Britain: The Mighty Have Fallen

Britain came from humble beginnings as the home of Celtic and Norse tribes inhabiting the islands off the north west coast of Gaul. It was invaded by the Romans, then then Normans, then united under a single kingdom. It became the largest and most powerful empire the world has ever known controlling territories from Canada to India, to Hong Kong, and many points in between. It was the victor in the first world war against mighty central European powers. In the Second World War it fended off the mighty German Luftwaffe single-handedly and outnumbered three to one. The British revolutionized trade, ushered in the age of steam, changed the way ships navigate, built the most powerful navy in the world. They invented television, the type writer, the world wide web, the MRI, the hot blast furnace, cloning, and the jet engine, football (soccer) among other things. Alas how the mighty have fallen. One could argue that Britain ever did fully recover from the ravages of World War Two. That's what brought many Brits to the colonies during the 1950s; including my own family. While the nation recovered economically, it has suffered serious social and political decay during the recent decades.

London's Sunday Times reported this week that convicted Lockerbie bomber Megrahi was set free due to a secret oil deal made between the UK and Libyan governments as part of a prisoner transfer program. An exchange of letters between UK justice secretary Jack Straw and his Scottish counterpart Kenny MacAskill detailed the plan. The government had originally opposed including Megrahi as part of the prisoner transfer in 2007 but later that year turned their position to include any Libyans the government was currently holding. Allegedly, the decision was made after negotiations between the Libyan government and British Petroleum, for a multi-million pound oil exploration deal, stalled. This contradicts the governments claims that it had no involvement in Megrahi's release. It also contradicts Scottish claims that he was released purely on compassionate grounds.

This is just the latest in a string of scandals that have plagued Gordon Brown's embattled Labour government. The corruption allegations involving the UK Parliament makes Canadian Parliament look comatose, and turns Obama's health care debate into the cure for insomnia! MPs from all parties have been accused of stealing money from government coffers. Labour's environmental plans have arguable run Britain's economy into the ground. Social problems have also exploded. Banning handguns did nothing to solve the country's high rates of violent crime. It is said that any given night, young adults can be seen passed out in the street from binge drinking. Many feel that the country is now controlled entirely by Muslim-Arab interests. The government has further adopted an increasingly nanny-statist view on the public, and keeps watchful eye on them through thousands of CCTV cameras. Orwell must be turning in his grave. So far the reaction to this has been blasé. Brits have reacted angrily to the scandals and social problems but looking from the outside in, there seems to be a lack of political will for change. The difference with the Lockerbie scandal is that it attracted international scorn. However, even if the Conservatives or another party gets in, will they really go through the effort of making the drastic changes needed to get the nation back on it's feet? They face insurmountable odds and risk political suicide doing so. If there's one problem with democracy, it's finding someone who will throw caution to the wind and do what needs to be done. Churchills and Thatchers are a rare breed though.

The UK parliament is running a vary real risk of evoking a crisis of legitimacy. Far more serious than when Stephane Dion wanted to circumvent democracy here. No, rather due to the corruption across the political spectrum, people will simply believe that no party represents them. This of course breeds radicalism. Note the increasingly worrying militant nature of Britain's young, middle and upper class Muslim males. The Underground bombings of 2005 were a home grown attack. Perhaps if this were a one-off, we could dismiss it but many more such attacks have been foiled recently. Simply put, social problems and government corruption can merge together to create a ticking time bomb. This means more race riots as in Bradford in the late 90s, and a possible return of violence not seen since the end of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. That is if things aren't brought under control soon. Brown's government has to fall as even die hard social democrats will agree that the party, and by proxy the country, has taken a huge wrong turn since at least Tony Blair's resignation. Britain is falling. The question is whether the empire will choose to die with a whimper or come out fighting with that classic stiff upper lip.