Nation Revisited #152 June 2019:

Our Place in the World.

The United States ended the Second World War as a global superpower, but Europe, Asia and the Soviet Union were devastated. There have been many changes since then, such as the collapse of the European empires, the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of China, but the United States is still the dominant power. President Donald Trump rules an empire bequeathed by history.

Britain, on the other hand, lost her empire, her naval superiority and access to cheap raw materials. We were reduced to living on American loans and when we tried to flex our muscles by joining France and Israel in the invasion of Egypt in 1956, we were ordered to withdraw by a furious American government..

Countries are measured by their military capacity, standard of living, level of education, economic performance, and many other factors. By any standard Britain is a great nation with a seat on the United Nations Security Council, a modern army, navy and air force equipped with nuclear weapons, a thriving financial services industry, world-class health and education.

We are doing well but we could do so much better. It’s a national disgrace that people are sleeping in doorways. Philip Alston, the internationally respected UN expert on poverty, has issued a damning report on homelessness in the UK. The government has denied his report but rough-sleepers with sleeping bags and makeshift cardboard bedding can be seen in most city centres.  We have started building more houses but, young people are finding it difficult to get mortgages because of tighter banking regulations. And all the while, the gap between rich an poor grows wider.

The Brexit fiasco has forced us to consider Britain’s place in the World, The Brexiteers are living in the past, but most people realise that we are a European power, like France and Germany. We are Europeans by history, geography, blood and culture.

The latest date for Brexit is 31st October, but the Euro election results show that the country is equally divided between Leavers and Remainers. The Brexit Party won the most seats but the combined votes of the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats were greater.

Theresa May has finally given up trying to appease the head bangers of the Tory Right. The lunatics have taken over the asylum and Boris Johnson is waiting in the wings. He is a Brexiteer but he would serve as prime minister of Britain in or out of the EU, he just jumped on the Brexit bandwagon to further his ambition.

John Bean

The article on my old friend John Bean in last month’s Nation Revisited prompted several enquiries about his health. I am pleased to report that he is in good shape both mentally and physically. The last time that he had his intelligence measured was in 1991 by Mensa. At that time he scored an impressive 138. His Mensa certificate is attached.

       

John Bean writes: “Thanks for that. I will appreciate a mention in June NR. This is not just my touch of vanity but rather to show that followers of the Radical Right amongst your readership are not just a collection of non-thinking prejudiced idiots.”

NR writes: According to the journal ‘Intelligence’, the smartest voters in the 2001 election were supporters of the Green Party and the least intelligent were BNP voters. You will not be surprised to find that this survey appeared in ‘The Guardian’.

Saving the NHS

We are torn between staying in the European Union or breaking away, but many of us fear that an ‘independent’ Britain would be swallowed up by the United States. We are linked to America by language and history and many of us have friends and family across the Atlantic, but we are different countries. Their health care system is based on insurance and leaves millions of people without cover, but we conform to the European Social Model which provides universal health care. We do not let people die because they are poor.

Our National Health Service employs over a million people and tums over £120 billion. The giant American medical corporations will gain access to the NHS if the far-Right Tories get their way. They have long advocated closer ties between the UK and America,

The shadowy Atlantic Bridge movement was founded by Liam Fox in 1999 to promote trade between Britain and America. Margaret Thatcher was appointed president and the membership included, Michael Gove, George Osborne, William Hague and Chris Grayling. The movement was shut down by the Charities Commission in 2011.

The real choice is between being an equal member of the European Union or an American dependency like Puerto Rico. We must not allow our NHS to be taken over by businessmen who are more interested in profit than people.

The Reverse of the Truth

Members of the Brexit Party and UKIP are wrong about Europe. They fear that membership of the EU will rob us of our identity, and they think that pro-Europeans are ‘traitors’. They even question the sincerity of Theresa May, a decent patriotic woman who loves her country. 

The same accusations were aimed at Oswald Mosley and his supporters who opposed the war. Most of them had fought in the First World War, but that didn’t stop the warmongers from calling them traitors. Mosley wrote in ‘The Alternative’:

“What then, was the truth concerning the National Socialist or Fascist movements before the war? Our fault was exactly the opposite of that suggested against us. How often in politics is that the fact? How rarely are the people permitted to know anything except the reverse of truth. It was suggested that we might set the interests of other countries before our own: that was an absurd lie. In reality we were all too National - too narrowly concentrated upon securing the interests of our own nations. That was the true fault of all real National Socialist or Fascist Movements; whether in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy.

So far from being willing to serve each other as “Fifth Columnists” in the event of a clash between States, our political ideology and propaganda were far too Nationalistic even to mould the minds of men in a new sense of European kinship and solidarity which might have avoided disaster by universal consent. So far from fighting for other countries in a war, we none of us argued with sufficient force in favour of that new sense of European Union which modern fact must now make an integral part of the new creed.”

An article by Martin Webster is circulating which argues that Oswald Mosley adopted European unity to ingratiate himself with the Establishment. In fact, he abandoned imperialism after the war because the Empire was no longer viable. Instead, he developed the idea of ‘Europe a Nation’, Mosley moved on but nationalists are still clinging to obsolete pre-war policies.

Oswald Mosley and his followers were not traitors and nor are the 48% that voted to remain in the EU. People are entitled to their opinions and they should not be threatened and insulted because of them. We seek to change men’s minds by reason and debate and we deplore the modern practice of shouting down the opposition.

Ken Clarke

Last month I proposed Ken Clarke to lead a Government of National Unity. He has been annoying the right wing of his party for many years, but I still think that he is the man for the job. He upset the powerful Zionist faction when he invited Oswald Mosley to address the Cambridge Tories in 1961.

The Daily Telegraph reported:

“While still a student at Cambridge, Clarke joined the Conservative Party and was chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association.

Controversially, he invited Sir Oswald Mosley, The former British fascist leader, to speak, leading some Jewish students, including a young Michael Howard, his future successor at the Home Office - to resign from the association in protest.”

Ken Clarke is currently under fire from the far-Right. They have tried to unseat him as an MP but he is too popular with his constituents. In an age when politicians change their minds to suit the prevailing mood, they are lucky to have a reliable figure to represent them. Compare him and his achievements as a Cabinet Minister with the miserable gang of second-raters that are scrambling to lead the Tory Party.

Chris Grayling has failed so many times that he is known as ‘Failing Grayling’. Gavin Wlliamson, known as ‘Pike’ to his colleagues, was sacked for leaking state secrets, Jeremy Hunt did not know that his wife was Chinese, and Dominic Raab did not know that Dover was a vital seaport.

My Lord Tomnoddy - Robert Barnaby Brough (1828-60)

Our parliamentary system developed when most working men were illiterate and few of them had ever left their villages. Members of Parliament were elected by landowners to represent their interests. This satire dates from the nineteenth century but much of it is still applicable.

My Lord Tomnoddy’s the son of an Earl;

His hair is straight, but his whiskers curl;

His Lordship’s forehead is far from wide,

But there’s plenty of room for the brains inside.

 

He writes his name with indifferent ease,

He’s rather uncertain about the “d’s,”

But what does it matter, if three or one.

To the Earl of Fitzdotterel’s eldest son?

 

My Lord Tomnoddy to college went;

Much time he lost, much money he spent;

Rules and windows, and heads, he broke -

Authorities winked -young men will joke!

 

He never peeped inside a book;

In two years time a degree he took,

And the newspapers vaunted the honours won

By the Earl of Fitzdotterel’s eldest son.

 

My Lord Tomnoddy came out in the world
Waists were tightened and whiskers curled
Virgins languished and matrons smiled,
Its true his Lordship is rather wild.

In very queer places he spends his life;
There’s talk of some children by nobody’s wife -
But we must not look close into what is done
By the Earl of Fitzdotterel’s eldest son.

My Lord Tomnoddy must settle down -
There’s a vacant seat in the family town!
It’s time he should sow his eccentric oats -
He has not the wit to apply for votes:

He cannot e’en learn his election speech,
Three phrases he speaks, a mistake in each!
And then breaks down - but the borough is won
For the Earl of Fitzdotterel’s eldest son.

My Lord Tomnoddy prefers the Guards,
The House is a bore so, it’s on the cards!
My Lord’s a Lieutenant at twenty-three;
A Captain at twenty six is he

He never drew sword, except on drill;
The tricks of parade he has learnt but ill;
A full-blown Colonel at thirty-one
Is the Earl of Fitzdotterel’s eldest son!

My Lord Tomnoddy is thirty-four;
The Earl can last but a few years more.
My Lord in the Peers will take his place;
Her Majesty’s councils his words will grace.

Office he’ll hold, and patronage sway;
Fortunes and lives he will vote away;
And what are his qualifications? - One!
He’s the Earl of Fitzdotterels’s eldest son.

Managing Immigration

The governments latest immigration proposals have been put on hold pending the Brexit debate. If it ever gets sorted out we need a sensible immigration policy which acknowledges our declining birth rate.

Many years ago I was talking to a Japanese banker in a City of London pub. I asked him why Japan was so successful compared to the UK. He said: “After the war we went for automation and you went for immigration.” Japan has the same manpower problem as Britain. People are having fewer children and they are living longer. We solved the problem by importing labour, but the Japanese designed robots to replace human beings.

It is unrealistic to call for a total ban on immigration. We are desperately short of skilled labour because irresponsible governments imported cheap labour from abroad. Now, we are forced to hire bricklayers from Portugal and nurses from the Philippines. We can change things by training our own people but that will take time.

Britain has never had a proper immigration policy that took account of housing, education and welfare. We must calculate how many immigrants we need to maintain production and decide where we get them from. Workers from Europe are obviously easier to assimilate than those from Asia and Africa. The other answer is to encourage native Brits to have more children by providing affordable housing and reducing taxation.

Immigration used to be a taboo subject. Many people worry about it but they are frightened of being accused of racism. The far-Right fantasizes about deporting immigrants to their countries of origin. They expect our army of 80,000 men to round up millions of immigrants and deport them to countries that would probably refuse to take them. Successive governments brought in legislation to silence debate on immigration, but it’s a subject that must be addressed. We need skilled immigrants that will contribute to our economy but we do not need dole scroungers and criminals. Immigration must be managed.

Nation Revisited

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