The Dumbing Down of Britain E-Book

Duncan Barkes

• Herausgeber: Elliott & Thompson
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 78

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

If they could see us today, our forefathers would be spluttering into their pint glasses, wondering where it all went wrong. Happy to be spoon-fed on a diet of blandness, buzzwords and uniformity, in the last 20 years our society has become more insular, selfish and ignorant than ever before. Welcome to the new super-sized, dumbed-down Britain.Covering topics that will resonate across the UK, including: voter apathy; the growth of social media; the smoking ban; ignorance of the food we eat; the rise of the NIMBY; the inability to debate; the demise of the real man; obsession with celebrity; identikit high streets; the rise of management-speak and neglect of the elderly, in this enjoyable diatribe Barkes pulls no punches in putting modern Britain to rights. As you've probably worked out for yourself, it is a pretty grumpy book.

Leseprobe

Contents

Introduction

1 Not voting

2 We don’t talk any more

3 You can’t smoke here

4 Do fish fingers come from a pig?

5 The rise of the NIMBY

6 I am entitled to my opinion

7 Where have all the real men gone?

8 I want to be a celebrity

9 Where am I?

10 Working in hell

11 Senior neglect

Conclusion

Introduction

Among my friends and colleagues this book became fondly referred to as ‘Angry Words’ while it was being written. There are quite a few of them in here, but I hope they are more than just the misanthropic rants from a man hurtling into middle age in a slightly bewildered fashion.

Britain has become a more dumbed-down nation than ever before and this book will hopefully give you an insight as to why I feel this is the situation we currently find ourselves in. I hope you enjoy it.

And please let me take this opportunity to thank you if you are a regular listener to my LBC shows. Sometimes they can be robust, thought-provoking, insightful, bloody and downright frustrating but, let’s face it – the world would be a very dull place if we simply agreed all the time. One thing is for sure: my radio shows would be nothing without my listeners. Thank you for playing a vital part.

1

Not voting

One of the traits of our dumbed-down society is the fact that people do not bother to vote any more. There has been a gradual decline in those turning out to vote in elections over recent decades. Politicians and academics spend many hours trying to work out why and ponder how best to get people to use their vote. The right to vote is a privilege – it is valuable and there are people around the world prepared to die for the simple right to have it. In Britain we treat it with contempt and act as if it is a chore to use it – this stinking attitude needs to change.

The fudge I often hear includes: ‘politicians are all the same’, ‘my vote won’t make any difference’, ‘politics has nothing to do with me’ and ‘it’s my right not to vote’. Let’s take each of these lame excuses and pick them apart. It won’t take long.

Politicians are not ‘all the same’. Of course the expenses scandal left a whiffy cloud lingering over Westminster and the electorate are right to remain suspicious. We trusted our MPs to use their allowances in a fair and honourable way and some abused that trust, but it does not automatically follow that they are all in it for the money or self-interest.

To suggest that all MPs are the same is akin to saying that all teachers sleep with their pupils and every football fan is a thug. It is lazy thinking used by many to justify their reasons for not going to the ballot box. There are hundreds of decent, hardworking and honest MPs who want to do their best for the country.

The deceased union leader Bob Crow was once quoted as saying: ‘Spit on your own and you can’t do anything, but if you all spit together you can drown the bastards.’ Bob, of course, was the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and was often roundly criticised for causing the London Underground to grind to a halt when his union’s members voted for strike action.

Regardless of your political standpoint, his words make absolute sense. The idea that your vote will not make any difference is folly and again is a line used all too often by those looking for a convenient excuse. Your vote does count, it can make a difference.

Two examples spring to mind. In 2001, Richard Taylor stood as an independent parliamentary candidate in Wyre Forest. He was not a typical career politician – he was a doctor who campaigned on the single issue of restoring the Accident and Emergency department at Kidderminster Hospital. The facility had been closed in 2000 due to NHS cuts. Taylor won the election with a whopping majority of around 18,000, beating the incumbent Labour MP. Taylor remained MP for the constituency until 2010.

Martin Bell was the former BBC war reporter who stood as an independent candidate in the Tatton constituency in Cheshire in 1997. The MP at the time was the Conservative minister Neil Hamilton, who was the subject of allegations regarding ‘sleaze’. Bell stood on an ‘anti-sleaze’ platform and won. He overturned a Conservative majority of around 22,000 and became the first successful independent parliamentary candidate since 1951.

One could argue that both these cases partly owe their success to the political mischief of rival parties who were keen to bloody the nose of the incumbent MPs, but it does prove that your vote can count and make a significant difference.

Politics is everywhere. The idea that it does not affect you or has nothing to do with your life is remarkably short-sighted or, perhaps, the view of someone who is a bit dim. It affects each and every one of us. Politics determines the amount of tax we pay, the standard of care we receive from the NHS, how good our children’s education is, the currency we use, and whether or not there are enough houses to live in and jobs to do. And if none of that matters to you, then politics is ultimately responsible for how often your bins get emptied.

Perhaps the worst excuse people give for not voting is that it is their right not to. This view is normally articulated with sneering disgust that someone dare suggest that an individual actually stop complaining and do something positive about their frustrations. If you do not vote, then as far as I am concerned, you have no right to complain.

And rights are the key here. There are still many countries around the world where whole populations do not have the right to vote. They desperately crave democracy but their rulers or dictators refuse to give it. Those that dare speak up or protest for the simple right to vote can often find themselves and their families persecuted.

Right now there are people being kept in horrendous conditions and being tortured because all they want is the right to vote. The contrast is vast: some poor soul is having electrodes attached to their most sensitive parts and being beaten within an inch of their life because they want democracy, while in Britain we have vast chunks of the population that bleat about it being their right not to vote. Perhaps they should swap places?

There is a disconnection between politicians and the electorate, but it is not just down to the political class to change this. It is a two-way street and we all have a part to play.

At the last election, the Electoral Commission worked out there were six million voters missing from the electoral register. These are people that live in Britain who have not even bothered to register to vote. This is on top of the many millions who have registered, but simply choose not to bother to go to the ballot box.

It should be clear to you by now that I see this country’s growing cancer of apathy as an indication of a depressing shift in society that sees many more engaged in and concerned about voting in some naff TV talent show than who runs their country.

And if you think I am making this up, then ponder this: a poll by Cosmopolitan magazine of eighteen- to thirty-year-old women in 2014 found that 3 per cent said they would vote for reality-TV star Joey Essex. Bear in mind this is the man who, on national TV, was actually proud of the fact he needed someone to help him tell the time.

Perhaps the time has come to adopt the Australian approach to voting and make it compulsory. This system sees the individual having to register, attend a polling station and have their name ticked off to show they have turned up and a ballot paper has been put in a box – failure to do this will result in a fine.

There is also an argument to say that it should be made easier to vote. In an age of modern technology it cannot be beyond the wit of man to devise a secure and robust method that would allow the electorate to vote using text messaging or the Internet. As the younger generations seem to have a panic attack when parted from their mobile phones for more than ten minutes, it would be a wise government that developed such a system.

The lack of interest and engagement in politics is a travesty – the same old lame excuses given for not voting simply do not stand up to scrutiny. In many cases our apathetic Britain has only got itself to blame for the state it finds itself in. But is it any wonder when nowadays many people are unable or unwilling to communicate verbally with their fellow human beings?

2

We don’t talk any more