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In midsummer thoughts usually turn to holidays in the sun, ice cold drinks by the pool, children celebrate 'freedom', students return home or go off on worldly adventures.
This year of course, things are different, but in Britain we have more challenges than a novel virus...
This year of course, things are different, but in Britain we have more challenges than a novel virus...
Spin the clock back to my parents' generation who in summer sunshine watched Spitfires in the sky fighting a deadly battle to prevent fascists invade Britain. *Actual* fascists who would gas Jewish people in their thousands in savagery we can now barely comprehend. In Europe.
"How does such ancient history affect us?" Ask today's Instagram generation, pimples airbrushed, competing in their own (sometimes sadly fatal) Facebook battles of egos and self-doubt.
When instant response is all, what happened 30 minutes ago is cyberspace chip wrapping.
When instant response is all, what happened 30 minutes ago is cyberspace chip wrapping.
Britain saw immense turmoil over decades from miners' strikes/ 3 day week, de-industrialisation, the Thatcher years, Falklands war, IRA bombings, ending Cold War, Blair's Iraq, 2008 recession. To many millennials and Gen Z, these are 'Boomer' concerns, irrelevant today.
But that Britain has come through all that, creating a more liberalised society in the process should imo be celebrated by Universities, schools and the media. The rights of women, gay people and BAME people have been enshrined in our laws. To all our advantages.
In 2020 more can be done, that's what politics is for. True, the Boomers have been profligate with the wealth they created but the generation that promoted tolerance and worked its wotsits off created the relative comforts of today's Britain. Let's build on that, not trash it.
Brexit, climate change, coronavirus, now BLM have all been used as vehicles for attempted societal division by divisive extremists. From Marxists to anarchists to the far right & left, race haters to Scottish Nationalists, they seek to destroy our tolerant UK. Media egg them on.
This midsummer above others we need to stop dividing, be resolute in building on Britain's successes, rediscover our best side. Urgently emerge from the Lockdown, protect jobs, businesses and health. Give the Millennials and Gen Zs purpose. Marginalise the extremes.
Be Britain.
Be Britain.
