The Country is Ready to Sink

**Duke Malcolm** · 09-21-2005, 16:33

Unlike most folks here, posting articles from newspapers, or broadcasters, I came across an astounding Letter to the Editor in my local paper, the Courier (one of the last, if not the last newspaper to have offices on Fleet Street, the offices with "The Dandy" "the Beano" and "the Courier" in big writing on the side). This article was deeply interesting, and indeed sums up what I think of a lot of British society today. www.thecourier.co.uk

Country is ready to sink

Sir,—British society is in denial. Our world is falling about our ears, yet we are constantly told that everything in the garden is rosy.

Drunks cavort unchecked in our streets with nary a policeman in sight. Prisoners take drugs and otherwise misbehave in prison, yet they serve only half their sentences.

Released prisoners and accused persons released on bail commit more and more crime.

Our many governments pass many more laws, but the courts throw out the prosecutions based on them.

Police don’t catch many criminals, but many of those they bring to court are acquitted, given ludicrously light sentences or do not pay the fines imposed on them - and that with impunity.

Criminal lunatics are freed into society with inadequate supervision on a promise to take their medication and their doctors express surprise when they murder, maim or commit suicide.

Our governments are so riddled with corruption and fraud that many can no longer be bothered to vote.

Even if they are law-abiding, our leaders vote themselves fat salaries, expenses and pensions and spend most of their time making law-abiding tax-payers’ lives a misery with more and more bureaucracy.

Our industries have collapsed and our banks and insurance companies are going the same way. Their call-centres have already gone abroad.

Our education system is a joke and our health service not much better. Social workers don’t bear talking about.

The list of daft derivatives from our national obsession with political correctness is endless.

What amazes me is how this country keeps afloat. The day is surely not far distant when it finally sinks beneath the weight of its own stupidity!

What are your thought on this? Is he right or wrong (and it is a man, I just omitted the name and address)?

**Gawain of Orkeny** · 09-21-2005, 16:34

You sure this isnt about the US?

**Don Corleone** · 09-21-2005, 16:37

While I agree with the content & spirit of the letter, I'm afraid I am in the minority. Most people, in some misguided notion of respect for other people's choices, have decided that anything goes. If my neighbor's kid has a keg party and I see 100 15 year old kids drunk and wandering in the street, who am I to say anything about it? If I see a woman being beaten by her husband, hey, it's her choice. If somebody decides to abandon their family and start a new life free from responsiblity, who am I to judge?

I know I'm old fashioned, but I do still believe in things like honor, respect, morality (even outside a religious context) and responsbility. Sadly, I think every day, I become even more in the fringe.

**Taffy_is_a_Taff** · 09-21-2005, 16:40

You haven't seen drunk street wandering until you've been to Scotland.

There's definitely an air of familiarity about that letter.

**Duke Malcolm** · 09-21-2005, 16:47

Originally Posted by Taffy_is_a_Taff

You haven't seen drunk street wandering until you've been to Scotland.

I live in Scotland, but can't say that I've seen many drunks wandering... Trying to fight, being helped home, falling over, or lying unconscious, yes, but rarely wandering

**Taffy_is_a_Taff** · 09-21-2005, 16:51

you know what I mean.

**Gawain of Orkeny** · 09-21-2005, 16:40

Well Don I guess you and I are sailing in the same boat if thats any consolation to you.

Its not just Britain but most of the western world. What you describe is liberalism taken to extremes.

**GodsPetMonkey** · 09-21-2005, 23:40

Originally Posted by Don Corleone

While I agree with the content & spirit of the letter, I'm afraid I am in the minority. Most people, in some misguided notion of respect for other people's choices, have decided that anything goes. If my neighbor's kid has a keg party and I see 100 15 year old kids drunk and wandering in the street, who am I to say anything about it? If I see a woman being beaten by her husband, hey, it's her choice. If somebody decides to abandon their family and start a new life free from responsiblity, who am I to judge?

I know I'm old fashioned, but I do still believe in things like honor, respect, morality (even outside a religious context) and responsbility. Sadly, I think every day, I become even more in the fringe.

If you try to stop the drunk teens you get told to **** off and the police couldn't care less until they have vandalised half the street, if you try to stop domestic violence your told to butt out and it's none of your business, and the same for the scum who cut and run on their family.

*Sigh*, I have spent a good part of my (short) life trying to do the right thing, but I am slowly realising that it's not worth helping unless they come looking for help... being told to get lost and to keep my nose out of their business (and by the wronged party no less) is killing my good Samaritan streak.

Originally Posted by Don Carleone

So you guys are happy with binge drinking, elevated STD rates, and low scholastic performance? Life's never been this good?

Binge drinking has always been a problem... perhaps not as much in our suburban estates, but it has always been there... STDs were taboo not so long ago, and the general public knew next to nothing about them, I think it's not surprising that they have suddenly risen to prominence, not increased because of rampant sexual deviance, but increased knowledge of what those red lumpy things are. As for scholastic performance, someone else already made the comment that we are better then in the 50s, but there are other factors too, very few students are leaving half way through secondary now... those that would have left in years 9 and 10 of the school in the 50/60s are now hanging around to the end... where it's much harder. Curriculum’s have also become a lot more demanding, classic example is maths, the pocket calculator has meant the maths I learnt at high school makes my fathers final year seem like kindergarten.

I guess it's easy to take the "things were better back then" approach, but sometimes we have to question the validity of that statement... nostalgia and good memories can cloud the mind (not that it is a bad thing).

Originally Posted by Simon Appleton

As for UK politicians being corrupt - come on! We probably have about the cleanest political class in our history and one of the cleanest in the world. Does anyone seriously think Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy are corrupt? The pitiful things that pass for political scandals in the UK - e.g. Mandelson's two resignations - would not be noticed in many other countries and, in my opinion, tend to reflect hysterical over-reaction than any wrong-doing. The letter writer really needs to travel more to see what political corruption means.

Haha, yes, we seem to jump up and down over nothing... but I have never had to bribe a public official just to get something done, even if they tend to waste time and throw away our tax money.

The letter writer might have a point about crime trends, but it's put in such a crude unsubstantiated way, it's hard to tell. Having recently done jury service in the UK, I'm full of admiration for our courts - defence, prosecution and judges. Scrupulously fair, very conscientious and formiddably able.

Most people just don't understand what 'due process' involves.. they see the mug shot of a clearly shifty character in the paper and it's enough for them to want them locked away for life... I guess all those court room dramas that spice up the whole system don't help... if only it was half as interesting as those plots!