The lament of the loss of Britishness. Written 4th Feb 2010
The tone of last weeks "Question Time" was telling on our national
mood. Cameron's "Broken Britain" speech has become a rallying cry for
a National Pessimism.
It is no surprise to me that a recession can entrench negativity and cause people to find common ground to view difference as ugly. But, what is surprising is that the ugly head of racism should raise itself within the framework of a lament on a loss of a golden age of
Britishness.
In that program a panel member, whose day job paradoxically involved working for a policy unit devoted to socialcohesion, tapped into that National Pecimissim and suggested that Britain was no longer Great.
Among the causes he first listed immigration, and then the loss of
British Institutions.
He blamed the breaking of, if not broken, society on the dilution of
values that immigration had brought to England.
However it is crystal clear to me that immigrants themselves tend to hold onto their values. And what is it that many of these immigrants value whether they be from Poland or Africa or the subcontinent, if it is not family, hard work and honesty? Are these not the values that today’s British society so often lacks.
The case of the two boys that were assaulted by two other "in care"
boys, that was the basis for Cameron speech, had nothing to do with immigration but everything to do with broken families.
What can be the cause of these broken families other than the rampant acceptability of zero commitment, of the rise of the self and the monetary system of placing a value on all things.
Off course immigrants, just like their neighbouring countrymen, are influenced by the same values that our politicians put to the country.
So can we blame them for adopting the now British culture of take and not give, of milking it for all you can get.
For even when our politicians hold our social interests paramount, all
they can do is talk about monetary investment.
Off course they cannot moralise to us whilst their profession is full
to the rim with sleaze, corruption and fraud. And off course their
argument is that in order to make the job of running the country
accessible to all, they need some reasonable monetary remuneration.
But if they themselves cannot sacrifice for service, to the greater
good of the community, then how can they ever go to the people and ask them to give and not take.
British society has like the others that surround it become a takers society. "Me first, bugger the rest" is the real cause of these social problems.
England was once a land of gardens and shopkeepers. The gardens remain, but the High Street is doomed by successive policies that put money first and community last.
A Tesco or Sainsburys or even a Shopping Mall cannot compete with the social and communal harmony that comes with a High Street and local bussinesses.
Immigrants have continually invested their time, effort
and money in that most British of Institutions. Off course they have
not done so purely for social or communal reasons, but that they have done it and stemmed the further retardation of British Society should be applauded and not denigrated.
