David Selbourne

Too late to save Britain — it’s time to emigrate

We have lost our political probity, our social harmony and our moral integrity, says David Selbourne. There is nothing for it but to leave the country

issue 17 July 2010

Part of me feels that those who have helped to bring the country down — venal politicians, false educators, degraders of the media, thieving privatisers of the public domain — need to be fought to a standstill, here on this battlefield, by those with the energy, strength and clarity of mind to do so. For no one wants to believe that the country of his birth, language, upbringing and way of thinking cannot be redeemed.

But the thousands, and tens of thousands, leaving Britain — another million and more will be gone in the next five years, the largest category of them the young, the skilled, the professional — are not wrong. The country’s dilapidation has gone too far. Britain has been impoverished by the mismanagement of the national economy, the running down of manufacturing, and the voraciousness of free-market ethics.

‘Greed is good’, said the Daily Telegraph in October 2006.

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