The demoralisation of the white working class since 1960

Robert Henderson

British life pre-1960s.

It is important not to be sentimental about life before
1960.
Britain was far from being a peaceful society before the 1960s.
Industrial relations were permanently and seriously fraught from the
Eighteenth century onwards, long before nationalisation and the
welfare state. Much crime went violent unreported because working
class communities refused to report it. Vicious fights regularly took
place in places such as the docks and the mines but rarely came
to
the official notice of the police. There was considerable football
hooliganism. Until the Irish Free State was founded, Irish nationalism
was a constant running sore. Violent criminal gangs controlled places
such as the Elephant and Castle and Brighton.

British education until after the war (and the Butler Act's
implementation) was seriously flawed, with most children leaving
school at 14 with only a primary education - only those who
committed
themselves to staying until 16 received what might be
considered
a proper secondary curriculum, the others . The general standard of
education was not high, although unlike now, the educated elite were
well educated. Now even the supposed elite are only half-educated at
best.

Notwithstanding these shortcomings, working class society
was
much more coherent than it is today. This is because there were potent
support mechanisms of the working class. These were:

1. Unions, especially in their welfare role.

2. Co-Operative Societies - Harrods for the working class.

3. Homogeneous workingclass communities which
mutually
supported their members.

4. Large scale manual employment for the working class.

These support mechanisms have been destroyed by:

- Anti-union legislation.

- Slum clearance which destroyed working
class
communities and incidentally weakened both the unions and
co-operative movement.

- The wholesale destruction of manual jobs through
manic
commitment to free trade.

Both major parties share the blame

Both Labour and Tory parties share the blame for
the
destruction of these workingclass institutions, but the Tory Party
must
share a greater share of the blame because they were solely
responsible for making a God of laizez faire economics. This
resulted
in the greatest blow to workingclass moral decline because
unemployment, especially in areas of structural unemployment, is
socially disorientating, both for adults and the children who see
them
unemployed for long periods and come to think that welfare is a way
of
life.

Education

Had the natural sources of workingclass employment not
been
largely destroyed, the disaster of comprehensive education would
not
be so dire because the workingclass would still have been employed
in secure jobs. Instead, millions are unemployed (admitted or
disguised as ill or retired early) or in insecure and ill-paid jobs,
and are left without the intellectual resources to make sense of the
world in which they find themselves. *

Selfishness made respectable

The demoralisation of society generally was pressed
forward
by Thatcher and her successors. Her great sin was to make
selfishness
respectable. "Greed is good" said Gordon Gecko in Wall Street and it
was
not far from the Thatcherite creed.

Immigration

The final nail in the coffin was mass immigration and
the
platform this gave for the development of political correctness
and the removal from the indigenous population, and especially the
English, their right to patriotism, something always very important to
workingclass self-respect. .

Conclusion

In short, no political party has clean hands. This is not
a
simple welfare state, socialist-engineered societal failure.
--
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Robert Henderson
Blair Scandal website:  http://www.geocities.com/blairscandal/
Personal website:  http://www.anywhere.demon.co.uk