What Has Happened to Britain?

An off the cuff comment from a Polish friend on Britain’s decline got me 1.3m views on Twitter/X. Did I touch a nerve?

Do you remember the days back in the 1990s when if you were a single man or woman with a modest job then a basic mortgage was still in reach. In fact if you were careful with the wage packet you could afford a flat, a car and a holiday, perhaps even a pint at the end of the day. If you dared shoplift or not settle the cafe bill the owner would undoubtedly chase you down the street and rugby tackle you.

School curriculums did not push white privilege, toxic masculinity, or that mathematics was Eurocentric patriarchy and a vehicle of colonisation. Everyone knew what a woman was, or was not. Chestfeeders didn’t exist. JK Rowling didn’t get the daily two minute hate but was praised as encouraging kids to read magical books. Indeed, most towns had two or three bookshops, remember them!?

University courses were affordable even though you could still get a decent white collar career by going to night school or learning on the job. There was no social media and the only screens that beguiled us were the four channels on the TV or the cinema. You could easily see the GP or an NHS dentist without having to speak to a robot on the telephone. No one had to choose between heating and eating in the winter. Children were not terrified that Russia and NATO might nuke each other, or that the planet would eventually boil. Skynet was science fiction. Teenage depression was rare.

Maybe I am looking nostalgically through the 1990s with rose tinted glasses but I suspect many of you will be nodding. Something has gone terribly wrong with Britain. Year by year the fizz has been going out of our lovely country. It now feels very flat and is now a dim reflection of its former self. And, I hate to have talk down my country because I want so much to see it flourish. I love being English. Sorry to disappoint international readers of this Substack but given another life in a parallel universe I would still bargain with my Maker to be born here. And I love Scotland too, especially as I married a Scot.

Our British nation has everything going for it. Historically this is a key global community to introduce civil rights, parliamentary democracy, the Industrial Revolution, much of scientific progress, the best literature and music, while also being instrumental in winning two world wars. For centuries Brits ran most of the globe and when it came to giving up the Empire we did graciously and peacefully. For a millennia we accomplished all this without taking ourselves too seriously and modesty, the stiff upper lip, and self deprecation. On paper we should be the ‘John Lewis’ of nations, elegant and classy, and aspirational.

Instead Britain has become a pound shop of glum and misery. It breaks my heart. As of today a millionaire emigrates every 45 minutes. Just think about that. But of course, the progressive elites with their politics of envy cry “good riddance“ not worried about which magic money tree is miraculously going to fund Rachel Reeves’ coffers. In the end she will reach for the easy buttons; devalue the pound, impose more taxes, print money, and rattle the can for more borrowing. Meanwhile those who actually run things, like job creators are packing up and jumping off this sinking ship.

As for the Church, bishops don’t seem much help either at lifting our spirits. When they do talk into politics or culture it’s rarely about the obvious downward trajectory. Their Graces’ output into the public square tends towards talking up cultural diversity and lambasting any critics who have the slightest qualms. They are very good at explaining Net Zero but seem to have forgotten how to lift us up, to speak to our hearts as human beings. It’s as if they as a clerical caste believe that a nip and tuck along with a bit more taxpayers cash here will put the nation’s house in order.

This for me is the irony of the age for the Church. It’s not that I am saying that bishops should stay out of politics. The liberals always throw that one in as if it’s some ultimate gotcha, “Don’t you know Jesus was very political” bla bla bla. We are now in a hyper disenchanted culture and politics is about that very soulfulness that we yearn for. This should be the Church’s area of expertise, the fashioning of hope. Successful voices on the Right are doing so well because they are touching that very nerve and are speaking into it.

For all his faults I am jealous of the energy lift that America’s Donald Trump has brought to his country. To see folks, of all backgrounds, dancing manically in the stadiums to the wonderfully ridiculous YMCA is ironically - inspiring. We need a bit of that here. The nearest we had to political dad-dancing was Ed Davey the Lib Dem leader, and the less said there the better. I cant see Kier hitting the dance floor soon, can you? All we get a daily round of solemn misery, doom and gloom. For God’s sake Britain is in danger becoming like the last days of Brezhnev, grey and boring.

Why can’t the country that once ran half the world aspire to go to Mars like America? We can barely build a tunnel or runway without going into a meltdown. Can you imagine if this Prime Minister had the balls to invite Ireland back into the fold and also throw in a bid for Normandy and Brittany. Why not? However nutty or egotistical you might judge Trump’s offer to Canada and Greenland, at least it demonstrates and projects a national self-confidence. There is something about it that makes me smile with envy. Even if we can’t aspire to have former territories back then Britain ought to be not just a country but an ideal, a vision. We should be exporting Britishness everywhere. But in this milieu of technocractic managerialism it’s not going to happen bar a miracle.