The Country is Ready to Sink

[Zharakov]

Perhaps people should try enforcing their laws...

[BDC]

Britain isn't that bad. Could do with less beaurocracy and some new political blood though.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Our exam pass rates have been rising steadily for years-anyone who thinks our population was better educated in the 1950s is having a laugh

If you doubt people were better educated in High school during the 50s here in the US you have another thing coming I cant speak for Britan. The reason for more passing scores is lower requirements not more educated students. In my school there were no As and Bs but you actualy numeric score. No Ds for those who actually failed so they could move on. You didnt pass you repeated the grade or sublect.

[econ21]

The letter is just a rant - I don't think it bears much semblance to reality.

For example, the stuff about collapsing industries when we're in the middle of the longest economic boom in post-war history. Yes, some industries decline - e.g. car making - but so far we are doing well enough finding more profitable alternatives. If anything we're suffering from too much affluence - obesity, carbon emissions and a welfare state so generous we worry about people not wanting to work.

On education, yes, I believe it has become easier to get A grades but I also believe students and teachers are working harder than they used to (at least than when I was in school). As Saturnus might confirm, there's a pretty international trend of rising IQs (the "Flynn effect") and I suspect the UK, like America, is benefiting from it.

In terms of health, our services can do so much more than they could any time in the past. If there is a problem, it's largely in coping with the demand for these increased possible treatments and with the resultant greater longevity.

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.

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.

I'm sorry, I don't see any sign that the country is ready to sink. By nearly all material indicators, we enjoying a better standard of living than our parents did at our ages and I see no reason to doubt our children will be able to say the same in due course.

[Papewaio]

Hmm something is Rotten in the State of Denmark er Britain...

Why do I have a feeling this is a modern interpretation of something that William Shakespeare wrote... must google...

[Adrian II]

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?

Remember cash for questions? How innocent that looks, ten years on. Asil Nadir? Jeffrey Archer's brown envelopes? For God's sakes, Labour's 'investors' are a different class of people altogether.

Bernie Ecclestone for instance, now there's an upstanding millioniare who gets things done in ninth gear.

Or Rupert Murdoch. Remember political editor Andrew Porter wrote in 2001 that Tony Blair had given assurances to 'a very key figure in the media whose opposition to the single currency is well known' that he wouldn't use his post-election 'honeymoon' to force through a referendum on the single currency. I wonder if that could be good old anti-European Union Rupert? The man to whom Blair, according to the diary of his erstwhile deputy press officer Lance Price, promised that he would be 'consulted on any change to Britain's policy towards Europe'?

They didn't buy Tony Blair and the Labour government. They're stake-holders, you see, it's a whole new concept!

[GonZ]

Britain is not as bad as the author makes out. Yes it's got problems - take a look around. So has everyone else.

The government does need a kick up the arse though. And we are due a revolution. Devolution here we come :) The sooner the better.

[econ21]

Bernie Ecclestone for instance, now there's an upstanding millioniare who gets things done in ninth gear.

Or Rupert Murdoch...They didn't buy Tony Blair and the Labour government. They're stake-holders, you see, it's a whole new concept!

Maybe I've been corrupted, but I can't get angry about these things. I lived through the depressing 1980s as a Labour party activist, when the Labour Party was crucified by the media and failed to appear an electable alternative to Mrs Thatcher. Blair and New Labour may have made some minor concessions to get a half-decent press and become electable, but it's pretty tame stuff compared to the personalised graft and pork-barrel politics you see in many other countries.

For example, the Blair-Murdoch thing - there's a reality of public opinion underlying both player's wary dance. There's no way Blair could go for the single currency for example - he'd lose a referendum. So promising to consult Murdoch on it is a small debasement that means little. Similarly, Murdoch partly backs Blair because his readers see them as more electable than the opposition. If that were to change, the daggers would be out whatever Blair offers.

On the Ecclestone thing, I frankly don't care whether Formula 1 has tobacco money adverts/sponsorship. If stopping the money just means it leave the UK and still promotes tobacco companies, I can't see the point. If Ecclestone is going to give my party £1m to do something I am not opposed to, fine. Well, I did say I may have been corrupted.

Yes, British political parties tell half-truths and are open to influence. They are political parties. But I still think it is a joke to say British politics is hopelessly corrupt. (Maybe seeing Kenyan politicians handing out 100 shilling bills to electors colours my perspective a little here.)

[Adrian II]

(..) it's pretty tame stuff compared to the personalised graft and pork-barrel politics you see in many other countries.

What about Labour peer Paul Drayson and the £32m Powderject contract he was given without tendering shortly after he donated £100,000 to Labour? The Indian steel billionaire Mr Mittal who donated £125,000 to Labour prior to receiving Mr Blair's backing for his takeover of the Romanian Sidex steel plant? Ex-minister Geoffrey Robinson misleading Parliament about a £200,000 payment from Robert Maxwell? A sum that may have been used toward the undeclared loan he gave Mr Mandelson, which led to Mr Mandelson's first resignation? Alright, British politicians are not in the Mugabe/Suharto league, but the appropriate words would still be bribery and influence-peddling, not 'tame stuff'.