Britain’s Bad Side
Earlier in the year (St George’s day to be precise), I took part in a post where I listed ten things I love about England and the English. I took certain liberties in ascribing some of those things specifically to the English, as at least one of the things I liked (fair play) is more traditionally associated with the British which covers more than just England.
But Britain doesn’t always make me proud. Indeed, there are a number of things from 2007 that remind me that there are things to be ashamed of as a North-Easterner, as an Englishman and as a Brit. There may be a lot of things to be proud of, but there is still a dark underbelly to our society filled with hatred, casual violence and intolerance.
So here’s 10 things that make me feel ashamed about my country (in no particular order).
- The killers who boasted about their homophobic murder of a Perth council worker
- The Hartlepool man who urinated on a disabled woman as she lay dying in the street
- The fact the UK dumps more landfill waste than any other EU country
- The fact that a report shows that bullying of disabled school pupils is not taken seriously enough
- The sick national obsession with the McCann family (particularly where one day in the media they are portrayed as suffering victims and the next day they are presented as child murderers)
- The fact that Met chief Sir Ian Blair, while quite happy to accept the salary for being the head of the Met Police, refuses to take the responsibility for the fact that the Met Police shot an innocent man — seven times — and despite him acting not at all suspiciously and like any other commuter, Sir Ian told the world that Menezes had refused to obey a police challenge, giving the impression there was reason to distrust him. The London Assembly has passed a vote of no confidence in Sir Ian Blair and still he refuses to do the honourable thing and resign.
- I’m ashamed that people are kept in what amounts to slave conditions in the UK
- I’m ashamed that people in this country — including myself — seem so tolerant of low-grade racism. Even if you wouldn’t use the terms yourself, have you ever let terms like “chinky”, “Paki shop” or the like pass by without challenge in conversation? I know I have. I’ve also challenged them too, but not every time. And we should.
- I’m ashamed that in this country so many people are intolerant of the beliefs of others: shouldn’t we allow Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Zoroastrians, Agnostics, “something to do with reincarnation”, Shintoists, spiritualists and Wiccans all to believe what they believe without fear or favour, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone by it? Is it really necessary to denigrate another’s beliefs for no other reason than they aren’t the same as yours?
- I’m ashamed that our justice system is unwilling to jail a former head teacher of a special school who was sickeningly cruel to children in his care — forcing them to fight with each other; forcing one to eat his own vomit; forcing one to smash all of his birthday presents with a hammer; took away the crutches of a 10-year old child with a broken hip, forcing him to hobble and leading to permanent damage, as well as facing five counts of indecent assault which were dropped when it was decided he was not fit enough to stand trial for those. The man may be elderly and dying, but he deserves to spend the rest of his miserable life behind bars, instead of being given a suspended sentence.
Obviously, some of them offend me more than others. But feel free to share, what’s been boiling your piss lately?
Seb Crump says:
November 13th, 2007 at 10:14 am
The fact that even though we already have the longest detention without charge times in comparable countries, it is being considered that it should be extended.
Chris Hunt says:
November 13th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I’m ashamed of our tabloid press – the McCann coverage being but one example of its horrors. Whatever happened to just telling the news?
Rob Mason says:
November 13th, 2007 at 11:46 am
The tabloid media are not worthy of shame frankly. It’s not about reporting the news, it’s about selling the highest number of paper or getting the highest number of viewing figures.
Gun culture and the murdering of innocent children (Rhys Jones as a specific example) makes be ashamed to be English.
General lack of respect for others and the world around you (litter, dog mess, petty vandalism) p***es me off no end and makes me ashamed to share the same country with these people.
Politicians do not make me proud. Less and less to the stand for the values of this country. the spend more time winning votes than actually doing stuff to improve our society.
mark fairlamb says:
November 13th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
what about people who complain about racist attitudes, defending their britishness when the colour of their skin might be questioned and then go blowing innocent people up in the name of their middle-eastern brothers?
is that hypocrisy classed as a british problem or not?
JackP says:
November 13th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
@Mark:
that was why I’d emphasised the “as long as they aren’t hurting anyone by it” in the ‘religious intolerance’ bit. Where someone has beliefs that lead them to hurt others – whether as extreme as suicide bombings or something on a much smaller scale – I don’t expect those beliefs to be tolerated.
To some extent it’s a vicious circle, however: groups of young asians (usually) get racially abused (when they might previously have classed themselves as perfectly British — born and bred here — but have been racially abused simply because of their skin colour).
Many then reject that society, walk down the path of religious fundamentalism and some become so polarised that they are prepared to hurt and kill others in the name of that belief. In turn, this makes more people distrustful of that ethnic group, which makes the situation worse… and so on.
It’s not a problem that can be solved by any one ethnic group: simply because it isn’t people from only one group who are acting in a manner that provokes hate (but nor is it everyone from any single group!).
It’s something that we all need to work on: we need to tackle those preaching hate (of whatever variety) head on, and challenge it. Only by doing that can we end the cycle of violence.
Well, that’s what I think anyway.
I’ve got an interesting book to read soon – the autobiography of a British Asian who became a jihadist (?) and then later rejected those teachings – it’s called “The Islamist”. I’ll write something up about it when I’ve finished – it’d be interesting to see how someone who’s actually gone down that path and come back again feels about it.
test says:
September 20th, 2011 at 4:03 am
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