Weekly Opinions
The decline of Britain’s white
working class
|
This is our objective summary of Simon
Heffer’s article on the decline of the white
working class published in the Daily Mail Newspaper.
|
It was the
suggestion from the Universities minister, David Willetts, earlier this year, that
poor white pupils often from deprived backgrounds should be treated as a
disadvantaged ethnic minority when it comes to university admissions that
prompted that article from Simon Heffer.
What became of our white working class could not be better narrated than
what Mr. Heffer said an eminent Cambridge professor once told him; that the
white working class went from being ‘the salt of the earth to the scum of the
earth in just two generations’. He
blamed the State for that tragic decline.
The slant of
Simon Heffer’s argument was that poor white pupils should not be made to need a
‘leg-up’ on the education ladder if the government and all other people in
position of authority did their work properly.
Successive Labour and Tory governments were blamed for the fall in the
quality of education and the decline of our great grammar school
tradition. Blames for widespread welfare
dependency and millions of poor families living in ghettos of squalid tower
blocks was similarly apportioned too.
Trade unions
were not spared the blame either, the irresponsible conduct of many union
leaders for promoting unrealistic expectations and inciting their members into
trouble making was cited as contributing to our overall ills. The combined effect of all these national failings
is to give the impression, in the words of the author, ‘rightly or wrongly’
that increased immigration drives some poor white working class into the
embrace of the British National Party, BNP.
A rare
praise was reserved for Jon Cruddas for being honest enough to admit that some
of the Labour Party’s policies when in government alienated many of its natural
constituencies. In his conclusion, the author recommends a drastic scaling down
of the size of the State and an equally massive enlargement of the private
sector in order to enhance job creation throughout the country and save our
economy and, who knows, probably redeem the declining white working class too.
Editor’s COMMENT:
Simon
Heffer’s article has implications beyond the fortunes of the white working
class, unfortunately most of the problems uncovered blights many poors, both
whites and non-whites. But the core of
the massage remains unshakably true: That the legacy of those ordinary folks
who gave all for King and Country is fast vanishing. Before the 2nd World war, there
were hardly any council flats, no welfare payments and no NHS yet; the men and
women of that generation excelled both in their enterprise, dedication and
conduct. [Patrick Chike]
***To read
the entire article by Simon Heffer, go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257325/Britains-families-breaking-point-They-deserve-better-trite-gimmicks.html
