Dangerous rift is opening up in Britain and it's deeply troubling, says FREDERICK FORSYTH

The London Daily Express ^ | November 6, 2015 | Frederick Forsyth, Author

[2ndDivisionVet]

UNLESS I am much mistaken, and I dearly hope I am, there is something happening in this country that I find deeply troubling.

I refer to a sort of rift or schism that is developing between the governors and the governed. As for the first-named, I mean the Establishment. There is nothing fictional about the Establishment. Every society across the time zones and the ages has had one. It is not a body with a head office or a president but that does not mean it does not exist.

It is in fact a loose amalgam of institutions and common interest groups whose upper echelons effectively govern and run the country, regardless of which group of politicians believe they are in power. Of all these groups about 80 per cent are in the public sector, meaning they are on the public payroll, wholly subsidised in their high places by the taxpayer without whom they would be nothing.

Only the tycoons, masters of commerce, business, trade and industry pay for themselves. The governed are the rest of us, the broad masses of the people.

We work hard, or used to before we retired. We abide by the law, we pay our taxes. We hope and expect to be governed fairly and reasonably well. In a good society what flows upwards from the people to empower the Establishment is trust, what flows downwards is respect. In a bad society the people regard the governors with mistrust or active dislike and from the governors the lower orders are treated with dismissive contempt.

Despite the extreme ease of communication afforded by modern technology, all in real authority seem to wall themselves off from any contact with customer, client or taxpayer behind impenetrable screens of anonymity or unavailability. The classic recourse is the telephone that never answers, the recorded tape loop that repeats endlessly but masks a phone that is never picked up because no one is there.

If human contact is ever made, anyone in real authority is never available, always off that day, in conference or not in the office at that moment. One knows one is being fobbed off.

One knows that no letter, fax or email, no matter how courteous, will ever be answered unless there is money to be made, and then only in the private sector. The walling off of all authority from consumer contact is a form of contempt.

The offensiveness is especially marked in the public sector. It seems to be forgotten that where public servants (so-called) are concerned, they are not paying my salary, I am paying theirs.

Increasingly this country is actually governed now by the bureaucrats, not the elected tribunes of the people who seem to be intimidated into submission by Jobsworth.

Of all the attributes of Jobsworth the most insulting is the self-arrogation of the gift of infallibility. The public sector refuses to realise that the British people are a generous and fair-minded lot - nasty little trolls apart but they are a tiny minority. We will forgive a genuine mistake, genuinely made, genuinely admitted and genuinely rectified. What infuriates is the insulting pretence that no mistake could have been possible - a pretence leading to official cover-up over and over again.

But it is not a healthy country that has this gulf between governors and governed. We should not mistrust our governors and they should not despise us. But that is what I see growing and only the Establishment has the cure. That cure can only be by example.

A classic test of the gulf I mentioned above is enfolded in the case of Sgt Blackman, RM. Only a small coterie of stuffed shirts behind their privilege walls continue to think we have locked up a murderer.

The vast majority of the people and ex-soldiers from field marshals to squaddies know that a fighting sergeant who made a five-second mistake has been crucified and hung out to dry on the basis of political correctness - the creed of the coward and the bully.

Very soon the legal establishment will have an opportunity to re-examine this case and re-appraise. Then it will recommend. What will judgment be? Fair or contemptuous? It will be an interesting test of the nature of those who govern us.

[El Cid]

Thank you.
The Rules of Engagement that we enforce on our troops is insane and asinine. If the politicians fail, and the result is that we have to send men to war -- you don't send a team of lawyers and media to watch and question their every move. War is hell - we aren't sending the men out there to play traffic cops.

[chulaivn66]

Frederick Forsyth? Really? If so I am astonished he identified himself as a member of the ten percent.

[spirited irish]

Political Correctness: "A corresponding and diabolically crafted idea is political correctness. The strong suggestion here is that in order for one not to be thought of as racist or fascist, then one must not only be nonjudgmental but must also embrace the ‘new' moral absolutes: diversity, choice, sensitivity, sexual orientation, and tolerance. Political correctness is a Machiavellian psychological ‘command and control' device. Its purpose is the imposition of uniformity in thought, speech, and behavior."

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/02/cultural_marxism.html#ixzz3qkw2p05Y

[corkoman]

I am not familiar with Frederick Forsyth - this piece is very well-composed. Impressive.

[Tijeras_Slim]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Forsyth

Great thriller author, also worked for MI6 (British Intelligence) covertly for 20 some years.

[BigBobber]

It is in fact a loose amalgam of institutions and common interest groups whose upper echelons effectively govern and run the country, regardless of which group of politicians believe they are in power. Of all these groups about 80 per cent are in the public sector, meaning they are on the public payroll, wholly subsidised in their high places by the taxpayer without whom they would be nothing.

Beautifully written. Love Frederick Forsyth.

Thanks for the link.

[Jan_Sobieski]

The temporary cure is easy...rule of law by elected officials. Breaches of law must be punished swiftly and judiciously. All bureaucratic non-elected bodies cut. Long term, Jesus Christ is the only answer

[CPT Clay]

bump for later read.

[corkoman]

Thanks - I read Jackal 30 years ago...the mind wanders.