The UK has a long and influential history. It has indeed played a huge part in world history, and been a force for both good and evil. But the party is over; it is time for me, and the wider family, to look for pastures new.
One of the defining moments in the history of the UK was the issuance of Magna Carta in June 1215, which put into law the idea that the king and his parliament should not be above the law.
Many of the institutions that are destined to enjoy greatness for a season begin in the same way. A charismatic leader arises and draws a band of followers. He (or she) is a leader in the truest sense of the word. He has a grand vision for a better world that is based on principles that are easily understood. These principles resonate within his followers, filling them with hope for a better, more equitable, more just world. His followers are strengthened by his words. They internalised them. They write them down in books for posterity to read centuries later. They go into the world and spread his vision. This process forms new religions. It forms new governments. It often forms charitable institutions and institutions of learning. Sometimes, it even forms companies.
But, circumstances inevitably change. The charismatic leader leaves. Often he is pushed out when his promises fail to materialise. Others rush in to try to fill his shoes. They usually fail miserably. They fail because not everything can be transmitted by mere words. They lack understanding and vision. As the years, decades, or centuries pass, the arteries of the institution gradually harden. Rules become rigid. Principles transform into dogmas. Eventually, the new leaders are replaced by others devoid of any shred of the original leader's charisma, vision, or conviction. These men care about nothing more than money and power. They are empty suits--businessmen, politicians, and lawyers - whose only goal is to keep the institution alive a little longer so they can cash in on the dregs of hope possessed by the naïve followers who still remain.
At this point, the institution for which the original leader may have fought and died, has become a dead husk of its former self. Sooner or later, its leadership slip up, unwittingly pulling back the cloak to reveal the meatless ribs of the now lifeless corpse. When this happens, the last followers desert, the institution collapses, and it is entombed in the graveyard among the bodies of the institutions which came before. There, it is forgotten, except by scholars who are paid to remember esoteric history.
The United Kingdom feels, in many ways, to be following this kind of a trajectory. It has a rich and long history - I recently taught about it in my Culture of English Speaking Countries" class which I am currently teaching here at Shanxi Normal University (other included countries are the Irish Republic or EIRE, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and finally, Canada- not a complete list, but there are certainly too many to include them all). The UK has been truly influential to world history. The fact that football is worldwide (American Football developed from another British sport, Rugby), railways span six continents, and English is the most spoken language worldwide, all, among plenty of other examples, bear testimony to this.
But now the UK of today feels like a car boot sale when all the good things are sold, it is starting to rain, and everyone is hurriedly packing up to leave. In my view, a country which cannot even house people is a failed state (we have a severe housing crisis), prices are extortionate (20 years ago nobody had even heard of food banks, now there is one in every town), and public services seem to provide worse value for money every year given the extreme, and ever increasing, tax burden. So how do people traffickers' get away with selling a pack of lies to the desperate when there are such glaringly obvious problems?
For that matter, why am I planning to join my new partner in South Africa rather than even thinking of bringing her to the UK, once my current contract in China finishes? Well, just for one thing, her monthly rent for a house (yes, a house!) is R3500 - 3500 Rand (ZAR) or about £150 GBP. Same in the UK? Add a zero - or more! You couldn't hire a skip in the UK for this amount. A financial no-brainer, perhaps.
My mother is currently burning up my (and more importantly, my children's!) inheritance to the tune of over £3500 per month. At least my father's half is protected due to the way the will was drafted. Do I really need to explain why I feel that the family is in desperate need of seeking pastures new? Take, as yet another example, the average graduate debt which is now £50000 - and counting, whilst a degree no longer stands you out as being in any way special these days? All this before you even start earning - if you can even manage to get a graduate job! Forget owning your own home - unless you emigrate, of course. House prices are, nowadays - beyond the means of normal people. And if, in your old age, you go into social care, you stand to lose the lot anyhow. Don't bother to get ensnared by the 'Responsible Behaviour Scam' - documented in another article on my Gemini site?
Naturally, I am to make my enquiries with regard to living and working - legally - as a British citizen living in South Africa, until the plan which my business partner, James, is working on, comes to fruition. He is making arrangements to establish a private school in Nigeria. I am to play a leading role in teaching. Of course, a private school means that parents will be paying for the privilege, and I want to ensure that their sons and daughters will get an education to prove it.
It is quite simply wrong to believe that the UK is a meritocracy as is often touted. A meritocracy is a society in which people are appointed simply according to merit. That is simply not the case. For being of an age at which I can remember all developments since the 1970s, I can say to those naïve and tragicomic people who believe such a fallacy - just use your eyes and enguage your brain. If anyone were to ask me what is my most enduring memory of the 1980s, it would not be BMX bikes, the Rubik Cube or the Sinclair Spectrum - but the grinding, grating voice of Margaret thatcher on the news every night. I remember all those things she did to further her personal vision of social darwinism. The inequality she promoted, the poll tax and the long term consequences, including the housing crisis, ever increasing costs of living, ever increasing rents and home ownership becoming ever more elitist. For people who have such a skewed perception of reality - the UK is no meritocracy, but a plutocracy. As the patron saint of inequality would have wished. A dog-eat-dog 'society' run by the wealthy for the benefit of the wealthy. And do not let any of the elite tell you otherwise. See with your own eyes and believe what your brain interprets.
I have written, in some depth, in other articles, why I shun the UK nowadays, and why the Norris family of the future will not be the family past generations would have expected, so I need not elaborate here.
I rest my case.