British Welfare Re-cycled?

As Britain progressed through the post-war years so there seemed less and less need for welfare to take a prominent role in the country. However of recent times, stories abound of a welfare system that has risen from the ashes so to speak.

This appears to have been in response to the new influx of migrants as the officials fall over each other to assist a ready provided workforce for a work shy nation?

There certainly is a need to assist new migrants and this was poorly approached many years ago in England and its colonies and history has the stories. Now it would seem they have attempted to right the wrongs of the past and provide more generously. The only snag appears to be that the Indigenous peoples of the nation feel left out of all this. Whilst they still struggle to enjoy and pay for life in general, they feel that the newcomers are being treated better than they.

Is this a common misperception perhaps, as I doubt if the newcomers will continue to receive 'new migrant' benefits for ever more. This surely is a transitionary arrangement to ease them into their new country and new lives. Whether we need all these immigrants at all is of course another discussion completely.

Undoubtedly this initial output of finances will reap rewards in the future as the new migrants contribute to the general wealth of the country and I feel sure that there is some boffin somewhere who is already crunching the figures and can demonstrate this fact.

Finance is finance and welfare is welfare and perceptions or misperception are a different thing altogether and the three don't necessarily mix well.

Our city ghettos

A new phenomena in England and the rest of Europe at least; started in the early sixties and has continued unabated. This is the unleashed power and freedom of the youth. It probably was catalysed by the appearance of rock and roll which gave the youth an opportunity to have their own distinct identity and shake of the shackles of their parents, schools and society in general. It didn't happen all at once of course but happen it certainly did and at a fast pace.

Today we see the results more prominently in our cities but also towns and to a lesser extent villages (the villages have managed to sustain their heritage and control often by virtue of their isolation, lack of work which always sees the youth depart for the city lights)

This new found liberation of youth expressed itself not only in their music but how they socialised and used their environments for their own ends. If that was not a significant shift in social structure along came the waves of immigrants with their own youth. This mix of national youth and immigrant youth often spurned city wars between them from time to time.

So how did this all happen (exluding the immigrant phenomena for a moment). Well the simple answer is that we all let it happen. The judiciary, the politicians, the police, the schools and the parents. We all loosened the controls and slowly bit by bit gave the youth more unfetted freedom.

many older brits yearn for a return to the 'good old days', but that of course is not possible. We are only left with how to fix the current problems and their are no easy solutions. Cities were there is high unemployment, low city funds and ghetto areas are often paralysed not knowing which way out.

Change and improvement in these situations need a concerted effort and drawing on examples of how cities in other countries have overcome similiar problems. Politicians alone cannot bring about this change, we all need to be involved at different levels and start working on it. Neighbourhood committees is one way to start, volunteer organisations that focus on cleaning up the city is an other example that come to mind. However there is still the issue of 'law and order' and there are many in this country that now consider and not without cause that this has become emasculated. This whole area of social control needs to be seriously re-considered on a national level.

The immigrant youth are now a permanent feature of our social landscape and cannot be ignored. They won't go away and we need to consider ways to prevent their social isolation in the cities and towns and how they can encouraged to be better integrated. Ignoring this phenomena will only result in more and more ghettos and more and more bombs

The New British Chrysalis is still forming

For those who long for the 'old days' their longing will be forever and unsatiated. The new 'British Chrysalis' is still forming but won't die or go away.

So what are the ingredients that have brought about the chrysalis and what kind of butterfly will emerge?

For me the essential ingredients are:

1.the modernisation of the cities and towns and the increase in dormitory surrounding suburbs.
2. The British rural towns, villages, farms and wilderness
3. The replacement of major industries such as car manufacture, coal mining, steel production etc with the new micro industries of computer technologies, world banking etc.
4. the changing face of the British population, from single culture dominance to mulitcultural growth

Are these mixable ingredients that are capably of producing a beautiful new British butterfly?

Well we have to live with them all that's for certain but I don't believe they necessarily need to mix.

City and large town life has always been distinctly different from country life. City and town dwellers appreciate the British countryside and use it from time to time. the country dwellers likewise with the cities and towns. This distant relationship will no doubt remain so. But the relationship is not without its own tension. Although the British countryside is prided and used, it remains financially poor and under - serviced. The cities and towns get the lion share of the tax distribution. For my money there does need to be a more equitable share. England without its countryside would be dismal, unattraction and a barren land. Maintenance of a national treasure, the British countryside, must be paid for with good hard cash and plenty of it.

The changing face of British industry is something we cannot necessarily control ourselves. We are part of the global market and are deeply affected by what happens in the bigger world. All modernised western countries are experiencing a shift of industry as they transfer their own internal industries off shore to reduce costs. This is a process we need to learn to live with and harness to our benefit. Again we cannot bring back to the major industrial giants we once had.

And finally but certainly not least the changing face of faces. From single culture to multiculture. Where will this take us all in the new Britain?

At present the vast majority of immigrants to Britain congregate around the major cities and larger towns and are found in much smaller numbers in rural Britain. So the divide between cities, towns and countryside remains both historically and culturally and may stay like this for some length of time.

Occupations and easier living conditions are found in the cities and towns not the countryside. When travelling throughout the British Isles, this contrasting scene is very obvious. Travelling through the countryside reminds one of the 'old days' with little change and very few 'multicultural faces'.

The cities and towns are the places which have experienced major change and trauma as all attempt to re-adjust to multicultural life. And it is taking much effort and commitment on the part of everyone. Religions clash, cultural behaviours clash, living styles clash and ideologies clash.

The change and what it becomes will only be clearly seen in several decades on. It is impossible to predict what the final outcome will be, but what is certain is that there will be an outcome for the better or worst.

I am constantly amazed or setting the scene!

Perhaps I just accepted it as schoolboys do that Britain was once a great empire called strangely enough the British Empire. But what amazes me know is how it ever became one. It's such a small island , no great land mass like, Russia, China or Canada but even managed to rule a part of Canada for a while and a smaller part of China!

the other things that amaze me is why hordes of foreigners want to come and live in this dank, dark and dismal climate, particularly when they live in much better climates found in the West Indies.

And then of course there are the politicians who never fail to amaze me, and who cannot see beyond the next election, and actively encouraged immigration by the thousands from the West Indies, Pakistan, India and Africa. Why - cheap labour and because the rest of the British labour force were lazy!

So now we have a small island without an empire any more and full to the brim with a population of 62 million approx and predicted to continue growing alarmingly because of continued immigration and a risen birth rate!

So not only are we challenged to live in a harmonious multi-cultural society but also like rats in a cage, at least in our cities. So of course there is an uneven dispersal of population across the country, leaving some parts empty and fertile and unused, whilst others are packed like sardines.

I suppose I was fortunate to live for the main part in the 'old England' when the immigration wave was just a trickle and just starting - we never realized were it would end. My second job was in a small rural town fifty kms from London that was just being geared up and groomed to be an overspill town for the Greater London populations.

I for a while enjoyed the bliss of country life and pubs and British culture still surviving in a non-multicultural form. That didn't last for long.

Is the Old still there at all?

Yes I believe so. Go down to Cornwall and Devon, Summerset, or up to the Lake District, Cumbria, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (although not strictly Britain anymore) and you will find the old still there. I did back in 1999!

So Britain is a bit like the curates egg, old in parts!

so change even in one country doesn't happen uniformly. And I think it would be a truism, that the English countryside and for that matter the Scottish, Welsh and Irish all change much slower than the towns and cities.

Even some cities have retained part of their magic and 'oldness'. Chester in particular comes to mind, with its beautiful cathedral and Roman walls. The one problem with towns and cities and to a lesser extent villages is trying to mix the old with the new. It often comes out glaringly ugly.

I remember visting Hull once, a not very inspiring town and with a very distinct fishy smell about it. but fifteen minutes drive out and I was in beautiful countryside with gentle flowing corn fields and old English pubs.

Can we return to the Britain that was more uniformly british in looks and character of the 50's - impossible. But we can find plenty of reminders and if we have enough cash go back and live in the 50's!

The Old and the New Days

I have read the many threads of a recent British messageboard on the topic of 'where has British culture gone?'

the arguments tossed this way and that. Essentially there were those who wished for the 'old days' to come back - what ever they were (and they didn't define them that well) and there were those who defended the 'new Britain' and all its tributaries.

I do look back with fond memories to the Britain of my childhood and youth - the 40's to the 60's and even then saw some tumultuous changes - the main one being 'rock and roll' and the liberation of teenagers.

We are all for ever changing. The Britain of the Elizabethan era only remains in the form of some preserved buildings, historic writings and a few words left in our vocabulary. If you ever view one of the popular historic films available about English history, it was clear that there were great divides between the so called 'classes' and being working class wasn't a good option!

Yes looking back can be a pleasant past time but going back we can't. As I look at Britain today I accept the changes and enjoy those that are pleasing and try to avoid those that are not, and with my voting power try to change them in some small way.