Normal, right-minded people will have been horrified by the disrespect displayed by the hard left towards Margaret Thatcher. To them, the idea of a frail, elderly woman dying from a stroke is somehow funny and a good thing. Thankfully these people are in a minority. But this does provoke the question: what kind of society produces people who display such disgusting morals?
When I read about the scenes in Brixton this week, I couldn’t help remember a description of the English by psychologist and anthropologist Professor Geoffrey Gorer in 1955 and how it contrasted to those rioting and ‘celebrating’:
‘ In public life today, the English are certainly among the most peaceful, gentle, courteous, and orderly populations that the civilized world has ever seen…You hardly see a fight in a bar…This orderliness and gentleness, this absence of overt aggression calls for an explanation’.
Whether this is a rose-tinted idealised description of 1950s England or not, what is so heart-breaking is that, regardless of the positive aspects in our society, you can hardly say this is a description of Britain, or at least some parts of it, in 2013. Far from being ‘progressive’, our sense of decency and respect has regressed. And certainly, the prevalence of overt aggression in our society today does call for an explanation.
What has gone wrong? Of course, such debates about Britain’s moral decline aren’t new. But we cannot deny that there are some deep problems in our society at the moment. Below are some examples of what is been happening in some parts of 21st century Britain.
- Stories of children stabbing and shooting other children no longer shock people and seems like a daily occurrence.
- Immoral acts of mass rioting and looting have been excused by the establishment as if people aren’t responsible for their actions.
- Anti-social behaviour and incivility is rife in our society. 81 per cent of people in a survey said anti-social behaviour had increased across England and Wales, 49 per cent said it had ‘gone up a lot’. But this is simply excused by the establishment as young people being ‘bored’.
- Some of our town centres are allowed to descend into chaos at the weekends. Some people think it’s acceptable to assault paramedics and then blame it on drink.
- We have a media that idolizes and glamourizes gangsters, criminals, and the talentless. People who hold traditional values (like Thatcher) such as patriotism are often mocked and ridiculed.
- Some of our judges think that people who commit burglary show ‘courage’.
- Some people think it’s acceptable to steal the metal from war memorials, and they get away with it.
- Our establishment pay benefits to extremists who hate our country while they preach hatred and praise violence. The authorities do nothing.
- Instances of distressed lonely people who jump off buildings are jeered and encouraged by sick crowds below.
- Tens of thousands of people are left to die in hospitals, and then the heartless health establishment tries to cover up its establishment for them.
- The elderly are often isolated from mainstream society. Three and a half million elderly people face a life alone and without help or friendship from their neighbours.
- Some companies thought it was ok to sell padded bras for 9 year-olds.
- We had a situation where some bankers recklessly gambled, sold financial products to people who couldn’t afford them, and manipulated the Libor rating. The establishment knighted some of them.
- Some MPs, believing that they could do whatever they wanted with taxpayers money, have claimed false expenses and forged invoices.
- A recent Unicef report stated that Britain has one of the highest numbers of under-age drinkers and teenage pregnancies.
- In some parts your status depends on the viciousness of your dog.
I’ll emphasise the next couple of sentences. Does this reflect the majority of Britons? Of course not! But the examples above are reflections of what we as a society have been prepared to tolerate over recent years. And these acts, whilst committed by the minority, are serious enough to ruin the lives of so many decent people.
Yet our weak, spineless establishment does virtually nothing. It talks tough, but little action follows. Instead of doing its job in protecting the decent majority, they have a go at us instead! The liberal establishment cries ‘You’re talking down Britain’, or ‘You’re being an alarmist reactionary’. But these people don’t live in the real world and have to put up with the consequences of their policies. Can the liberal establishment really say that the list above is acceptable? They must realise that no country is fit to call itself ‘progressive’ if there’s no common understanding as to what is right and wrong. They have to get the basics right.
Some readers might think that this is the legacy of Thatcherism. For me, it’s the result of the toxic combination of economic liberalism and social liberalism. Thatcher understood that economic liberalism could only work effectively if it was underpinned by social conservatism. But the economic argument had to be won first, and Thatcher was unable to create a social legacy based on her beliefs that accompanied the economic one. Moreover, the subsequent Labour government sought to combine social liberal economics with social liberalism, with disastrous consequences. Therefore, the market (which in itself is morally neutral and is therefore shaped by the values of society) has come to reflect and reinforce the worst elements of the 1960s cultural revolution – selfishness, hedonism, and the rejection of common morality and local and national solidarity.
The current Prime Minister said in the aftermath of the riots that some of parts of our society are ‘sick’. But what has he really done to cure it? David Cameron, if he wanted to, could be the the Prime Minister who reverses Britain’s moral decline just as Thatcher reversed Britain’s post-war economic decline. I’m not holding my breath though.
Commentators often accuse politicians of having no vision. And these days they’re usually right. Certainly the mass exodus of staff from Number 10 gives the impression that the government doesn’t have a mission worth staying and fighting for. But for those who are struggling to come up with a vision, Professor Gorer has provided one for you. Reversing Britain’s moral decline is a real cause worth fighting for.
So who will be the politician who will step up to the plate, defy the affluent liberal establishment, and help create a ‘peaceful, gentle, and courteous’ Britain again?
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