British Idea

I’m no expert but with Lord Goldsmith’s suggestions announced today on British Citizenship it makes me wonder, is this really the most important thing the Government needs to focus on? Will swearing an oath of allegiance really make school-leavers have more pride in their country?

Whilst I can see that a sense of national pride is hard to be found amongst many teenagers nowadays, is it really needed to go as far as making a pledge of allegiance to queen and country or another national holiday in an attempt to boost national pride?

As optimistic as I attempt to be, understanding the advantages and the disadvantages, I can’t help but feel that Goldsmith’s suggestions are a bit far-fetched and over the top for the situation. Whilst another national holiday could be beneficial in helping people increase their national pride, it would cause just as much or if not more aggro than it would be worth.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not against increasing peoples’ sense of national pride, it’s just I think that the Government would be very foolish were they to go along with some of Goldsmith’s suggestions. A new national holiday would just become another day off on the calendar and would lack the power some may wish it to have. Similarly tax/ tuition rebates would encourage some to do community work whilst at the same time demotivating others who may care less.

However, a national prize giving ceremony recognising the achievements of people who are brave and courageous could only be beneficial, but would most likely be met with tough competition from the likes of the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards, which are already well established.

Good or bad, it really is still “a half-baked idea”.

Imagine, your home is burgled, your prized possessions stolen, with no evidence left behind but a few fingerprints. Under the current system, those prints will be taken away for analysis to find a match on the Police National Computer (PNC), or if unsuccessful, kept on record for future cross-referencing. That’s the way things have been for many years under the idea of a system where someone is ‘innocent until proven guilty’.

However the Government wants to introduce National Identity cards, linked to a National Identity Register (NIR), with the power to hold up to fifty categories of information on each citizen ranging from the basic name and date of birth to biometric data such as fingerprints and iris scans. Whilst some may argue that this is a good idea, helping to reduce the problem of identity theft and terrorism, this brings Britain one step closer to a Police State where every citizen can be tracked and traced with nowhere to hide, so the average burglar (if not already on the PNC) could be caught and arrested much quicker than may happen under the current system.

Whilst you may think this is brilliant - offences can be solved faster, terrorism can be reduced easier, and identity theft could become a thing of the past, this will mean that personal, intimate, unalterable details of all 60+ million UK citizens as well as those of visitors’ to the UK, will be stored on a national database, the target of terrorists and hackers intent on causing national disruption, and this is only the start of it.

The database may sound promising, but with the Government’s track record of IT projects would you trust them with your personal information? How would you feel if your DNA record was mixed up with someone else’s so you were placed at the scene of a crime? Would you like the police knocking at your door, arresting you for a crime you didn’t commit and had no connection with? I know I wouldn’t.

Thankfully, the Government has now seen sense that rolling out a nationwide compulsory ID card system is impractical. However instead of completely dropping the idea, they are simply introducing it in phases. So instead of everything being over with and ID cards part of every day life by 2012/13, it will now be nearer 2017 when they become compulsory.

I, like many people, still can’t see the need for them. Will the benefits (if there really are any) outweigh the enormous drawbacks? I hope time doesn’t tell.

Invest, invest, invest. That’s what the Government are telling people to do with property. But at the same time they’re warning of a looming housing crisis if enough homes aren’t built in the next few years to allow first time buyers onto the housing market.

It makes you wonder sometimes, why can’t they get their act together? There are enough houses; it’s just that Britain is in the middle of a cultural and immigrational crisis with more separated or co-habiting families than ever before and the recent influx of Eastern-European migrants following Romania and Bulgaria’s entrance to the EU in January 2007. This is causing there to be problems in some areas which the media are picking up on rather than showing the national picture.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming the whole crisis on migrants or cultures but the Government themselves haven’t done much to help with the introduction of HIPs (Home Information Packs) which have in some areas seen the number of houses on sale decrease by as much as 41% in August, the first month of compulsory HIPs, according to the property website Right Move.

Now I’m not the biggest worrier about housing (well at the moment anyway), but I just can’t help to think that if something isn’t done now, the future will look very bleak for Britain’s housing market which isn’t fair for the future generations.

Everyday when you look down the street you see the local “hoodies” hanging around, up to ‘no good’, people resent them and fear them but how dangerous can they really be?

Well 46% of 15 to 17 year olds say they carry them for self defence, but that still leaves 54% who don’t have a knife for self defence, so what do they use the knife for?

In 2004 a fifth of 15 year olds who committed knife crime were not using knives for self-defence but to attack with the intent to do serious injury. Out of over 9000 children excluded every year 62% were excluded for carrying knives.

The Government think that these 6 points are the main reason for knife crime:

1. Low income and poor housing
2. Living in deteriorated inner city areas
3. A high degree of impulsiveness and hyperactivity
4. Low intelligence and low school attainment
5. Poor parental supervision and harsh and erratic discipline
6. Parental conflict and broken families

The Government have already began giving the police powers but they aren’t addressing the problems, the dispersion power can be used to disperse youths of 3 or more, however attacks with knives can be done by one person or at school where there are not police officers to disperse gangs from fighting and vandalism. The police, teachers and judges need more powers such as to give the police the right to strip search all youths at will. Judges also need to be given powers to send youths down for large prison sentences. Finally teachers should be given the right to search for weapons if that pupil is under suspicion.

In my opinion it is not safe for our children if others continue to carry knives, amnesties work to an extent but not enough is done to control youth crime, there must be stricter and longer sentences if knife crime is ever to be controlled.

It’s been a long very long time in the running but were finally able to say, Hello and Welcome to British Idea, it’s good to have you! Things have come a long way, and some things have even further to go but this is the start and we’d like to welcome you on board. Why not take a look around and tell us what you think.

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