I think what gets missed here is that

those things you pinpoint - "common" history, language, moral and legal standards, culture, honour, heroes - every single one of those things evolves constantly and always has.NONE of them are static, but for some reason it is very simple to claim a fixed point in history as the defining point in time for those things, and then sell the idea that any change to that version is bad.

It's not bad. It's necessary. It has always been the case. We've absorbed culture not only from the many actual invasions of the UK over time all the way up to the Glorious Revolution, but from the countless invasions we have executed in other countries, and more innocently from international trade, immigration and emigration and travel, none of which started only after the Second World War. We've also absorbed other cultures far quicker recently due to greater and faster exposure to them on the internet.

I would hazard a guess that the version of the mythical Brit that you had in mind when you were typing about our "common history, language" etc was somewhere post WW2, or if you really are Jacob Rees Mogg then at least no longer ago than the reign of Victoria.

Whichever you see as being that which was common and is no longer, was itself built on thousands of years of influence from other cultures, languages and the rest of it. So why would that now be a bad thing?

I honestly think that your sentiment is a common one in the growing grey population and always has been. What it really is, is that you've got to the age where you don't like change and feel disconnected from the youth.

What I do agree with is the division in the UK being greater than I remember, but I think that is something that's been consciously fed by certain groups, whether they be individuals, organisations or even nations who have learned that the same tactics used for hundreds of years to manipulate the masses are FAR more effective in the internet and social media era. Outrage feeds content which feeds ad revenue, but it also can sway public opinion. And I see Reform as one of those groups. That's why he pulled the Ipswich stunt. That's what I object to with them. I have no issue with people with different opinions, but with the populism movements that intentionally create precisely this division for their own ends.

Posted By: Legacy Fan, Apr 1, 17:29:43