Broken Britain

Rossy · Feb 11, 2010

Broken Britain

How broken is Britain?
It has become fashionable to say that British society is in a mess and getting worse. It isn’t
Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition

THEY are not the world’s most effusive people at the best of times. But even by their usual gloomy standards, Britons seem to have got themselves into a slough of despond of late. Well before the economic crisis they were weeping on the shoulders of pollsters, who reported rapidly rising levels of dismay about the country’s direction and an increased sense of nostalgia about the good old days. For those (and they are legion, on inner-city council estates as well as in the shires) who think that society in Britain is “broken”, the country is stuck in a mire of crime, fractured families and feral youth.

It is an idea that resonates. Every week serves up a new tragedy or outrage to be added to the pile of evidence. Such episodes have the power to jolt the public mood, as in 1993 when Tony Blair, then the shadow home secretary, described the murder of two-year-old James Bulger as a sign of “a society that is becoming unworthy of that name”. A similarly awful attack last year on two boys in South Yorkshire was held up by David Cameron, the Conservative leader, as not an “isolated incident of evil” but evidence of a profound problem that goes to the heart of society. He has made “broken Britain” a leitmotif in the run-up to the general election due by June 3rd.

It would be idiotic to claim that Britain is perfect. The vomitous binge-drinking mainly by the young, the drug abuse and teenage pregnancy that are still higher than in most west European countries and the large proportion of single-parent families all tell a tale. But the story of broad decline is simply untrue (see article). Stepping back from the glare of the latest appalling tale, it is clear that by most measures things have been getting better for a good decade and a half. In suggesting that the rot runs right through society, the Tories fail to pinpoint the areas where genuine crises persist. The broken-Britain myth is worse than scaremongering—it glosses over those who need help most.

The bad old days
The broken Britain of legend is one where danger stalks the streets as never before. In the real Britain, the police have just recorded the lowest number of murders for 19 years. In mythical broken Britain, children are especially at risk. Back in real life, child homicides have fallen by more than two-thirds since the 1970s. Britain used to be the third-biggest killer of children in the rich world; it is now the 17th. And more mundane crimes have fallen too: burglaries and car theft are about half as common now as they were 15 years ago. Even the onset of recession has not reversed that downward trend so far.

Comatose teenagers line every gutter in the boozy Britain of popular imagination. Yet after a long period of increase, there are tentative signs that Britons are drinking less alcohol. The overall consumption of drugs is dropping (though some narcotics, including cocaine, are becoming more popular) and rates of smoking are now among the lowest in Europe.

As for family breakdown, some commentators seem to think that sex really was invented in 1963. British grannies know differently. Teenage pregnancy is still too common, but it has been declining, with the odd hiccup, for ages. A girl aged between 15 and 19 today is about half as likely to have a baby in her teens as her grandmother was. Her partner will probably not marry her and he is less likely to stick with her than were men in previous generations, but he is also a lot less likely to beat her. In homing in on the cosier parts of the Britain of yesteryear, it is easy to ignore the horrors that have gone. Straight white men are especially vulnerable to this sort of amnesia.

A dangerous misdiagnosis
Such forgetfulness can be partly blamed on a dominant national press that tends to report the grotesque exceptions not the blander rule. But politicians have connived in this. Labour is far from blameless, but it is the Tories who are on course to be the next government. In attempting to convince voters that society has suffered a comprehensive breakdown (and pandering to his own party’s right wing), Mr Cameron has been guided towards social policies that are designed to heal the entire country, rather than help the relatively few who need it. His proposed tax break for married couples and gay civil-partners is an example. It does nothing for workless households. It would help only 11% of the 4m British children in poverty, while handing bonuses to plenty of well-off people. That would be a bad idea at any time; in a period when the state must tighten its belt it is an extraordinary proposal.

Above all, however, it is a distraction from the Conservatives’ far better policies to deal with something that does need fixing: education. The main reason why a small but worrying proportion of families and young people is falling behind is that schools are failing to give them the skills they need to get and hold a job. This is about more than Britain’s ability to compete in a brave new globalised world that demands flexible, highly skilled workers. It also has to do with social behaviour.

The waning of the manufacturing jobs that used to be the mainstay of the working class has created a generation of young males, in particular, who don’t know what to do with themselves. Britons have been boozers and scrappers for centuries, but self-destructive behaviour today in part reflects the perception that their lives are not worth much. As for children bearing children, there is evidence elsewhere that if girls are given better education—not just about sex, but also in areas likely to improve their job prospects—they are less likely to get pregnant at 16. Yet for all the official talk at home about ever-improving exam results, Britain is beginning to slide down the international league table of educational attainment.

The government used to be keen on overhauling education but it has run out of puff. Now it is the Tories who have thoughtful ideas about getting more good school places through supply-side reforms. They should focus on these rather than proselytising about marriage, which suggests a nannying streak curiously at odds with Mr Cameron’s (largely correct) view that government has got too big for its boots. Britain has a crunched economy, an out-of-control deficit and plenty of social problems; but it is not “broken”.
Click to expand...

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15452811

BRID · Feb 11, 2010

Ive been through 2 political parties in my 30 years on this earth to know this is nothing more than the usual bunch of bullshit.

The tories will no more solve 'broken britain' than labour did. If anyone thinks either party does a better job than anyone else they are sorely mistaken.

What do you want, massive debt and an entitlement/chav culture from labour, or a stripped back massive unemployment and depravity but less debt from the tories?

Its a merry go round and nothing else. If you believe in democracy then your sorely deluded in my eyes. Your life is what you make of it, within the constraints a bunch of crooks in London impose on you.

forks · Feb 11, 2010

tell that to the North Koreans.
Democracy is rubbish but it's better than any of the alternatives. A difference could be made if we just stopped doing the old Tory/Labour switcheroo. and if we had a fair voting system.
I don't think Britain is broken. But I do think our freedoms are under threat as they have never been before. i'll vote, even though it's largely futile.

BRID · Feb 11, 2010

An extreme alternative doesnt justify the illusion we live. Fair enough our 'standard of living' is better than the north koreans but does that mean we have any more of a say in our lives than they do?

If anything, the human farm they run in this country has evolved a whole lot more to produce cows that are churning out alot more milk than the currently inefficient methods in the 2nd and 3rd worlds. Give them time and they will live in just as wonderful servitude as the poor saps in this part of the world do.

Cue 'if you dont like it, then fuck off' comments

MistaK · Feb 12, 2010

tbf, if anything in this argument i'd follow forks, because he's got the history behind him (pardon me for that G, but you've got the advantage on brid) he's seen things and experianced things that we have not had the chance to, however seems to hold the thoughts and mindset of the current day clubber of our generation. for that, i salute him.

this became clear when i saw him pull out of the detox field event in 2008 (in the middle of no-where) in his posh estate wagon thing at 6am in the morning, when i was knee deep in shite thinking things couldent get worse. i looked at his car and thought "if i grow up to become like forks, i'll be a fucking happy man". his wry guilty smile kept me going. and still does to this very day.

**watch this space for an edit of a VERY drunk person***

MistaK · Feb 12, 2010

and north korea has got fuck all to do with anything!!!! they're part of a VERY heavily policed socialist state. and because i watched that damn "kim jong Ill comedy club" storyville program before bed on sunday night, i ended up stuck in a fucking north korean/kim jong ill subconscience nightmare for 2 days while ill with flu/tonsilitis.

NOT THE BEST PART OF MY YEAR

F F S.

(Literally no escape. fucking horrible)

MistaK · Feb 12, 2010

without even reading back a sentence of what i've spouted there. i know i've made a fool of my self.

the sponsers of these posts have been the brand 'Gordons' and the letter T. Goodnight.

BRID · Feb 12, 2010

You've done well tonight K!

MistaK · Feb 12, 2010

forks · Feb 12, 2010

K - You'll have to marry me now, there's no other way

MistaK · Feb 12, 2010

i havent got a clue whats worse. the headache, or the trail of destruction i've left behind on the internet.

adam. · Feb 12, 2010

Get in K, this happens on a weekly basis now!

Conway · Feb 12, 2010

forks · Feb 12, 2010

btw my posh estate wagon thing was a 10 year old peugeot and far from posh

danny_m · Feb 12, 2010

Someone is wiping a hell of a lot of shit off their nose this morning!

Rossy · Feb 12, 2010

MistaK;1371091 said:

his wry guilty smile kept me going. and still does to this very day.
Click to expand...

awwwww

MistaK · Feb 12, 2010

and again

Ingrediants of mass disaster:

1, 5 pint jug of long island iced tea with no ice.
vast amounts of sailor jerrys

line up shots of sailor jerrys in front of half filled half pint glasses of long island iced tea.

drink them like jagerbombs. quickly.

floor.

known as "The Fanny Smasher"

BRID · Feb 12, 2010

I vote for weekly K posts.

Willa did a few and then they faded away - shame really

We need to up the drinking asap.

BRID · Feb 12, 2010

forks;1371119 said:

btw my posh estate wagon thing was a 10 year old peugeot and far from posh
Click to expand...

He was probably freezing cold, and mullered. I bet even a 20 year old Lada Riva estate with the bumper falling off and a dog hair covered blanket on the back seat, looked like a Bentley.

forks · Feb 12, 2010

I was freezing cold and mullered too. that wasn't a guilty smile it was a gurn

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