The fundamental question isn’t whether the country is broken or not. Society is the real issue.
As there are very few people in this country who can’t find something to moan about in their life, also true of government.
We are all aware that for the next 10 years or more a large amount of fiscal belt tightening is going to be required and the effects of this will probably be felt for a generation.
So who’s to blame?
There are many who would blame the government and banks for getting us into this mess but in reality it is our own innate greed and apathy that has been the downfall of this country.
With regard to greed, every one of us wants the best deal we can get on everything we buy and in a free market society the banks and card companies are no different to your High St stores, offering wondrous deals on their products and consequently we dutifully go along and take them.
Let’s be honest when things were good no one cared about banking profits, now things are sour lets all jump on the same bandwagon and form a lynch mob. True the government of the day, whoever it maybe (as this will happen again) should have seen this coming but had they tried to legislate against or cap the publics capacity to borrow we would have all complained about interfering.
With regard to apathy, we as a people seem to find it difficult to say no to anything thrown at us by the government we put into place.
Very occasionally the people of the country will get up in arms about an issue and on occasion win a small victory. The petrol protest of a few years ago is a good example. The whole country up in arms at the rising cost of fuel and we won. No we didn’t, we had a very short term reprieve and once the furore was over prices kept rising and not a ripple.
We as a nation have very much become a “lie on your back and think of England* country.
How many people do you know have views on contentious issues such as immigration, anti social behaviour, the NHS, employment, smoking in public places and rising travel costs. How many of those people are then prepared to openly discuss them, not many I’ll bet, for fear of coming across as bigoted, racist or populist.
This is the reason this country is broken. A country built on the ethic of freedom of speech and the right to express which has been gagged. This is true for the political parties as well as the individuals and until such time as the laws that govern us are loosened and the politically correct unelected bureaucrats accept we have an opinion which deserves to heard the wheel will remain well and truly of the wagon.
