an attribute of British people (particularly upper-middle and upper class), who are sometimes perceived by other cultures as being unemotional. A sign of weakness is trembling of the upper lip, hence the saying keep a stiff upper lip. The phrase became symbolic of the British people, and particularly of those who were products of the English public school system, during the Victorian era.
It seems that in the past we did display our emotions in public, but with the moral climate created by Queen Victoria, plus Government posters during WWII, we have clammed up.
Ian Hislop explains all this far better than I......
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