Not London, Londonistan (RC)

They don’t call it “Londonistan” for nothing.  The fact is that the England of the past is gone. The UK is no longer the land of Winston Churchill at war’s weary end in 1945. (Remember that the first act of gratitude of the English people toward the prime minister who saved their collective bacon was to turn him out of office.)

The UK is just another bloated welfare state and it cleaves desperately to its tourist-appeal affectations: quaint palace guards in bearskin toppers, two-tiered buses and charming red phone booths, while sham-nobility and titles are conferred on mincing rock stars and soccer players –sir this and lord that; a country whose criminal judges still sport powdered wigs while crime threatens to plow the citizens under. Oh, but the lovely hedgerows still meander the countryside.

The symbol to the world of a tough, modest, resolute, un-complaining, gentlemanly, upper-lip stiffened people is gone, kaput, and there are now only small pockets of those qualities still in existence. I find them occasionally among friends when I visit, and when they are good they are great. But, the Labor party and its Fleet Street friends are right now working to stamp out those pockets of un-PC thinking, to grind them into the carpet of history, killed as dead as colonialism.

Comments

[John Tallon]

What a laugh. OK, I'll rise to the bait, I'll bite. The England Richard Carlson describes exists only in his head. As I recall, thievery was at it's height during the blackouts of WWII and there were no 'foreigners' around then. Oh, by the way, red phones booths disappeared more than a two decades ago, except in the more rural areas, when disaffected whites kept vandalising them. My parents, both foreigners, were welcomed by a country famed for its open door policy stretching all the way back to the Hugenots. The sooner the pockets of sentimentality harking for a past that never exised go, the better.
Other points about Churchill and the "bloated" welfare system are not even worth commenting about except to say that this country far prefers to see access to healthcare as a right that should not be dependent on the ability to pay. Governments exist to protect the citizens, not to enrich the elite. Many of us are uncomfortable about the feral form of capitalsim favoured in the US which seems happy to write off a sizeable proportion of the population as beyond help. Katrina obviously did not bring in the required humility. It's ironic too, as the US depends heavily on the poorer elements in its society to provide its soldiers, ready to die for a country which seems to have otherwise turned its back on them.
And who is "they" that call it Londonistan? I live near Edgware Road and its a vibrant area in which I never feel threantened.
I would be happy to extend an invitation to Mr Carlson next time he comes to visit. Perhaps exposure to the 'unknown' will mitigate some of the fear that seems to cloud Mr Carlson's view of England. It's quite clear that the rest of the world is not unique in branding entire countries for the 'reported' actions of a minority. If some in the world are anti-American and think the place is full of Texan red neck hicks based on very little information, it seems Mr Carlson is happy to join that particular band-wagon.
I would be happy to trade opinions with Mr Carlson, should he feel so inclined.

Yours sincerely,

John Tallon

[justaguy]

Yep, silly indeed. Melanie Phillips and her Daily Mail co-twits have a lot to answer for. (Shakes head)