A Collection of Writings
Ingrid Pitt Says...
If there is one thing the Brits do well, it is a good cock-up. At the moment, everyone is sniggering at the spectacle of England's gateway to the world being in a state of melt-down. And it still surprises us. After the pratfalls of the Dome, the wonky bridge across the Thames, English football and cricket teams and the Government's handling of the Northern Rock crisis, you would have thought we would be immune to the embarrassment of what is happening at Heathrow.
Heathrow has always been special to me. It was from Heathrow that I discovered England. This was the England of the Sixties - and a very special time. The British had survived the aftermath of the Second World War, embraced and enveloped the Rock and Roll culture and become the music and fashion centre of the world. Only a decade earlier London had been a soot blackened city with annual fogs/smogs which killed off thousands. Now it was a clean, vibrant town of eternal sunshine and excitement. And that was without embracing the 'Hippie' tenets of drugs, sex and bad hair cuts. If ever there was a 'Free' city - London was it. It was what made me fall in love with it on sight and become British.
Over the years London, and Britain as a whole, have changed. The fun has gone. Progressive Governments have strangled the enthusiasm and entrepreneurial skill that the mood of the time brought to everything. Now everything is valued in cash. But it is not entirely the fault of rampant governments trying to control the populace with petty laws, enforced by ever growing gangs of departmental heavies, which has squeezed the juice from the present generation. The blame, to a large extent, can be traced back to the halcyon days of the Sixties and the decades which followed. Free Love, a growing dependency on drugs, Dr. Spock and his theory that if children were left to grow up without discipline they would become model, if free thinking, citizens, all played their part. Those cosseted and undisciplined children grew up to be the parents of today. The School teachers, Councillors, Members of Parliament and Policeman. Discipline is regarded as abuse. Firmness - unloving and guidance interference. Children, without a firm fatherly hand or a loving motherly guidance, are insecure and look to their peers for what they need. Over the years the politicians have tried, fruitlessly, to tame the youth of the day. Without notable success. In other times these youngsters would have had patriotic wars to fight, social difficulties and differences to meet and overcome. This option has, more or less, been taken away and in its place are government targets and a reckless disregard of the underlying problems of eternally feckless youth. Parents are now forced to bring up their children by decree, Teachers dare not touch the children they are supposed to tutor in case they are branded either a paedophile or an abuser. Police can no longer give an errant youngster a clip around the ear and invoke a respect for the law. Judges now believe that by handing down derisory sentences those arrested for malpractice, of whatever hue, will be set on the straight and narrow by a cosy little chat and a warning. Despite evidence to the opposite. The case of a woman arrested 175 times for shoplifting and being let off for a further offence is a suitable marker. Meanwhile the country is overrun with immigrants who have no love or respect for the country of their choice while the Gurkhas, who have a long an honourable connection with us, are hounded out of the country and refused the right to live here. Politicians, caught out fiddling their expenses or lying to the electorate, refuse to fall on their sword and are rarely called upon to resign. Few Members of Parliament seem to understand that they have the job handed to them by the electorate to look after the people's interest. When they beg for the job they put themselves forward as men and women of integrity whose only wish is to serve those who gave them the honour. Once they have the reins in their hands they seem to spend the majority of their time creating 'photo-opportunities' or 'voting with their conscience' - regardless of the electoral promises made.
Britain has weathered these crises before - and I am sure will do so in the future. The problem is - how far in the future? Throughout history, a man or women has stepped forward at the right time and grabbed the country by the throat and forced the people into making the right choices, like it or not. King Alfred, King Henry Vlll, Elizabeth 1, Oliver Cromwell, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher etc. These are leaders. They did not have an overpowering need to be popular. They had a vision, convinced a clique of like minded reformers that they were right and stood by their decisions when things got tough.
Now politicians want to be loved. They grab any passing trend and strangle it to death. Judges read up on the minutiae of the Law and make decisions which let them sleep at night, regardless of the signals they send to the miscreants. Lawmakers pass fatuous laws about sweet talking a barmaid and let pestilential Priests preach anarchy on the streets of our cities. Teenagers skulk around and when questioned mumble that they have nothing to do. Nothing to do? There are a million things to do. What they are saying is that they have grown up with such a dependency on others to sort out their problems that they are frightened to break the mould and find things to do themselves.
Who's to blame for the present state of the world - and Britain in particular? It is easy to blame the politicians, but they are victims of their environment themselves. Teachers likewise. And in addition hamstrung by the politicians and their spawn themselves. It's easy to put the blame on the police. But is it fair to do so? The average policeman is a product of the home and the teachers. He works in an atmosphere of peril and lawlessness. He is expected to protect but is weighed down with Government instruments thought up to make the politicians look good. It is not the quality of the arrests that matters - but the quantity. That's why motorists get such a hard time. I was told by a friend, who happens to be a serving policeman, that practically any motorist at any time, in any circumstances and with any car, can help to hit the targets laid down for the law enforcers.
So what can be done. No idea! But I do know it has got to start with Respect. Not the reverse of 'Dissing' which is a tinder box on the streets. Real respect. For parents. For children. For each other. I think, by inclination, I am an Atheist. But an Atheist with a lot of respect for what Jesus had to say. Even if Jesus was only an extraordinary human being. If what he taught has been misreported, misinterpreted, misconstrued and misunderstood by everyone for two millennia, there is still that startling insight into how to make the world a better place. 'Love they neighbour as thyself' and 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. At least it's a starting point.