"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.
General
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