The Death Of British Values

[John81]

THE DEATH OF BRITISH VALUES

 

By Shirley Edwards
November 11, 2014
NewsWithViews.com

 

[These are my views as a woman living in England, on how the culture and spirit of my country has changed over 50 years. Why the country does not feel protected or strong any more, how it has lost, and is losing it values and decency, and how we are daily losing our free speech.]

 

Recently, I had the opportunity of visiting the coastal resort of Bournemouth, which is situated on the south coast of England. It had been many years since my last brief visit and I wondered if this once elegant and sophisticated resort had managed to maintain its air of dignity, relaxation, and quiet family values that I had witnessed all that time ago.

 

Walking through the infamous landscaped gardens of the town it did not take long to notice the general decline of society. This beautiful oasis had become tarnished. Where families from all backgrounds once freely strolled in relative safety; an air of danger and darkness now existed around every corner. There was an air of weakness and hopelessness in the atmosphere which people had adapted to. Decent and elderly people out for an afternoon stroll now looked outnumbered and outcast amongst a carnival of souls, with distant eyes and decadent behaviour.

 

Sitting on a bench overlooking the English Channel I also caught sight of the Isle of Wight. The south west side of the island had been estimated to be vanishing at 1 meter per year due to coastal erosion. I wondered how long it took to completely destroy and erode the ‘values’ of a nation, and where did you start on the landscape?

 

More importantly, was it possible to stem and turn back the tide of destruction, after a number of generations have become so demoralized, and re-built into another image?

 

Time and Patience

 

Because of the very OBvious demise of standards in the UK, it had also only been a matter of time before the ideals proudly presented by Prime Minister David Cameron on his view of British-ness, and the upholding of British values, would be exposed for the double speak and standards they were.

 

In the wake of the alleged Trojan Horse infiltration in British classrooms from Islamic extremists, to fighting on line pornography, and insisting Christians should speak up more about their faith; Mr Cameron’s uncompromising pledge on standing up for British-ness has sadly only resulted in a further avalanche, and consequent loss of freedoms. It is something many British citizens have just come to expect.

 

The values which Mr. Cameron speaks of appear to be founded more on political correctness and humanism; a system which is demolishing true freedom by criminalizing, bullying and labelling the simple principles of right and wrong which are found in ‘religion’ as a form of extremism. The tools of Islamist extremism and homosexuality are conveniently and persistently being ‘used’.

Quiet moral standards which once existed have now become ‘The New Terrorist’ creating further divisions in a society which once knew the true meaning of respectfulness and citizenship.

This just isn’t British.

 

Radicalizing Children

 

A small Christian primary school, located in Reading, Berkshire has recently become one of the latest targets attacked on its sound values as a result of the new standards bought in by the Department of Education through the Trojan Horse scandal.

 

Once considered excellent for its promotion of spiritual, moral and social values, Trinity Christian School has now been threatened with the downgrading of its high status, by Ofsted Inspectors. (Office of Standards in Education). Governors from the school have warned that the Trojan Horse rules are stopping them from being a Christian school.

 

A report from the Telegraph reads:

 

“The headmistress, Jean Dandy, says she was told that she must bring in representatives of other faiths to lead assemblies and lessons in order to demonstrate compliance with the new standards.

Staff say they were also told they must provide evidence that the school”.

 

Elsewhere, the National Association of Jewish Orthodox Schools in the UK have recently questioned the ‘hostility’ which had been created by Ofsted inspections after it was reported that Jewish schools had been targeted un-announced, and the children questioned on sex, relationships and lifestyles.

 

It came simultaneously with a school in Luton where an independent Muslim primary school was visited by Ofsted inspectors who privately interviewed young children as young as 9 about their attitudes towards homosexuality. It is reported that the children were questioned alone in the absence of a parent or teacher. Angry parents forced the inspectors to withdraw from their visit after they threatened to remove their children from the school.

 

Likewise, a Catholic school in Bury St Edmunds was recently accused of not teaching its pupils sufficient awareness on the dangers of extremism and radicalization.

 

It can only be assumed that the extremist views in this instance may just refer to the stripping away of tax payer’s money which has been threatened against schools that are found to teach creationism as a scientific fact.

 

From a recent article it is implied that the Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan has said that toddlers in nurseries are also at risk of being taken over by religious extremists. She has announced that toddlers are to be taught fundamental British values in an age appropriate way.

 

Considering the majority of the UK consider themselves to follow a faith, this is a pretty high proportion of tax payer’s money that the education secretary would be threatening to with-hold from tax payers children.

 

Some faith schools, along with only a few churches, and independent thinkers, are now some of the last bastions standing in society. Following the break down of families, and the removal of the fathers in the home, they are at least trying to maintain a sense of right and wrong, to stem off the sexualizing of children.

 

Slavishly giving in to desires are the values which are being promoted and forced through in the British-ness that the government believe in and promote.

 

Returning to the Garden

 

As I retraced my steps through the gardens and pathways of Bournemouth, I thought of the boundaries we sometimes cross ourselves which we mistakenly believe give us freedom, when in reality they only give us pain.

 

A young girl provocatively dressed, danced to a seductive tune, whilst families with young children stood watching. She was paying a high price for earning a few pennies.

 

Men carrying cans of beer, swaggered by. Some were sleeping it off on the expanse of green manicured lawns.

 

Loud aggressive music filled the air, blotting out the sound of truth and peace.

 

As I passed a Millennium monument dedicated to the Light of the World I saw that the name of Jesus Christ engraved into the stone, was being walked across and spat upon.

 

It epitomized a sad reflection of the pledges not kept that was made in this country in 1953 to protect the Christian faith.

 

An Internal Flame

 

Discovering the truth in a distorted world of reality is a very narrow way. The death of British values is an assault on the soul. Good is being called evil and evil is being called good. An uncompromising light inside our being is the only way out. Finding it in a matrix of created confusion will be a gift only given to those who yearn for the truth.

 

How can we reflect that light in a society which is pulling out all the stops to extinguish it, starting with our children?

 

We need to stay on the right path.

 

Sources:

1 - Toddlers at risk of extremism, warns Education Secretary.
2 - Trojan Horse rules stopping us being a Christian school, governors warn.
3 - Jewish schools complain over ‘hostile’ Ofsted inspections.
4 - Catholic school breaches ‘Trojan Horse’ Ofsted rules.
5 - Ofsted abandons inspection of Luton school after homosexuality row.
6 - Christian school 'downgraded for failing to invite an imam to lead assembly'

© 2014 Shirley Edwards - All Rights Reserve

[Alimantado]

A few years a friend of mine died who was a volunteer for a local charity that helped disabled people find employment. My friend had given me the name and contact details of the person he reported to in this charity, in case I should ever need to tell them he was off sick. Given the news I had to impart, I decided a visit to this person would be better than a phone call and so I went to their house and met a lady in her 80s who happened to be both the head and founder of this charity.

 

After giving her the news, in a quiet moment I asked her why she started the charity. She told me that when she was nurse in the 1940s, the attitude to disability was very different to what it is now. Physical and mental disability were considered shameful and people who had disabled children or relatives were expected to keep them indoors and away from others to avoid embarrassment. Accordingly, there was no OBvious aid or services available to disabled people or their relatives/carers and the idea that one might even try to help such people into any form of employment alongside 'normal' people was unthinkable. This lady felt this attitude was very wrong and so she founded the charity my friend had volunteered for.

 

What this lady descibed I've heard from other people too, and it's similar to many accounts I've read or been told about Victorian and early-20th century values that I'd sum up as being 'out of sight out of mind'. If someone did something wrong, or were grieved or unhappy in some way, they needed to keep it quiet, lest it create a scandal. If you're depressed, keep your chin up and put on a good show. Don't tell anyone about it, else you'll burden the person you are telling and embarrass the rest of your family by it coming out. Done something wrong like having a child out of wedlock? Do whatever it takes to cover it up and avoid a scandal.

 

I had another friend who had a sister she didn't know because her mum had had a child out of wedlock when she was 16. She was sent to a convent so no-one would see that she was pregnant, while the family maintained she'd gone for a break with relatives. When the child was born, the nuns took it away immediately. And when my friend's mum got home, she was told never to speak of the episode again, in private or in public. I guess this kind of hush, hush approach explains the mass unmarked graves of infants that have recently been found at convents in Tuam, Galway and elsewhere.

 

And of course there are the seemingly endless number of cases of priests and boarding school teachers abusing and raping children in boarding schools, hushed up at the time to avoid scandalising the prestigious British boarding school tradition.

 

Those kinds of things are the things I think of when I think of traditional British values.

[John81]

The same sort of thing occurred in America but we have to remember this was done partly out of ignorance, partly out of actual shame for sin, and not everyone acted towards those afflicted or related in harsh manner. That's not to excuse everything and everyone, just a bit of perspective.

 

Lack of knowledge or understanding of birth defects, whether physical or mental, played a large factor in the matter. There simply wasn't a lot of medical understanding of such back then and what little was known wasn't known by many. Add to that longstanding teachings from the RCC which was commonly known and which was passed on even among many Christians, and the disabled were often viewed as having some special connection to sin and/or demons. This view cast relatives of the disabled in a bad light as it was considered possible their sin or connection to a demon might have something to do with the person being disabled. Ignorance and false information leads to many superstitions and worse.

 

The handling of women/girls found to be pregnant outside marriage or having babies outside marriage was founded upon shame of sin and fear of God. Unfortunately, once again due to much ignorance on the subject and influential RCC teachings that was commonly known, the response to these matters sometimes were taken to wrong, sometimes even sinful extremes.

 

Even so, these things weren't the core of English or American values, and we have to remember that whether the 1800s or early 1900s, while the English and American societies had a "Christian" foundation, most people were only secular Christians, not born again Christians. We can't really expect the lost, even with a measure of Christian covering, to walk as Christ did.

 

While in some regards and in some areas of our countries (England and America) there once was more civility and respect, we do have a tendency to idealize the past as compared to today. For all the good at any time in our nations, there was always bad too. Areas of London and New York City were riddled with crime, vice and violence even in the "good 'ol days".

 

I look back at my own childhood and youth time and wish today was much more like that then. However, if I look at what things were like back then in other parts of the country, many wouldn't want to return to that. So, in some cases, it's a matter of perspective, individual experience and the "happenstance" of location, time, status, etc.

 

In any event, I don't believe the lady in the article is in any way calling for a return to all things past, but simply reflecting upon the loss of civility and safety that she once knew in part of England that's no longer there.