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Our Wanker this Week is Lord Goldsmith, and most readers will immediately know why. As reported a few days ago, ex-attorney general Lord Goldsmith is proposing that we should "give teenagers a sense of belonging" by making them swear an oath of allegiance to Queen and country. The idea hasn't immediately won friends and influenced people. Labour peer Baroness Kennedy put it most succinctly: "I think this is a serious mistake - I think it's puerile and I think it's rather silly. The symbols of a healthy democracy are not to be found in empty gestures and I'm afraid I see this as an empty gesture." Bafflingly, Lord Goldsmith told BBC Radio 4 "Certainly there isn't a crisis of national identity, but the research does tend to show there's been a diminution in national pride, in this sense of belonging." Most people hearing this would say that he'd got it entirely arse-over-tip - what we have in this country is exactly a crisis of national identity, when large minorities don't consider themselves to be part of British society, when many in Wales and Scotland are anxious to break away and many in England would be pleased if they did, and the rest of us take little pride in being British because there's nothing to be proud of. If that's not a crisis of national identity, I don't know what is. Personally I've no difficulty about swearing allegiance to the Queen. If we have to have a head of state I'd much rather it was a game old bird with lashings of dignity, than some corrupt, self-seeking politician. She's spent the last 70 years or so guarding her tongue and saying nothing that could possibly offend anyone. Either she's got the most incredible self-control or she doesn't have a single thought in her head. Either way up, that makes her a pretty remarkable person. The trouble is, though, that you can't make people think what you want them to think just by making them take part in some ceremony. Some minorities will take deep offence (hmm, maybe it's not such a bad idea after all …), and the rest will just think it's a load of b*ll*cks. If you want people to be proud of being British, you have to give them a Britain to be proud of. You have to give them a country where the government feels neither the need nor the right to spy on its citizens at every turn, a country where the government doesn't regulate and list and database every facet of human life, where people are free to make their own decisions about their own health and lifestyle. You have to give them a country that is transparently fair, where criminals are not set free to offend again, where innocent people are not locked up simply for making mistakes, where victims of crime are not prosecuted for attempting to defend themselves. You have to give them a country where people can choose which schools their kids go to, where those schools can make their own decisions about what to teach and how to teach it, where tax-payers get the public services they've spent their lives paying for, where layabouts are not encouraged to be unemployed, where immigrants from civilised countries who want to work and behave themselves are welcomed with open arms, and where savages with primitive ideas and vicious habits are rejected out of hand. You have to give them a country whose policies are based on facts, not lies, a country ruled by reason rather than hysteria, where public bodies take responsibility for their decisions and don't hide behind political correctness or health and safety, where politicians, civil servants and local officials recognise that their function is to serve the people, not rule them. We are most of us proud of our country, otherwise we wouldn't be so upset at the ludicrous mess it's in. But until you and all the other politicians can deliver us something worth defending, Lord Goldsmith, you'll never get us to formally express that pride or allow our children to do so. Wanker. either on this site or on the World Wide Web. Copyright © 2008 The GOS This site created and maintained by PlainSite |
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