What is it about this country?

In recent months we have been on the receiving end of a variety of statistics that make the most depressing reading:

The highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe.

The highest unsecured debt per person in Europe.

The greatest use of drugs in Europe.

And now we are told that we have

The highest percentage of obese people in Europe.

On each occasion that some organization produces these figures someone rushes to the television studios to demand that government action is needed to advise people on how not to get pregnant, get broke, get addicted or get fat, as if no one knew how to avoid these problems, whatever their circumstances.

We also have the annual spectacle of English football supporters complaining that continental police over reacted to what was only a good natured riot.

And apart from the difficulty of interpreting conflicting figures on the crime rate we all suspect that we have

The highest crime rate in Western Europe.

That is despite having

The largest number of people in gaol in Western Europe.

Just what is it that has caused the collapse of the moral fibre of this country? Rather than have armies of sympathetic advisers should people be told that they are responsible for their own lives? Instead of spending time advising people how not to get……….whatever, should government have a serious look at what they have done to cause this collapse?

Two hours after writing this article I heard on the television news that we have the highest rate of sexually transmitted disease in Western Europe……!!

Reply

from Jamie Pearson to George’s article in last weeks newsletter

The predictability of the categories you quote is a reflection of Britain's predominant socio/cultural milieu which abuses its rights and denies its duties, now there's a word which (like loyalty and personal responsibilty) has been shunted off by those who use a mid last century invention to justify what they want and try to force the rest to revoke, deny or otherwise desist from exercising their common sense - political correctness, now there's an oxymoron. What you describe George, are the symptoms of this more debilitating disease from which I chose to escape. By early 1997, I'd spent almost half my adult life overseas, starting with the army, and was in my mid 50s. I could see little that looked attractive, and the threat of Blair (I'm no Tory, though) so I left UK for the last time. Now, I live in a foreign language, in a Caribbean country, where I earn my living teaching English to people I like. It is quite corrupt and all, the press included are aware of it, from which you will gather, regimes are not repressive . But it's not my direct worry, as I can't vote here - I am 'in 'it' but not 'of it', which would obviously not be the case in Britain. Moreover, the odd hurricane apart, the weather is much better here, and the cost of living generally much lower - most of all there is no Council Tax, and a bottle of 'VSOP' quality rum (not smelly,) is just under two pounds. So, I recommend that you too, vote with your feet. It's not worth staying even for the cricket! If any seek confirmation of the terminal nature of the infirmity, a glance at a précis of Gibbon should be enough to hasten their feet to the airport.

Yours contentedly, Jamie Pearson