The Britain we all knew is fast disappearing
Age-old social and cultural norms are being upended at breakneck speed - leaving many bewildered and disorientated
Every now and then a story pops up in the media which reminds us that our nation is being altered in very fundamental ways, and that age-old social and cultural norms are being upended at breakneck speed. I have no doubt that these radical shifts leave a large chunk of the populace feeling a sense of disorientation and bewilderment, not from some kind of misplaced nostalgia – the abandonment of some customs and traditions has undoubtedly been to the good – but simply from a perception that our country is being fast wrenched from its ancient moorings and in a way that makes it increasingly unrecognisable to many.
This week, we got two such stories for the price of one. First, we learned that, in Uxbridge, west London, a group of Christian street preachers had been surrounded by police officers and threatened with arrest for telling passers-by that, even if they were drunks, liars, prostitutes or homosexuals, God would grant them everlasting life if they believed in Him.
According to the officers, the preachers had potentially committed all manner of sins: public order offences, hate crimes, homophobia, causing alarm or distress in a public space, and whatever else.
Footage of the incident showed one officer insisting of a preacher, ‘Provide me your name now, or you will be arrested. You can spend the night in a cell and we can do it that way.’
In the end, the preachers relented, packed up their gear, and left the scene.
I’m not necessarily attacking the officers here. In fact, given the extensive (and sinister) reach of modern law on all these issues, as well as the increasing willingness of police bosses to apply it in as liberal a manner as possible, it is arguable that they had little option but to confront the preachers in the way they did.
Time was when society, and the police, would see street preachers, including those proselytising the more uncompromising versions of their faith, as mostly harmless, with passers-by either ignoring them completely or regarding them as the eccentrics they often were. Nowadays, any Christian preacher brave enough to recite the spicier passages from the good book is practically inviting a response from the local constabulary – usually, as in the aforementioned Uxbridge case, as a result of someone in earshot having taken offence and called 999.
I do wish we could be more grown up about these things. Whether we like it or not, some people, including many who are not evangelical Christian street preachers, consider homosexual acts to be wrong. Such individuals will often hold no antipathy towards homosexuals personally; they just don’t approve of what they do.
We don’t have to agree with such people, of course; but as long as they are not directly inciting violence or law-breaking when doing so, I think they have every right to express their view. I also think that others have every right to argue with them.
Yet increasingly we are seeing the law stamping on people’s freedom to even debate these matters, let alone preach about them.
It is also noticeable that the heavy-handedness sometimes directed towards Christians is not replicated when it comes to other faiths. Witness, for instance, the incident last year in Wakefield, west Yorkshire, which saw angry protests by Muslims after a schoolboy was alleged to have scuffed a copy of the Koran. The schoolboy and his family were forced into hiding. Eventually, the boy’s mother appeared, looking anxious and fearful, alongside a senior police officer at a tense meeting in a mosque (the audience was apparently made up exclusively of men). Instead of telling the fundamentalists where to get off, the officer – a chief inspector, no less – appeared to do everything he could to indulge them. It seemed a straightforward example of authority kow-towing to strident voices not because those voices were right but because they were threatening. Perhaps, in the end, Christians are just a bit too meek.
Which brings me to the second story that caught my eye this week. The Daily Telegraph reported that the Army had told soldiers to avoid incorporating ‘Christian elements’ into Acts of Remembrance on Armistice Day. Guidance issued by Army chiefs states, ‘Acts of Remembrance, on Armistice Day and others, should be inclusive and seek to avoid being conducted as a wholly religious event.’ It goes on, ‘Acts of Remembrance should be agnostic of religious elements and separated from Remembrance Services. This may be achieved by holding a religious service after the Act of Remembrance.’
What is there to say about this except that it is another depressing example of how the elites across our public and corporate institutions have become so obsessed with promoting ‘inclusivity’ at every turn that they have, in many cases, utterly lost sight of how fringe and exclusionary their ideas and decisions are seen by others?
One doesn’t have to be a practicing Christian (I’m not) to recognise that Christianity is so deeply ingrained in our history and culture – influencing not just our moral code, but our landscape, architecture, music, laws, and so on – that it is a core part of what we are as a nation.
It also happens to be deeply intertwined with the history and culture of the Army itself, from its place within Acts of Remembrance (well, until now, at least) to the crosses that appear on the headstones marking the Commonwealth war graves of fallen soldiers, to the provision of chaplains, and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and its explicitly Christian inscriptions in Westminster Abbey. Interestingly, data published by the Ministry of Defence in 2018 showed that the percentage of Christians in the Army was notably higher (at 69%) than it was for the general population (51%).
Now, some people may hate all this and want to change it. And, between them, they may possess a number of different motivations for wishing to do so (they may be committed atheists or secularists, for example). But it strikes me that the least meritorious of those reasons is the desire to avoid causing ‘offence’ to people who belong to other faiths or have no faith.
After all, where does that approach end? Does the desire to make everyone feel ‘included’ mean that a nation should suppress any expression or display of its own dominant culture and identity while showing itself ever willing to promote those of others? That certainly seems to be the mindset adopted by the British elites. I am reminded of George Orwell’s observation that ‘England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality.’ That seems even more true today than it was then.
I cannot help but feel that, under the stewardship of these elites, the well-meaning objective of eradicating prejudice against minority groups has transmuted into an all-consuming monster that won’t be satisfied until every aspect of British history and culture is, if not erased, then at least demoted to such a degree that these things are afforded no greater place in our national life than any other history or culture.
This, I’m sorry to say, is where these people seem to be leading us to. And they call us the culture warriors.
If you happen to be in the Norwich area on Sunday, do feel free to come along to a talk I am giving to the New Culture Forum on the themes in my 2020 book, Despised: why the modern Left loathes the working class. Details available by emailing: Locals@NewCultureForum.org.uk
I appeared in my regular slot as a panellist on GB News’s Dewbs & Co last Friday. The programme can be watched again here.
A reminder that you can follow me on X/Twitter: @PaulEmbery
I live in Hungary but read a lot about what's going on in the U. K. It's very depressing. Right now I'm visiting my home town in the South West. I'm told the NHS is breaking down. My 80 year old mum fell and broke her shoulder 2 years ago. She called the ambulance around 9pm and managed to crawl into a chair to wait for the ambulance. They turned up the next morning around 5am. I'm also told it's not safe to go out at night. I feel that when you cannot rely on the health system or a sense of safety and security things will only get worse. The feeling I get when I return to the UK is that we've lost our way, our culture, and our soul. And a sense of unity and cohesion. Hungary hasn't lost that and it makes a huge difference to society.
Some years ago, I was a police inspector in charge of a high profile area of Central London frequented by millions of tourists and known for its street performances. I won’t name it but it is very well known. It has a high density of Gay premises. Now, I am also a practising Roman Catholic. There were a group of supposedly evangelical Christian preachers who frequented the area. Their preaching was solely aimed at the gay community, it covered nobody and nothing else. The group concerned had frequented other areas too. So far as I am concerned, this was an excuse to “have-a-go” at a section of the population, not a genuine attempt to spread the message of Christianity, but that is purely my opinion.
A PC on my team received a number of complaints when he was out on foot patrol (that should tell you how long ago that was!😂) he had complaints from a number of people who were gay, claiming that they were insulted, and a number from who claimed they were Christians and were insulted by the preaching because it was so far removed from what they thought the message of the faith was. Unusually the complainants made statements AND went to court subsequently.
The ‘preachers’ were warned about continuing but did so and were arrested. They had their day out in court. The stipendiary magistrate ruled that they had NOT committed the offence. There are stated cases on it, so I am surprised at police actions here.
Ultimately police are subject to scrutiny by the courts, senior officers, IOPC and the press. That’s more accountability than any other organisation. Officers are put in an invidious position often and have to use their judgement and training to decide what they should do. Of course, the milieu in which they grew up will also have an effect. The average PC these days is a lot less right wing than when I joined in 1986 as one of ‘Thatcher’s boot boys’ as we were called so often, and with some justification to be honest! (I have been on a journey since then to be here reading your substack!) Police are denied basic industrial rights like union membership and the right to strike (something you may want to look at and consider for a future article perhaps, Paul, as it’s in my opinion an anomaly in this day and age when the other emergency services have both?) and their disciplinary system is biased and draconian.
At the same time an anti-abortion protestor WAS convicted for distributing leaflets that graphically showed the results of the procedure. In the 1960s popular opinion was anti abortion and anti-homosexual. Generally to take those views today is to invite vocal challenge.
Years ago the local authority at Croydon, I think, unilaterally removed the cross from the local crematorium roof as it might be offensive to other faiths. A paper surveyed faith leaders in the area and found not one was bothered by the cross. Only secular humanists of the Council weee offended and were seeking to remove religion from the public space generally. Look at the membership numbers of Humanists UK and the National Secular Society. They are relatively tiny, compared with those who espouse some form of faith. Then look at who is in the ‘celebrity supporters’ section of Humanists UK. Their influence is disproportionate and in my view it is them rather than anyone with a non-Christian belief who are driving this agenda.
Great article and thanks again.