The Frost performs its secret ministry,Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud--and hark, again ! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits
Abstruser musings ....... (ST Coleridge born Blogger obviously and inventor of the concept of social cohesion)
I have been reading Balls in the New Statesman telling us how he used to love the Christmas Radio Times . That sense of seeing what the whole nation would be watching .A feeling of comfort, social cohesion,a country at peace with itself , settling down to Morecambe and Wise , Parkinson and The Queen. All armed with Snowball`s and Port and Lemons and perhaps a lardy-dar for Grandad . One of the highlights was the Christmas Top Of The Pops and in order to recapture the sense of belonging I present my own festive Top Tens ( All ONS figures)
The top ten local authorities for percentages of live births to mothers born outside the UK (Cue the Led Zep)
1 Newham: 74% 2 Brent: 71% 3 Westminster: 70% 4 Tower Hamlets: 69% 5 Kensington and /Chelsea: 68% 6 Ealing: 63%7 Camden: 62% 8 Harrow: 61% 9 Haringey: 61% 10 Waltham Forest: 57%
The top ten authorities with the highest percentage of pupils whose first language is not English :
1 Tower Hamlets: 75% 2 Newham: 71% 3 Westminster: 69% 4 City of London: 65% 5 Brent: 58% 6 Camden: 58% 7 Hackney: 54% 8 Ealing: 54% 9 Haringey: 53% 10 Kensington and Chelsea: 52%
Social Cohesion
J S Mill claimed that Cole ridge (yes the poet) invented the concept and amongst other things saw the need of ‘a strong and active principle of cohesion among the members of the same community or state.’
….
‘We mean a principle of sympathy ..... We mean, that one part of the community do not consider themselves as foreigners with regard to another part; that they set a value on their connexion; feel that they are one people, that their lot is cast together, ...’
9 comments:
Sorry I just can't get excited about immigration or "cohesion". The DDR had "cohesion".
I prefer people to make their own life rather than living in some kind of happy clappy homogeneous nation.
I prefer people to make their own life rather than living in some kind of happy clappy homogeneous nation.
Really I wonder if this acceptance of the centre not holding will apply when it comes to choosing which school you choose for your children. If there is nothng between us we do not have a country we have caravan Park and in the past it took loyalites beyond oneself to defend it.
.
Hmm I think you are confusing different issues Mr N.
Who decides these "norms"? It's certainly not Brown or Cameron. Society is a spontaneous things, a result of all its parts large and small. We create institutions to reflect that not to impose some sort of order upon a seething mass.
That is why nation building does not work. It's time our politicians stopped trying to create Utopia and let us get on with our lives.
That is why nation building does not work
The 'nation' built itself over a thousand years.The unfettered forces of international economic migration and the Governments need to paper over the cracks by accepting it are breaking any sense of "we". without A "WE" who can decide what we should do.
It is one of there many ways in which I believe the market should be controlled and not to is to take a combine harvester to our nice lawn . David Cameropn put it well
'There is such a thing as society its just not the same thing as the state .'...my view exactly and I see it as a web of family , community , tradition culture and shared experience including tolernace of difference of course. There are other things to consider but not to value such "societal capital" is the opposite of Conservatism in the form I am happy with .
You are verging on doctrinal thought crime Ed...tut tut
Vital stats and a marvellous choice of photo.
Thanks
Sorry, N, I don't do doctrine.
I do not think you are yet getting into the Christmas Spirit Mr N.. I have pictures of topless girls on my blog - distinctly more festive...
Ed ,....I was only kidding
yes I have seen the Mutters. I will pop in anon
Post a Comment