We live in a state of emergency: and we are getting angrier

Roy

An interesting article.
What a pity we run short of Cromwells!! Barely in his grave when they dig him up and insult his remains. Have we been disparaging his name and cause ever since? Not I, may I quickly reply, my hero.

Janet

Yep. That sums it up pretty much. Whether this mess can be reversed, I doubt it.

Faceless Bureaucrat

Wise words indeed and an excellent critique of the State of the Nation today - the problem with the exodus of citizens who can afford to get out of the Country, is that it leaves less 'angry people' behind to fight back (not perhaps so much of a problem in Cromwell's day). As Cromwell rightly said,‘Come, come, we have had enough of this’...

Andrew

Nothing wrong with "the value system of the corner shopkeeper". Thrift, hard work, public service, relating to a community, family values... It's the value system of the all-devouring supermarket conglomerate that's done most of the damage.

Michael

One cannot help but feel that, in promoting an essentially top-down system of 'nationhood', one merely perpetuates the injury caused to a coherent account of national identity. To be ‘British’ is to most people one identity amongst many, a collage of meaning woven from the micro to macro; one might also constitute identity and value-systems through regional association (a Yorkshireman, a north-Yorkshireman indeed), community citizenship (local industry, local politics, tertiary services), social class, and through the Church. Issuing forth an essentially stale and intellectualist ‘Britishness’ devoid of micro-identity completely misrepresents the curiously organic nature of Britannia and her achievements throughout history. Whilst the values and achievements Britannia represented has become increasingly murky in the face post-colonial guilt, it shall not be restored to glory merely by denouncing that which contravenes overly sentimental middle-class views of what ‘Britishness’ really entails. Such a narrative is just one of many, and is constitutive of ‘Britishness’, not wholly descriptive of it.

Alan McBain

Much complained about but not any practical solutions or even directions to solutions.

Ganpat Ram

I find it richly ironic that the British are finding themselves in such a fix about Islam today.

Historically, the British ruling elite has gone out of its way to favour Islam, blandly recommending the obdurate fanaticism of its adherents in places like India and the Middle East. "Solid fellows, these Muslims, and we like their tough style, old boy", Hindus and Jews were coolly told.

Well, now it's your problem.

Enjoy !

John Fisher

Bizarre to cite so often in order to critique the present the religious maniac Cromwell, who became Britain's first (and thus far last) military dictator. Bad though things are today, they aren't as bad as the days of his illegal regime.

Ian G

ID cards are part of the Orwellian system of ever-increasing surveillance. Having said that, I agree with the argument. We need a Cromwell. One need not advocate violent revolution, but there is a need for a clear vision based on a settled and Christian ethic and the strength, power and will to carry it through. The Army backed Cromwell and I am beginning to think that the Armed Forces are the least corrupted institution left. How have we come to this? When reasonable people, believers in democracy and the rule of law, are looking to Cromwell for a model. But he also was a reasonable man, driven to take up arms because there was no other way of gaining redress. Are they listening?

London Calling

Being the proud descendant of a Stevedore during the London Docker's strike in 1889, I can only bow my head with shame at todays Labour Party who suffer with amnesia and constipation with regards to their early formation and the underclass (The Working Man)they were meant to represent, instead they got suited and booted, spoke in different tongues and completely lost the plot. The Conservatives meanwhile represent all the charm, lots of promises, and little deliverance to truly make a difference. The Liberal democrats are like headless chickens, still running around the yard in all directions without realizing they cannot function without a brain. The people in Britain don't know who to vote for and are left on voting day with the option of 'Ip,Dip,Do, shall I vote for you?,I better vote for someone,Oh whatever shall I do?
'This State of Emergency' are the Fruits of a Man Made Chaos, born from the Tree of Greed and profit, what are we to expect in return when the Fruit is rotten? for which it inevitably becomes when we serve ourselves and not our community and country.
We still enjoy one of the Fruits from 'The Tree Of Freedom' and its called 'Hope' and hopefully just like the 'Butterfly Effect' in the Drama of a chaotic order, a person with Hope can change everything, so instead of us pointing out the obvious negative observation's we now face, how about some positive input for a 'Real change'.

Victoria

What an absolutely fantastic article. Bravo.

The Laughing Cavalier

Cromwell? You've got tobe kidding. The last thing we need is another puritan. What we really need is a Cavalier.

The Laughing Cavalier

PS. There is no question to which the right answer can be "Identity Cards".

Erasmus

I seem to remember that Cromwell's dead body was dug up and hanged after the Restoration.

Herbert Thornton

A profoundly perceptive and alas, frightening article.

This sickness exists in all western countries, though the symptoms vary. In Canada, one of the symptoms is exposed in this very disturbing account from Ezra Levant -
http://ezralevant.com/2008/03/a-day-in-the-life-of-canadas-k.html

GNO

Nobody's getting angrier, nobody is even angry. Why else are there no demonstrations, marches or riots even?

No, people have just given up protesting and resigned to our fate as dhimmis in our own lands, we are lambs at the slaughterhouse.

Our politicians and MSM (read BBC) have sold us down the proverbial well and good.

John Preston

A timely piece.

This mess won't be reversed without blood on the streets and that is the top and bottom of it. Alarmist? I don't think so. A sad fact.

No one wants it, but it is coming - politicians no longer reflect the views of the people. It is as simple as that - the political and chattering classes and the darling BBC have set up a state within a state where they prey on the hard-earned cash of the voter and in the process have allowed the sovereignty of our own Parliament, hard fought for with the blood of our ancestors, to slip through our fingers to foreigners we neither know, care about, nor have any control over, despite the lip-service gloss of the "European Parliament" a fag-end institution in hoc to lobbyists paid for by the EU itself - a mockery of democracy. And we all now know it.

Our state security apparatus is no better - it obviously took its eye off the ball when they allowed these jihadsts in in the first place. Perhaps understandably in view of the IRA and cold war, but we have grown soft and it is now time to change.

It is time to toughen up and become authoritarian to prevent a melt down. The trouble is that any authoritarianism now is likely to come from the Left because of the flavour of government institutions grown soft over decades as Civil Service monoliths indoctrinated in the History Man Seventies.

Yes we need a new Cromwell. I've been saying it for years. He/she won't be liked, in fact hated by the Left now paid for out of the public purse who all vote Nu Labour, but not in the history books or bars of Britain if Britishness and its ideals are to survive.

Go on GCHQ trace this one. As John Keegan wrote recently in Intelligence in War - Intelligence is nothing unless it is acted upon with a military arm. We need to start acting on that fifth column within now - and I am not talking just surveillance I mean arrests and deportations based on intercept evidence alone in fast-track courts with military powers. Yes the normal bleats at this point from the judiciary - idiots all - schooled during the post-war Nirvana years.

Muslim jihadists in the UK need to start feeling real fear, not comfort that their views are being listened to. The Arabist FCO, and its MI6 offshoot, is part of the problem.

This rant is what you'd expect from a Spectator reader no doubt, but there is more truth spoken in this publication than in a ream of broadsheets. The BBC I won't listen to anymore, nor visit their websites.

It's coming and where is HM Opposition? Picking daisies out of an imagined lawn which turned into a rubbish tip some time ago, but somehow they didn't see it dazed by fashion TV and the Blair headlights.

Get real, tune in, and feel the anger out there and act to sort this country out.

Where is Cromwell? I don't see him on the Tory front bench, so it'll be blood before things change.

A sad prediction for a country once loved by so many.

Bob Tomlin

Britain is doomed! The increasingly moronic population will still vote for the unprincipled politicians. The band of "angry" citizens would rather debate and pontificate than take action.
Farewell beloved country of my birth. Expat.

mark

"Moreover, as the ‘free society’ disintegrates, it is a progressive not a reactionary stance to favour the restoration of the idea of nation, the values and duties of citizenship, the safeguarding of the public domain from the privateer, the elevation of the ethic of public service over private interest and, yes, ID cards too."

read this last bit a number of times and still can't figure what it means in terms of ID cards. The rest of the article is pretty good - but if its main conclusion is to support ID cards then I am not so impressed.

Mark Solomon

I know the Spectator likes to be intellectual and controversial but surely the New Statesman would be a better home for this condescending patrician blast from the past. Since when was Cromwell-military dictator, republican, religious bigot, the closest we have produced to a Mussolini or Franco - any form of role model in the modern age? Yes, the title of this article is correct and a compelling argument could have been made - pity that David Selbourne missed it completely!

T McWhirter

Why cannot the political class grasp the point?

Adamsim

An excellent, incisive piece. The anger and frustration you speak of is palpable. The answer? Perhaps democracy (at least in its present guise) isn't all it's cracked up to be at all. Throughout the west it appears to be failing as the parties fight over an ever-diminishing number of 'floating' voters in the 'centre-ground'.

EyeSee

Maybe I lack the intellect, but it seems to me that Selbourne identifies the ills that plague us, but then believes State control is the answer. It would suggest his 'cure' would involve replacing one set of careless politicians for another, Selbournite tradition. I suppose it would be too much to ask someone to step up to the plate, just run the nation simply and, well, pretty much leave the people alone otherwise. A civil society suggests one where people share a sense of belonging; handing out ID cards is a different kind of 'belonging'.

Anthony Monaghan

Cromwell accepted the existence of God. That's why he could move the nation. It's also why Islam moves Britain. Unafraid to warrant by one's own life the triumph of the spirit of being of oneself and one's fellows: that is what makes a national leader. Britain needs a king, implies Selbourne, but cannot divine the right. Where weathers your rock, Albion?

Aussielad

Sitting here in the comfort of Australia I am of the opinion the England is broken beyond repair.
The young man recently jailed for murdering a young "Goth" girl will do a short period in prison and will be then released to continue his activities. Under Islamic law he would not commit any further crimes nor add his genes to the pool.
This could be the new version of Cromwell's way of improving English society.
It's weird but almost certainly work.

John, Basingstoke

A superb analysis of the sad current state we are in but feel ever alienated from.
My anger as you have so well articulated is driving me and my family to seek a new life abroad appalled by what we see that of politicians having destroyed our way of life in communities that we no longer recognise .
Our faith in politicians has been eroded to the point of despair to govern compentantly and reflect our views.
We have an ever growing distaste even disgust for all things politic as a result of a discredited Westminster with members troughing at the public largesse on offer,immune to the immorality of receiving thousands of pounds in payments for second houses for many that do not exist, of choosing from a John Lewis catalogue for freebies to furnish,while the poor get the Argos cheaper catalogue.
The analogy with "let them eat cake" is spot on.
This had led to a growing dislike even hatred of seeing our way of life destroyed, our culture being subsumed into a morass of conflicting cultures engendered by mass uncontrolled immigration and the sense we are a pathetic easy touch for ehtnic minorities who can for a real example,highjack a plane to Britian and be given asylum and all the free benifits of our seemingly for all welfare system.
Hard to believe after penning this diatribe I was once a member of the Liberal, then Social Democratic party's, such has this country become a sad land of confused frightened people.
I cannot wait to leave these shores.

Undaunted

Lord send us an election ..... let us rid ourselves of these gutless pygmies and there constant pandering to muslem bigots. I grew up on gutsy WW II moves.... this happy breed, above us the waves etc.
The writers would turn in there graqve if they could see what we have become.

Water

Selbourne you say "the spirit of traditional conservatism [has been] displaced by the value-system of the corner shopkeeper" where can I meet such a shopkeeper, seems like an astute chap.

Water

Andrew your spot on, as you rightly say "It's the value system of the all-devouring supermarket conglomerate that's done most of the damage."

Joe Blow

The article is spot on. A practical start would be to prevent the British Brainwashing Corporation (BBC)from pumping out its poisonous message that it's desirable for the UK to evolve into a land of islamic afro-saxons.
The colourful river Tiber flows ever closer.

H Jackson

This article is exceptionally lightweight, self-indulgent and incoherent. The author encourages contempt for politicians, but at least they are obliged to crystallise their ideas into practical courses of action, one or two of which in this article would have been nice, rather than wallow in general lamentation. The author cannot even decide whether the problem is with Britain specifically or with liberal democracies – some of which have pursued very different policies to us – in general.

It is becoming palpable to all that we have been incompetently governed under Labour and, yes, it is depressing. A ‘state of emergency’ requires a plan of action – complaint alone is clearly not an option. So what is the author actually proposing? He wants an end to the ‘ethical free-for-all’. How do we go about that? We need to spell out our duties to each other – what are they and how would you do this? Apparently we are too free – what aspects of our excessive licence would the author like to see curtailed and how would he go about putting that before the electorate? Perhaps we shouldn’t need to bother?

It is outrageous to bracket current concerns over the erosion of civil liberties with the brattish desire to do whatever one wishes in pursuit of self-gratification. Does the author think it is of no consequence that UK citizens can be extradited to the US for criminal proceedings without a shred of evidence, or that the Home Secretary can place people who have been found innocent by a jury under indefinite house arrest? Is that the result of excessive liberalism, or of insidious authoritarianism? Who exactly are these people clamouring for ID cards?

And what a cheap shot to claim that promoting economic growth is just some kind of morally vacuous upholding of the ‘right’ to consume whatever one wants. On the contrary, it matters deeply whether people lose their livelihoods, whether their homes are repossessed, whether activities requiring public funding have to be cut back because of lower tax revenues. Again, how would the author put a policy of economic contraction before the electorate? We are not clever enough to fine tune the economy at a steady state – we either go for growth or go for broke.

If Selborne won’t make some constructive suggestions to put Britain on a better course then here are some:
*A change of Government – Conservatives are the only viable alternative.
*An explosion in personal responsibility based on the idea that the only type of society worth aspiring to is one where people freely choose – rather than being coerced - to use their energies and talents for the betterment of their society. Ordinary men and women have got to give each other the confidence that they cherish and will uphold basic values such as respect for life, people and property. They have to be vocal in describing the kind of society they want and active in doing something themselves, rather than waiting for some mythical omnipotent, omniscient government to do it for them.
*A step-change in competence, focus and better prioritisation in the civil service.

*An education system where parents and the local community are encouraged to contribute to the education of children, people are not shoehorned into university when they are not suited to it and could be learning useful skills in the workplace, and the leadership and experience of teachers is given preference over targets and the inanities of whatever spurious theory is flavour of the month in the Whitehall-LEA nexus. Zero tolerance for parents who do not support school discipline.
*Official recognition that indigenous culture is of value per se and not only if strictly proportionate quotas of people from different ethnicities participate in it.
*A radical overhaul of the welfare system so that no-one can draw unemployment benefit if there is any job whatsoever they could feasibly be doing, no-one can draw incapacity benefit unless they are genuinely ill, and families are not financially incentivised to split up. Official support for marriage and an end to the view that all family structures are of equivalent value.
*Effective programs to get people off drugs and social disapproval of the glamourisation of drugs and drunkenness in the media.
*Increase prison capacity so that sentences fit the crime rather than resource constraints being a consideration in sentencing.
*Controlled immigration – only letting in those immigrants who can contribute something to our society.

All those people who talk casually about ‘blood on the streets’ and how they are ripe for emigration I say this: your forbears – whether Victorians confronting mass disease and squalor or those fighting fascism in the 1940s - faced far worse and they had the moral backbone to put their shoulders to the wheel and work to improve their country. They didn’t shrug their shoulders and lapse into cowardice and apathy. It is so easy to dismiss the efforts of politicians. If those who do so had one ounce of the moral courage and stamina that, say, Ian Duncan Smith has showed in his work on social breakdown in Britain they may be worth listening to. But I have no respect whatsoever for people who blame others without considering for a second any constructive course of action that they themselves could take. Frankly, I have come to expect better of the Speccie.

andrew sim

Yes, Britain has lost its identity, but nobody is sufficiently courageous to admit why. The answer is, of course, race. At the zenith of our National self-consciousness and pride in Edwardian Britain, Nation was indivisible from race. Today, town after town - and soon, city after city, are becoming, effectively, ethnic ghettos, as the indigenous population flees to the - ethnically unified - suburbs and countryside. How can a meaningful Nation thrive under such circumstances. Thanks to generations of blind political optimism, the Balkanisation of Britain is inevitable

John Bull

Well-said David. You have, after all, been paying close attention.

Without another Cromwell we are sadly faced with a similar but updated Civil War, where, perhaps at first, the disunity of the uprisers may appear a disadvantage.

No doubt in later years it will be told that this 'disunity' served to keep safe the masses from being too readily identified by the agencies of the State, at least until beyond the time when the State retained sufficient powers to eliminate the uprisers.

In the name of "Freedom with Responsibility" - Roll On !!

Let us take back our Country before it is too late.

John Leyden

Yes, Britain is in a state of emergency. But David Selbourne, with his kneejerk left-wingery and scary obsession with Cromwell, seems to be advocating the Gordon Brown solution. Why on earth do you print such rubbish?

P Bateman

A good article but could even be better, if written in every day English, that the average person could read. eg cut out the waffle and stick to the bones.

Herb

I think the symptoms have been correctly diagnosed; people are miserable; but I think the causes and therefore the likely restorative remedies are quite different. I agree that the promotion by both the politicians and the Anglican Church of non-judgmental “every religion is just fine for Britain” is an open invitation to cultural destruction. I do not agree that the sale of government owned assets such as council houses have added in any way to the polity’s misery. What has added greatly to the country’s misery is the subtle and highly skillful removal by the Blair government of a great number of the cultural and political anchors of the society starting with the hugely symbolic destruction of the House of Lords and the rather fascist way smoking and foxhunting were banned. I argue this has led to a far greater sense of subjugation and misery in the country than has the sensibly sell offs of government housing stock and the utility companies.

bill40

correct diagnosis wrong cure. Anyone suggestyng ID cards is to be derided.
Our biggest problem today is massive wealth creation without philanphropy.
Where are the schools,universites,museums, why is john paul getty the exception not the norm?
As the world has become a global villiage,especially to the mega rich, so the drive to improve the lot of the "masses" has shrunk.
As a society we are ranked according to our power to consume.

Rollo Reid

Of course we are in a state of emergency. Nothing shows this more clearly the the EU Constitution. It is quite clear from every survey, including the very real 'I want a referendum' votes, that most of us want our say on this further chucking away of our Nationhood, and most would vote against it. And of course all the quisling parties had promised this referendum. Brown and Clegg prove to be straight forward liars, telling us this is not the Constitution when they know it is. Cameron is even shiftier, slapping Brown around with the wet kipper of referendum, without promising to have one if elected, and without promising to de-ratify if elected.Clearly none of our leaders give a toss for the will of the people, while they pontificate to Chinese or Taleban or Ahmedinajad about democracy.With leaders like this, any nation would be on the way out.

siamdave

There is a solution to this, or at least the beginnings of a solution - it involves understanding what the actual problem is, and that is simply that we have allowed our money supply to be taken over by a small group of people, and everything else follows from their manipulations of the money supply for their own interests. If we get rid of these parasites, then we can start to work for a good society for 'we the people', a society in which we are people rather that consumers or office-bots. It's about getting out of the box. You can learn about it here - They're Building a Box - and You're In It - http://www.rudemacedon.ca/dlp/box/box-intro.html

Elizabeth Elliot-Pyle

A very good article and reasoned analysis of the current state of Great Britain.
Just one thing: what the hell has any of this to do with ID cards???

Anthony Robinson

Mr Selbourne's article was addressing critically important issues but he made it too wide and too woolly.
The problem he addresses affects the UK far more than most other Western democracies. Furthermore the issues are so pertinent to the 20th/21st centuries that frequent references to Cromwell are a distraction.
The most acute problem now is the state of Parliament and the apparent absence of any process by which the disease can be eradicated, short of revolution. A change of party will not in itself suffice because the roots of the disease must go back beyond 1997.
The other key problem areas are the absence of managerial skills in goverment, and the politicisation of the civil service. In almost every area of national endeavour policies - no matter how intrinsically good - fail because of management incompetence. The French have many long term economic problems - politically caused - but they do know how to manage their projects.
Mr Selbourne should not be criticised for a shortage of solutions in his article. It is very important that the seriousness of our predicament should be aired.

Mammoth Government

The Government is too big. We're all paying too much tax, people and business. The people need their freedom back. These conditions ensure the exodus of our best continues ...

The solution is so simple, freedom from tax, freedom from government and the responsibility to run your life the way you want it, in a country guided by market forces; the only path to genuine success.

I fail to see where religion even fits into this picture, it's just a distraction from reality.

Bobbsterr

As a lifelong Conservative voter, I believe we have reached a situation, so dire, that it is virtually impossible for our country to recover.

There is - possibly - only one outcome that would shake our pussilanimous politicians to the core, and that would be for there to be a massive surge to the right at the next County/Genral election.

I know it's not going to happen, which is why I think this country is ultimately doomed.

In the unlikely event that it did happen, these Politicians would undoubtedly be forced to sit up - and act.

I am not holding my breath, however!

John Gillman

Perspective articles can be fine, and there are one or two good points in Sebourne's article. Some comments...

1.A morality without the coherent conviction of religion will not survive, and a society without morality will succumb to another with a more powerful will. A passionate but debased religion, where the human spirit has shrunk, will usher in a deformed morality. A religion can be of a primitive type, such as polytheism or ancestor worship, or degraded, such as Emperor or State worship. But in the Christian West, through countless vicissitudes, Christ has been the archetype of both moral and metaphysical truth, and that standard has not been replaced or surpassed, though frequently spurned.

2.Since the rise of natural science, and the Enlightenment, the false supposition that reason and faith can be forced apart has caused hellish confusion. 'Liberals' (but not only liberals) suppose that their abstract ideas (liberty , equality, 'rights' to this that and the other, etc.) and their 'natural' faculty of reason, are self-evidently true, and as it were lifted direct from the City of God, which of course they are themselves creating.

3. Without a general if diffuse agreement on faith and morals, as well as security of property and persons, a society (nation)is difficult to govern. Order must precede liberty, and to obtain order in a mentally and morally disorganized/degraded community, liberty is gradually squeezed out.

4. Where the Sovereign power (Parliament) begins to undermine that general sentiment of what is right (just, fair, appropriate, and important general duties), whether in the name of progress or reason or whether through political expediency, the general idea of what the nation stands for begins to disintegrate. And over 60 years, Parliament has made huge efforts to undermine what were previously accepted standards/norms in nearly all realms of life; education, welfare, marriage, enterprise, taxation, national interest, defence, etc.etc, and especially, the idea of the natural liberty of each man or woman, which can now be sacrificed not to a recognized or accepted common good but to 'a top down' social/socialized ideal. Parliament has constantly claimed more power to the state. That former idea of liberty was set against standards of a Christian society. That is, it was not a perverse liberty, of purely selfish interest, or general licentiousness, but set its being/purpose with the common good in mind. Personal responsibility with a view to the interests of others.

5. Liberty without law is impossible. Laws must be based on right reason, and right reason must be based on a faith that is true...coherent with the actuality of unselfish living in mind and spirit.

6. Once the order (both inward in each man and outward in just laws) behind liberty is gone, so will material progress, or wealth creation, disappear. Many suppose of course that science, commerce and prosperity are simply emanations of man's innate rationality, and will continue without true religious, moral, and political foundations. They haven't read Hobbes. All the above is to be found in 'Leviathan', which politicians obviously stopped reading generations ago. It is apt that 'moral hazard' has of late re-entered the vocabulary of economists/social scientists.

7. Equally corrosive, Parliament has attempted to pretend that peoples of completely different religions and traditions are really just like ourselves, and should settle here in numbers that can only be described as a vast invasion. The majority of these know little of this nation and its history, and many care even less. Most of the public now regard this invasion with alarm, know that it has been a catastrophic error, and see the damage it is doing, and will do in the future, unless determined steps are taken to reverse it.

8. Then again, Parliament has had the effrontery to allow much of its power and responsibility to pass from its own hands to those of a foreign power. The consequence amongst the people is growing confusion and contempt. 'Who governs?' said Heath. He did his best to ensure that not only was it not he, but not his successors either.

9. The general misery is a poisonous compound of religious, moral, social, and political confusion, crystallizing into a sense of the disintegration of the 'national self'. As the landmarks and touch stones are (deliberately) removed, the disorientation will turn to anger and revenge.

Once again

If there isn't a Cromwell hanging around when you need him remember that it takes only one man to test the waters.

Farrakhan picked a day - spread the word and a million black men marched on Washington. They made the point. Peacefully.
The Spanish silently showed their contempt for ETA and Al Qaeda. They made their points. Peacefully.
The invaded Tibetans are making a point now.
Courageously.

Post on websites and grumble and it will be business as usual.
Leave and the sceptered isle falls to invaders.

The British Government must be told that it serves the people and the people must serve notice on the Government. March.

Samson

How can an article referring in its sub-heading to 'identity' (Britain's) and a 'sense of nation' not refer to this country's continuing slide into the European maw? When two-thirds of the nation's legislation is handed down by unelected bureaucrats on the continent is it any wonder that there is a diminishing sense of the country's identity? To the eurocrat 'The United Kingdom' is a parcel of regions (of which 'England', incidentally, forms no part)and that eurocrat, after the signing of the Lisbon Treaty, will be determining even more of our affairs than at present.You can't have a national identity if you don't have a nation - and soon we won't have one: having striven for it for a thousand years we will have given it away in fifty.

Alexander Stilwell

This is all correct and most sane people would agree with it but where is the solution. Cromwell? Hardly. The problem with this country is that the people who are supposedly on the side of values and tradition are unable to root that support in anything substantial. The 'substance' is in fact its Christian heritage. Did I hear a door slam?

Anthony Thomas Flynn

There have been one or two comments that I would describe as negative. But all in all most are positive and in favour of the judgment as to the state of our politics and the bankrupt governance of the Country. And I agree.
There is only one answer. And that is to use the system of off-shore finances and Legally avoid Direct Taxation.
I am suggesting that the Parish, Town, District and County Council be the Authority that the Taxpayer deposits his Public Service revenue with.
In the first week in April, I expect to have a meeting with Local, District and County Officers to discuss some of the problems.
I don't know if it still exists,
but in the 1990s, there was a Tax Policy Unit at the Treasury
and I had the benefit of their advice on this subject.
It is a simple manoeuvre to place the Employer and the Employee beyond the reach of HMRC., and then claim 100% Tax Relief on money not remitted to this Country. There is a link -:
www.atflynn.co.uk
Once you remove Westminsters power to levy Taxation, Politics are neutered and the Taxpayer is in control of all spending policies.
E-mail-flynn354@btinternet.com
Regards, ATFlynn.

Andrew Smith

I suppose this is a revelation for readers of Spectator. While a useful summary for the tribalists who still yearn for their lot to be in power above all else, it really does not begin to address the issue.

Certainly there are many symptoms presented here one can recognise and has recognised for many years. However, the curse on both your houses solution recalls the middle ground 2-party of yesteryear, albeit still often found in the Westminster brigade of the Political Class.

Does David Selbourne really suppose that the circumstances he descries are accidental? Unexpected? Sudden? What could possibly suit the political class better than to reduce us to consumerism. Add to that the coming shortages of necessities, inflation and excess supply of unskilled labour. What do you suppose comes next?

A currency crisis? Race riots? Mass unemployment? I don't know either but the next big crisis will be used further to reinforce the power of the elite and Governance from the EU. That is the end game - it is their raison d'etre. Byond that, just back scratching and ever more restrictions on access to them, more security police and greater security for the nomenclatura.

We are on the cusp of a fully entrenched fascist state and debating the merits of selling concil houses (and the family silver, David?), will not be a sufficient answer.

I suspect Ganpat Ram may have a good point, but he knows more of the history than me, but the issue is much wider that the current cultural crisis in Britain and the West.

John Harney

It's sad that whichever way you look everything seems so crap. We are being ruled by a bunch of jobsworths who want nothing more than a quiet life with rich rewards. There is virtually no industry any more hence the persecution of motorists and smokers just to raise funds to keep the jobsworths in the comfort zone they are used to. Blame Blair if you want but how guilty is the BBC who should have been down his throat 9yrs ago.

Colonel Thomas Harrison

“Come come! ….. We have had enough of this …. I will put an end to your prating .. It is not fit that you should sit here any longer! You have sat here too long here for any good you have been doing lately. You shall give this place to better men! - Call them in! (the musketeers) …. You call yourselves a Parliament ….. You are no Parliament; I say you are no Parliament! You are whoremasters and drunkards, corrupt and unjust men, scandalous to the profession of the Gospel: how can you be a Parliament for God’s People? Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, - go!”

- Oliver Cromwell dismissing the “Rump” Parliament, April 1653

David

What a strange article!

Half the time I agreed with the writer and for the rest of the time I did not.

He seems to want a return to the nationalisation of the corporate state. I can't agree with that.

I have always loathed the despicable regicide, Cromwell. God preserve us from another like him!

Johanna

A brilliant fighting article. Britain's decline is part of a general suicide of European culture brought about by a combination of factors including:

- The hypocrisy of 'left-wing' 'leaders' who have betrayed the cause of the people for love of money and bourgeois respectability (Blairite neoliberalism),

- Thatcherite greed that betrayed the moral and civic responsibility embodied within historic Toryism.

- Atheistic and materialist philosophies that encourage an exaggerated and selfish attitude to social commitments such as marriage and introduced a 'relativized' concept of ethics, which is really no ethics at all.

- The absurd, irrational and anti-philosophical notion that all religions and beliefs are equally true, when they clearly contradict each other in the essentials, which in turn has led to a ludicrous and dangerous appeasement of Islamist sects.

- Most seriously, the rejection of the powerful, life-changing religion that is Protestant Christianity, the most tolerant, rational and politically enlightened of all faiths.

Cromwell was perhaps our greatest ever leader and was instrumental in resisting the anti-parliamentary tyranny of Charles I. What a pity that no Englishman today has the fire and brilliance of Mr. Cromwell. If you doubt his probity then read Tom Reilly's book on Drogheda.

R E Upton

An interesting analysis, but no solution offered. I do not think his hypothesis will run as few will want to believe it to be true.
Who has he in mind as the new 'Protector'?

Peter Steadman

Come, come. It's just not good enough to throw in ID cards as a 'progressive stance' in the penultimate sentence of this long rant without a word of explanation.To then go on to suggest that people may well leave the country if they are not intoduced is certainly a new thought. I would have thought the opposite would pertain.

S Collinson

I enjoyed the article and agree with many of the views expressed. But the ills of Britain are also those of other Western democracies such as my own - Australia, the US and others. However, in my 8 years in the UK I discovered that only the British seem to have such a uniquely poor and pessimistic opinion of their own country, where it is and where it is heading. Yes, there are many problems but also much to be proud of as well. Where would the world be without the literature, music, institutions and systems of government, law and education that Britain has provided? I still see good things.

Alex Dick

Anyone who loves "that black thief Cromwell" - to quote Dr Maturin - must be wrong!

Andrew

May I suggest that Mr Selbourne considers re-locating to France where he will encounter a distrust or even hatred for liberalism and the free market, where “profit” is often a dirty word, where the ubiquitous fonctionnaire is held in high esteem, where the State’s involvement in the lives of its citizens is omnipresent, where council properties have not been sold off, where growth is lower, where “equality” is the guiding principle and where its citizens are issued with ID cards. I suspect he might feel more at home.

David Hunt

According to Wikipedia David Selborne lives in Italy. Instead of another Cromwell is it more likely that we would get another Mussolini. I believe he was keen on ID cards and ended up strung up from a lamp post.

Martyn Jones

Finally someone has had the courage to put into words what I and many others have believed for a long time. Sadly however, it will probably have little effect on our politicians, policy makers and commentators. I for one hope that David Selbourne's comments act as a wake up call and are not simply ignored as "illiberal" or out of touch. Indeed it is those who peddle the notions criticised by Selbourne who are in fact out of touch with national sentiments.

Roger Welsh

I find myself broadly in agreement with this Country's malaise and Selborne's basic assessment that we are no longer living within the freedoms of UK laws which are being upheld. We are not being governed under democratic Parliament. I am angry and I cannot leave my Country and I will fight for restoration of proper values.

Sharon Gray

At heart I'm a puritan cavalier but can it be possible to enforce the ideas of duty, fidelity etc in tandem with the throwaway ethics of a consumer society?

steve Bourg

Well-written, obviously a bright mind, but he misses the entire crux. He should've quoted Adam Smith, because if the genius of "the invisible hand" of a capitalist market were allowed to work more freely, the country would prosper. Unfortunately, with too much govt interference, and taxes too high on everything, and wealth-transfers from productive worker-citizens to non-productive citizens, well, you see the answer is obvious......the economy does not prosper, and inequality increases, and building wealth for ordinary hard-working people becomes impossible.

Pauline

After reading this article I am in urgent need of being instantly energised and levitated beyond any world of doubt, fear or negativity over what is happening and hopefully for that I won't need an ID card.

Wilfred

The only truly valid comment in David Selbourne's article (because it is the only specific one, the rest being hyperbolic waffle) is the section on caving in to jihadism. But the solution would not be to vote Conservative. The Tories are on the wrong side of this debate (for example, opposing detention of terrorists, opposing ID cards, niggling over Iraq and Afghanistan, and opposing the development of an EU-wide foreign policy that would effectively resist the jihadists and their sponsors). So my conclusion is: agree with Selbourne and vote Labour. (Incidentally, it's a bit of a nerve for a Tory to quote Cromwell so much - is this an attempt at Tory triangulation?)

Robert McAllister

The reason for all our woes is the flight from reformed Christianity.
Upon Christianity the Nation'ssuccess and its stability and standards have been based .

Now, every man does as he thinks right.

Just look at how God dealt with his people who went their own way in the O.T
-well, we are there again -including his using our enemies to beat us.

Richard Calhoun

David Selbourne joins the many in this country who are paranoid about the muslim faith.
His assertion that the interests of the nation have sold off in the interest of market forces is nonsense.
His assertion that Margaret Thatcher's policy of selling council houses was a mistake is incredible.
The reason that Britain has has lost its identity, its sense of freedom, accountability of the citizen, is one reason only:

The WELFARE STATE

Dismantle the welfare state and allow people, particularly those on low earnings, to keep a far higher proportion of their earnings and you will see a dramatic change for the good in society

John Duthie, 18 Muirfield House, Gullane, East Lothian,

I agree with his general theme so far as he takes it , but the real failure is the poor quality of the electorate.Compared with the educated, intelligent, if restricted electorate of Victorian times, tthe semi literate loutish voters of today have no vision against which to judge their Governments peformance. We get what we deserve.

Grace

"hostile forces such as Islamism appeased"
Islamism is not a hostile force. It is a naturally peaceful religion based on Hinduism and influenced by Christinaity. Fundementalism on the other hand is incredibly hostile and is present in every religion, take the crusades, was that not Christian fundementailsm? Islamism should be substituted for fundementalism in the article.

L Stewart

There was a time when I clung to the idea that the
Conservative Party still contained sufficient conservatives to ensure that one day it would oppose and defeat the Marxist-liberalism which was destroying Britain.
Articles like David Selbourne's were partly responsible for keeping that naive belief alive well beyond the time that the Party had become a part of the problem, rather than any hope for a solution.

Yes, virtually everything he says is spot-on. He makes too many good points for me to select from, except his recognition of "the scale and depth of the mess" of our situation, and the core issue that "Britain has lost its identity and its sense of nation" which " is now as if under taboo".

Of course it is. Our leading politicians are, without exception, intent on somehow imposing an artificial sense of 'identity' on the disparate population of these islands by passing laws and issuing documents which ignore core differences in race & appearance, history, culture, mores and future aspirations.
To force the native British to conduce to their own disappearance, we must be made to reject as 'racism' (etc) any meaningful 'ingredient' to what makes a nation.

Apart from the BNP which has a long way to go before it can challenge for power, does any political party defend our right simply to retain our identity ?

ESP

John Duthie, 18 Muirfield House, Gullane, East Lothian, is right. How many of you chaps really care enough to get on the streets and force the government to change. Sorry to be rude, but I feel that from the tone of your postings. Your just not angry enough. It is, as Selborne says, going to take an authoritarian to put the Genie back in the bottle. Nobody votes for someone like that - they are just too "frightening". As the BBC would paint him or her. Besides, I can't see anybody on the political scene with the vision, and courage that they would need, anyway. That's the real desperation and why I left Britain.

M

The real rot started after WW2 when people vaguely began to realise that we had been 'had' - a war completely concocted by a ruthless elite to make sure their hedge-funded lifestyles would never be imperilled.So Europeans started giving up. We stopped having babies and were/are being told by our own parents that we did/do so at our peril. Mass immigration to keep wages low has finished us off. We don't want to kill them (the elites solution) because we know it's not the immigrants fault. Most of us feel that they made their bed and they can lie in it. Obviously the riches of Croesus were not enough for them if they don't have other poor Europeans to laugh at - we're supposed to breed an endless source of cannon fodder for them.

Bill McCall

I hope that world class idiot Cameron reads this.
The country needs to wake up and it is not going to do so while this Notting Hill idiot is the only alternative to the route we are following with Brown and his circus.

Nigel Staley

There are absolutely no mainstream politicians on the horizon that show any likelyhood of addressing the problems highlighted in David Selbourne's article. It is not surprising. We have not pressed them too. Middle England is content to mutter angrily over its corn flakes about the state of the nation while it enjoys unparalleled prosperity. Only tough economic times and chaotic political conditions leading to civil unrest and blood on the streets will throw up such leadership. Lets hope that it will be Anglo Saxon / Christian based and hell bent on reclaiming what we, complacent Spectator readers, have let go. The chances are it will not be so grounded.

Oliver Sparrow

The people who live in the chunk of geography called 'Britain' share few tangible things beyond propinquity; but one feature that they do mostly, sometimes share is a profound distaste for 'national senses of direction'. One of our defining characteristics is to keep things working, to optimes around the small and the immediate, and to see what emerges of itself.

Is there an "emergency" in national strategy? I always ask clients who believe that they are looking for a strategy to say what one would look like if they found it. Therequirement for stategy usually equates to an absence of conceptual map of the present.

Psychometrics allows us to define 'types', clusters of people as defined in an abstract space that is spanned by values. Such value dimensions are globally universal. Individuals within a cluster closely resemble each other, wherever they live in the world. The proportions populating these groups change with prosperity, education and access to information. Those who suffer acutely all aroudn the globe are the members of the traditionalist group whose model has been disrupted - who feel the strategic vaccuum that was alluded to above - but who have yet to find a new model, narrative, political road map. Such people tend quickly to fall into a set that is characterised by monomania: an -ism, religious fervour, conspiracy theory and the pursuit of traitors and villains. One sees this in the Arab umma, one saw it in 1920s Germany, and one is going to see it in China, I suspect.

The article that you have published calls for a new map to replace the old - or the restitution of the old map in some remodelled form. In this, it is a traditional traditionalists lament. The concern is that if enough people think this way, the society finds one or more worrying monomanias, silver bullets fired at random into the body politic. This is not an English trait, or has not much been one since the unhappy 1640s to which the author so frequently alludes.

It took Britain 60-80 years to double its economic output during the industrial revolution, but it is taking China 8 years to achieve the same thing. The US Department of Labour estimated in 2002 that half the jobs on offer in 2012 would call on skills that were unknown at the time of writing, tasks which would solve problems not then encountered. Change happens, get used to it; and change happens at an exponential rate, so get used to it quickly. The best way is not a "national strategy" but to have capable peopel alert to opportunity, and a thoughtful cadre standing back and trying to see to what it all seems to be adding up.

M Hamilton

Absolutely right. The question is, what do we do about it?
In the sixties, I was involved in a fairly critical part of the "cold war" set up-I can only wonder now why I bothered.Disillusioned or what!

Jakie Smith

Of course David Selbourne is correct in his gloomy analysis of the way we live now in Y UK. And, yes, Blairism is very much to blame for the following horrors - political correctness which has smashed every traditional belief system and value we ever had (and smashed freedom of expression and speech at the same time); the odious Human RIghts Act which has undermined morality (if bad people have rights -what's the point of being good?) and, finally, mass immigration and asylum which has smashed national identity. These three factors, liberally applied, have resulted in a society in terminal state of decomposition. The most shaming fact of all is that the indigenous English have allowed it to happen. It's called the enemy within.

Paul Danon

I fear we have lost sight of the need for each family to have enough land to live off. This has been called distributism and it is the only true freedom. Otherwise, we are enslaved to governments, employers and/or money-lenders.

Planet earth resident

Interesting article.Totally devoid of any connection to Britain in 2008 as experienced by most of the population.I wonder if people in 1940 would have swapped their state of emergency for ours?.I know which one I would choose.As for 'Britishness' I was unaware anybody north of Hadrians Wall was much interested these days.

Michael R

A superb article.
I agree with most of his points.
There are many reasons for this demise, but one that stands out prominently is the conduct of Parliament itself, and particularly the MP’s of both parties. Most of them are just political fodder without an ounce of integrity. They have the mentality of soldiers who justify their actions because they were just “following orders” from above. There is no moral backbone there. And of course Parliament is held in contempt even more when one of its principal officers, the Speaker, not only conducts himself with such opprobrium, but is allowed to get away with it.
And the outlook is pretty bleak because both parties are led by ‘little minds’ – people who can’t see beyond the next opinion poll. These people are afraid to address the fundamental issues that David Selbourne has raised. But they’d be gobsmacked at the public support they would get if they did!

Anthony Veale

Yes, David Selbourne is right.But so embedded are the problems, it'll take several generations to put things right, assuming the will is there on a scale which would make a difference - which it isn't.
Sadly,it will take a cataclysmic event to wake this country up. Only then will people open their eyes.

jerry gambs

yes indeed.emergency it sure is. mr angry from frensham. why did'nt they ask me ? 68 and i'ii be there when the time comes

Dr F.V.Griffiths [Former wartime Spitfire pilot].

Where to begin? The lack of leadership, outrageous 24hr licensing,downgrading of cannabis, appalling education system, with no discipline;no capital punishment for the hideous recent murders, deporting brave Gurkha troops,while retaining criminals, the missing of valuable files etc etc. This country was once great - with proper boundaries set, and if neccessary, capital and corporal punishment. Some crimes are pure evil and should be treated as such.
Where are the visionaries now?

Mike D

"I have rights but no obligations, my freedom to do as I please is paramount, my ego comes first, crime is not the fault of criminals but society, discipline is brutality, censorship is a restriction of liberty, Nationalism is jingoistic and prejudicial and must be replaced with multiculturalism, Christianity is backward mumbo jumbo so dump its set of rules........and who says my nappies in a bucket at the Tate have less credence that Monet?"

Today's problems arose, quite naturally, from the systematic destruction by the left of the old value systems.
With control of the media they had little trouble in establishing in the minds of the general population that the left owned the moral high ground. The rot will continue until, when some event of major significance occurs, a tipping point is reached. One senses we are near to that point.

Daren Mulley

How many other commentators over the centuries have lamented about what they considered to be a loss of national identity. David joins a long list. However, the subterrranean anger that he describes is, in my view, very present among members of the public but there is no political party addressing this and offering solutions . . . well, other than the BNP of course but then I'm usre David would join with me in condemning such monocultural, monoidentity policies.

Pauline

Roy Jenkins once described Tony Blair as an alpha politician with a beta brain, a man who was vain and media obsessed. An outsider who had hijacked Labour to win power and Thatcherism to keep it. Personally I believe him to have had a totally and lasting corrosive effect on the Nation. AS PM he showed contempt for both Parliament and the Judiciary, sought to politicise the Police and far from governing less, as he once avowed, strangulated free speech and the most innocent of behaviour with a succession of criminal justice bills that must rank him as one of the most centralising and authoritarian PM's of all time. Although claiming a moral certainty it seemed to be one that allowed for the bending of the facts to suit his cause. If the goal posts had to be moved in his attempts to justify one action or another then so be it. If one of his ill-thought out ideas failed he quickly and cynically buried it under a new initiative. As he strode the stage ever seeking the spotlight the flaws were there for all but the myopic to see. But however history ultimately judges the man and however much we mourn our lost way of life, it is a sad truism to say that we, the British electorate, in one sense at least, always get the government we deserve.

Peter Womack

As one of the people who have actually fled the UK, my reasons for doing so neatly summarised in this excellent article. Every return to the UK (for as brief a time as possible) reinforces my view that I have made the correct decision.

Tim C

A weird article that spreads itself thinly.
More alarming is the Woman Emily's report on Libya; why do the media refer to Mohammed as 'the prophet' with a capital 'P'?

Hendry Horse

The majority of society's ills outlined in this article emanate from our politically correct Westminster government.

We in Scotland are lucky enough to have a leader who frequently tells Brooner to sod off with his wish-washy, scaremongering
pronouncements.

Despite the efforts of Little Bigmouth, Nick the ----- and the old Tory bird, we shall get
our referendum on pulling out and leaving them to it.

It will be up to the people of Scotland to grasp the opportunity to strike out on our own and take to the lifeboats - we could surely do better than the current Westminster lot.

Charles A Miller

Have to hold my hand up and admit to never having read / bought the Spectator untiL I saw your headline at the airport. Like most of the real people in UK, incl your readers, All I can see is more blood on the streets and I an not blaming imigrants of any denomination. The comments from your readers says it all. This government has sold our industry and us down the line. Are we really expected to believe that Mr Tatra will continue building Land Rover in UK ? We can not afford to look after our own country without fighting two (illegal) wars which we are never going to win. Our Police are used / good for nothing more than earning revenue for Brown. As for politicians how can we be expected to respect and vote for such a bunch of selfish money grabbing indeviduals. This governments leadership is "Do as I say, not as I do" and we are all tired of it.
David Selbourne is totally right in his article, I believe we will see social unrest on the streets because right now the people of Gb PLC have nothing else to lose.

Christopher Chantrill

I don't know about selling off to market forces, but in Cromwell's day government spending was about 2 percent of GNP. After the Glorious Revolution it shot up to 10 percent--Marlborough, Blenheim, I suppose. Spending reached about 30 percent in the Napoleonic Wars before sliding to about 10 percent in the late 19th century. (See Clark, A Farewell to Alms)

Since then, it seems like Billy Bones has got hold of the national income and sold it off to the patronage state.

vannesse

Well,you all have a great freedom of speech,so powerful!Maybe you can not change any thing,but I believe if most of you do the beneficial things for yourselves and your country,and stick to it,you and your country will get better tomorrow!Bless all u!

A colonial

With the skill of the slyest snake oil salesman the left wing has landed Britain with a set of values and beliefs that it never really wanted or needed. The problem now is how to stop the rot. A way that will work before more damage is done. A practical one, not one based on a dream or prayer or vague hope.

The only solution I can see is to shock the mainstream parties, and the dreary, timid people who now run them. And the only practical way I can see to do this is to vote for the BNP, gain power within it, haul it up the market and drop the fascist excesses that the left maintains, or would have us believe, that it has.

Martin Chatfield

As this Millenium slowly gets under way, it is starting to become increasingly apparent that we have to question, at least, some of the motives which have propelled us to where we are now.
Just as desires have grown to become wants and wants have grown to become needs and must-haves, we must speculate where growth will take us next.
The overwhelming and rising desire to consume more due to TV advertising and the resultant social pressures rather seems to have caught on across all of the cultures of the world, the same world that we in the West used to lead so comprehensively.
The recently exposed intellectual and philosophical bankruptcy of our deeply waning financial system and the dim short termers who have collapsed worthwhile creative productivity in the name of cost, profitability, globalisation, and modernity, is not the direction from which we can expect a Renaissance to come...

Gordon Neil

David Selbourne has perfectly caught and expressed the anxieties of those of us who now fear for the fate of Britain. The problem is where do we turn to give expression to our discontent. The Labour party is now discredited, the Liberals are a joke and the Conservatives have yet to offer any coherent positive vision.

Ibrahim Idris Bello, Kano-Nigeria

There is definetely something wrong with the world toady, if a citizen of once a colonial power (Great Britain) could speak of his country in this like manner like we have been doing since, the colonialist conquered our nations in early 1900s.

Jonathan de Ferranti

"Inflation is evil - it disrupts human expectations of the future, it enriches some at the expense of others, and it destroys stability and security." (Rhodes Boyson, Centre Forward, 1977).

That house price inflation is not included in the RPI makes it no less obnoxious. And the blame for house price inflation lies with the ignorant greed of those who have running US and UK banks, by lending indiscrimnately on the "security" of such inflation.

Davejmcg

A timely and excellent article. We need not go back to Cromwell though as much can be said for him as against. I favour a new Churchillian. And whilst a confirmed athiest I find it hard to see past the unerlying values of the presbeterian church of scotland where values of honesty, thrift, hardwork, charity, responsibility for self and society, humility, modesty and I could go on and on. Misdeameanors were roundly condemned and punished, there was order, social order and total freedom to move up and down the social order as befitted your abilities. People like, want and need leadership. They want to feel part of the pack and be comforted that they know their place in the pack, that place being where they are most comfortable. Of course there was unfairness, that is life. There is much greater unfairness today I suggest. Nor was it rose tinted glasses.

But we have given way to free market forces, freedom of expresion without responsibility for the actions of this free choice. We are over consuming and shockingly wasteful. We have become spineless in our submision to the political correctness, powerless in the face lunatic "health and safety" sinking in mountains of beaurocracy that only the law abiding comply with whilst the rest break and flaunt the rules with impunity. Gangs of youths run amok unchallanged and unchallengable when they should have the backsides tanned.

Government is culpable and must be about the least profesisonal competent in our history. We are governed by sound bites devoid of intellect, reasoning and strategic forward planning and a civil cservice that is b