Frank Field

Britain’s morals are regressing. We need a Social Highway Code

Life in Britain has become much cruder, meaner and more spiteful practically everywhere. It can be seen in people’s behaviour on the street; in those abominable neighbours from hell; in companies piling up the profits with no care whatsoever for the degree to which they are sweating their workers on terms that, until quite recently, would have been unimaginable.

The incivility of one to another can be seen most sharply and poignantly in the degree of cruelty to children which, at the beginning of my working life, would have had every alarm bell ringing wildly. Children have to be almost on the point of being murdered before they are taken into care. Outside that protection, some are subjected to brutal treatment by parents who are also brutal creatures.

Being left to go to bed hungry and to take that hunger to school the next day is now par for the course for all too many children. Lack of money or knowledge can, of course, account for some of this neglect. But not all. Some parents are happy to lie in bed while their offspring get themselves up and dressed as best they can, and set off to school without breakfast. It is surprising the degree of kindness many of these children have, given that they have had so little exposure to love and civility at home.

It wasn’t always like this. For a very short period in our history, Britain was a peaceable, self-policing society. The Victorians and Edwardians made superhuman efforts to change our character. We moved from being a pretty beastly, brutal and horrible nation to one that was literally the envy of the world in the extent to which we were self-governing. Evangelical religion played a huge part in transforming the nature of our society. Trade unions, the labour movement generally, and the churches all joined in
a mission to teach Christianity’s rules for everyday life.

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