Easy to crush, harder to replace

Laban Tall with a very thought-provoking and, I think, powerful post on the impact of progressive politics on the fabric of the nation. He rightly points out that it is much easier to destroy than to build or construct and we are seeing that now. Rightly, much of the deferential aspect of old Britain has been swept away, but with it we have lost much of the structure which did help to make us a strong and successful society with the leaders of all aspects of our society having a crisis of faith and confidence in the structures they were part.

Now the impact of this can be overstated and too much lamented, but I do believe we are still missing it to a greater or lesser degree. We don't have confidence in tools of our society which, although organic and often imprecise work fairly well overall and can help society achieve. We would rather focus on potential or perceived negative aspects on a few and use these to undermine the whole. Blair's Respec' can caricature and ridicule concepts such as civil liberties and due process, he can further weaken institutions and pillars of our society, but it is much harder to craft a truly effective replacement which actually works; that's why he's had to effectively soup up his anti-social behaviour powers repeatedly whilst being in power.

For an example, just look at the House of Lords. For all its faults pre-1997, can anyone honestly say its new structure is better for Britain?