Britannia No Longer Rules the Waves

The piece that follows was published as a column in the Panama City News Herald on October 30th of last year, just prior to the elections. I re-post it here because there are signs that the folks in the UK are getting the message.

Now to the column…

I’ve just returned from an extended business trip to the United Kingdom, a little over 10 years since my first visit. During my travels, several observations were made that are relevant to our country and our next election. Where we stand on the edge overlooking the jagged chalk cliffs of multiculturalism, nanny statist ideals and socialism, our relatives have already stepped over. From the Fabian Socialists, the Unionists and the Communists of the pre and post-WWII era to Maggie Thatcher, Britain has wrestled with how a fading parliamentary empire can confront the political and social changes that modernity poses.

We are facing similar choices in America today.

I saw a significantly different society from only a decade ago. London has always been an international city, but a large segment has become Islamisized, with burkas as prevalent as mini-skirts, Farsi and Arabic as common as West End brogue. A radical Muslim cleric stated openly on the BBC that soon the flag of Islam would fly over both Parliament and the White House. Britain is writhing in the grip of Islamophobia – not that British society hates or resents Muslims, rather it is subjugating itself due to fear of the violence that has become associated with this faith. It has become a society so beaten down that merely giving offense is a crime punishable by incarceration.

I witnessed an intrusive state that had actually declared swim goggles unsafe because the government didn’t believe that the individual could be trusted to maintain their cleanliness. I was forbidden to bring a hot cup of coffee on the bus (even with a top) because I might endanger a fellow rider with hot liquid. There was a primary school headmaster so fearful of running afoul of the health and safety laws, who actually forbade students to play with yo-yo’s without wearing industrial goggles. A place where, thanks to the layers of government bureaucracy, it takes 10 police employees to investigate a simple theft, yet in the larger cities, gangs can roam indiscriminately with little fear of prosecution.

There is also sense of entitlement. I read in The Sunday Times about a family of 9 who were petitioning the government for a new council house (a government provided home) because the £1.5 million, 5 room house north of Hyde Park provided for them was no longer big enough. The galling thing was that he and his wife, aged 47 and 45 had never held a job in their adult lives. These are people who have raised seven children on the public dole, children who know nothing else but life on public support.

Great Britain is no longer “great”. The decline in just 10 years was absolutely terrifying. I saw a country so in contempt of its own history that it is in the process of erasing its identity for fear of giving “offense”, so unsure of the capability of its own people who it is crushing them under the weight of a burgeoning socialist nanny state, a country where a segment of the public has largely given up on success, settled into a defeatist mediocrity and is resentful of anyone who does succeed. I saw a country so lacking in confidence of its rightful role in the world that it is allowing its religion and culture to be destroyed from within. I saw examples of a national health care system that was rationing care, choosing who should live or die – all while being excoriated for rampant malpractice and neglect of its patients. I saw a country so close to the edge of bankruptcy that they were scrapping their flagship aircraft carrier and couldn’t even afford aircraft to station on the others – all this with a top personal income tax rate at 50%, a value added tax rate of 17.5% and various other fees and levies that can drive the effective rates for the upper brackets to 90%.

I saw a once proud people reluctant to fight for themselves and the country of their parentage. A country that has become so lost in illegitimate recriminations of their history, so absorbed in multiculturalism and political correctness, that they have lost their confidence and pride. Without firing a shot, the Islamists, the unions and the Marxists/Socialists in the national government have done what Hitler and the Nazis couldn’t. They have brought a once mighty empire to its knees. England has fallen and Britannia will never rule the waves again.

England’s situation is relevant to us. We should learn from their examples – history is a valid teacher. Look to England if you want to see a picture of America’s potential future. A country that loses pride in its history and confidence in its people, one that bases its intrinsic worth on recriminations and deviant, out of context visions of its accomplishments, will eventually destroy itself.

I’ve been asked by some for advice on candidates and I find myself singularly unqualified to give counsel on such a personal choice. The best that I can do is to say that I will be choosing the candidate that best represents a spirit of self-reliance, self-determination, industry, charity, confidence and pride in this country. I’ll be choosing the candidate who understands that history is a guide to the future, not an anchor preventing movement toward it; the candidate who believes that to survive and prosper, America must be confident in its leadership and not just be one of many.

I’ll be voting for an inspired America, not a dispirited Britain.