"Betts is to be commended on his careful and insightful elucidation
of the complex and novel sets of dilemnas now facing the British
people at a time of superficial calm masking serious
divisions."--Albion The erosion of British sovereignty, national
identity and culture, the subversion of its history and traditions,
and the demoralization of its institutions and public services, are
a source of increasing unease to many. The process began, Betts
argues, with the end of the colonial empires. Since the beginning
of the last decade, concern about the consequences has been
heightened by global instability. The demise of the Communist
empire, the rise of national independence movements, and the
eruption of long standing and bitter ethno-national conflicts have
resulted in a mass migration of economic refugees and asylum
seekers to Britain and other Western nations. In Britain, public
attitudes are ambivalent. In part this is a consequence of the
promotion of the myth of the multiracial Commonwealth, the regional
devolution of the United Kingdom, and the transition from a
European Economic Union into a politically federalized European
super-state. Britain's national interests have become secondary to
those of the United Nations and an inchoate and unwilling
international community. Influenced by an outmoded UN Convention on
Refugees and the lack of a consistent immigration policy and
failure of those immigration controls that do exist, gradual but
major political, social, and cultural shifts have occurred without
the express consent of the majority of the British electorate.
Virtually all public debate by the government and by politicians on
these issues has been taboo, effectively silenced by fear of being
accused of xenophobia, discrimination, and racism. The result is
cynicism and disenchantment with the political process as a whole.
Betts's objective is to promote responsible and informed discussion
of these issues. In the absence of this, he warns, we risk the
twilight of a harmonious British society, diminished pride in
British institutions and national identity, and competing and
conflicting separatist ethnic, racial, and cultural claims.
Twilight of Britain will be of interest to general readers, those
interested in modern Britain and Europe, as well as sociologists,
political scientists, and philosophers. G. Gordon Betts was
educated in the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, Greenwich,
and Kent at Canterbury. He is a chartered chemical engineer, having
spent his professional career with a major British oil company in
the petrochemical industry.
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