ONE OF THE ADVANTAGES of being a relatively small island nation is that Great Britain enjoys a truly national press. From Cornwall to Aberdeen, folks can read the same morning papers—be it Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian or The Sun. In fact, including the Financial Times the British are spoiled for choice with a dozen daily national papers.
Of course, in order to distribute the daily journals to every nook and cranny in the kingdom, the papers have to maintain early press deadlines. Late night television news broadcasts often include a segment talking about the press headlines in the next morning’s papers. Here’s what the commentators have been talking about this summer.
THE IMMINENT SCOTTISH independence referendum brings to a close what has been a constant topic in the public marketplace for several years (and seems like longer). Unless Alex Salmond and the SNP receive a deus ex machina from the heavens, the Nays are now expected to carry the day easily. The impulse to independence is understandably rooted deeply in Scottish history and culture. Much as separation from the United Kingdom appealed to Scottish romanticism, however, the arguments lined up quite convincingly that Great Britain was Better Together. The political and economic costs of Scottish independence have simply been totaled far too high for it be a prudent or realistic decision for the Scots.
IF HERE IN THE STATES we have a continuing challenge with illegal immigration, in Britain the uproar is over the very legal flood of migration into Britain of folk from the have-not EU countries of Eastern Europe. As soon as they arrive, EU rules provide they have access to all the social services the Brits enjoy.
The unceasing tide of migration and the strain it puts on employment, housing, education and infrastructure is one reason that ordinary Brits from both ends of the political spectrum have become increasingly disillusioned with the European Union. A generation back it was all the fashion in Britain to think of themselves as “European,” but the luster has fallen off of that apple.
EU regulation imposed by flat from Brussels governs commerce, manufacturing, agriculture and “human rights.” EU politicians and bureaucrats are often older individuals who have made their mark in national politics and get “kicked upstairs” to get them out of the way, or to reward their service. Removed from their own national capitals the public servants live conspicuously high on the proverbial porcine to the great irritation of those whose own lives are made more expensive, inconvenient and foreign by their bureaucratic proclamations.
There is also growing fear that the EU economic structure may yet be a Sword of Damocles, with the weak, socialist economies of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean ultimately taking down the larger producer countries.
THE JOCKEYING HAS BEGUN for next year’s parliamentary General Election. For the first time, the British Parliament has a “fixed term” of seven years. In the past, elections were called and held in a matter of weeks. British politicians are thus far blissfully inexperienced in the seemingly endless campaigning of American elections. So, the British parties are seeking American advice. President Obama’s campaign guru David Axelrod has crossed the pond to mentor the campaign fortunes of beleaguered Labour leader Ed Milliband—who is widely accused by all sides as lacking in both personality and policy.
Conservative PM David Cameron and the Tories are finding themselves in the unheard of position of being flanked on the right by the upstart United Kingdom Independence Party—UKIP. With its primary policies being to close the British border and get out of the EU, UKIP made a strong showing in recent European and local elections.
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© KENNY WILLIAMSON GLASGOW/ALAMY
The Tories lead in the polls at this point, but their support is soft. Cameron’s fortunes and the party with him are likely to rise and fall over the certitude of their promise that British voters will be given a yea-nay referendum on the UK’s continued EU membership. And soon.
Despite the ongoing belt-tightening, however, the public sector austerity budgets that the Conservatives have continued seem to have made headway in the domestic economy. The UK’s projected economic growth over the next year or two is forecast to be the strongest in the Europe.
Speculation continues, as it always does, as to who might be Cameron’s ultimate successor as leader of the Conservatives. Attention is certainly focused on London’s colorful Conservative mayor Boris Johnson—who is now considering a run for Parliament while maintaining his mayorality.
Despite Deputy PM Nick Clegg’s weak bleating and put-a-good-face-on-it smile, the Liberal Democrats have been decimated in by-elections and local councils. They will be fortunate to define themselves clearly and convincingly in the General Election, and their existence as a credible opposition or partner in Government is threatened.
MEANWHILE, the year has been shattered by a series of high profile sex trials and revelations. A number of prominent entertainers and politicians have had exposed assorted sex crimes and cover-ups of, in many cases, decades past. Now, the Home Secretary Theresa May has ordered a far ranging independent inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse and its hush up involving top civil servants and politicians back in the 1980s. Expected to take months, the investigation’s remit will spread to the BBC and religious organizations as well. A wide range of public and private sector witnesses will be called, and ministers are working on some types of immunity. This will be big and messy.
IT’S NOT ALL GLOOM and doom in the papers, despite England’s early exit from the World Cup. In fact, there has been a fair ration of warm, sunny weather across our green and pleasant land this summer. There was certainly a buzz in the air over the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow featuring athletes from 71 nations. And crowds turned out from Yorkshire to Buckingham Palace to watch the first three stages of the Tour de France cycling through stretches of Britain for the first time ever. After several years of economic drabness and weather grim even by British standards, the public mood has brightened considerably. Yes, there will indeed be crumpets and jam for tea.
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