How the Tables Have Turned (Formerly Our Young People ~ The British People)

Moments from History

How the Tables Have Turned

(Formerly Our Young People ~ The British People)

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2012 - 2020 - 2012 - 2020 - 2026

Full Circle

2012

I

I have been fortunate to work with young people. Not always easy. Young people have a way of winding the older generation up! But we did too, when we were young people. And we wouldn't want it any other way.

July, August and September have brought to us the thrill of the Olympics and the Paralympics.

To see young people strive for excellence, surpass themselves but remain humble, and to overcome the most incredible difficulties is the stuff that makes teachers, of all ages glow, and to quietly experience that inner glow too - for such a reaction is very tangible - makes all their efforts worthwhile.

We have seen too a our resurgence s a nation - the nation I grew up in and took for granted - the nation of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, comprising four kingdoms and four capitals.

Twenty years ago we lost this sense of being one people. It became fractious.

II

Devolution caused some to think of outright independence - and with it all the upset and wasted money that such an unrealistic venture entails.

Sometimes, I’m informed that devolution is the cause of disaffection. I understand that premise. But let us remember that Scotland and Wales are no different to England. Nor is Northern Ireland. All four nations have roots and independence stretching back two thousand years. And we must never allow those roots to perish. They are the very lifeblood of the British Isles.

In 2012 I wrote…

As I go about my daily work I like to take a measure of public opinion.

Here, in England, young people do not want to be separated from either Scotland or Wales or Ireland. I talk to my friends in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Fife and they do not want to be separated either. In Cardiff and Caernarfon and Glamorgan and Llandudno, they do not want to be separated. In Belfast and Londonderry they do not want to fall outside the Union.

All, without hesitation, speak of the glow they felt and still do feel, when they see the Union Flag raised and they hear that wonderful phrase 'Team GB'. We - South of that pencil line on an ordnance survery map -  are equally thrilled at the sound of the bagpipes!

We do not see it as a clever marketing brand. We see it as truly representative of these Islands. That we are an island people made up of four kingdoms; and that on the mainland of Great Britain, these kingdoms comprise Scotland, England and Wales and Northern Ireland in no particular order. These kingdoms have their capitals yes; but the Nation’s Capital is London.

And there is equal warmth for the Republic of Ireland and for Dublin.

III

I then wrote…

Do not underestimate the ability of our young people to hold things together. Do not sneer when you see young people walking out of the job centre, for they are doing their best in very difficult circumstances and times to find work.

Have confidence in them. They have shown us their true mettle both here in London 2012 and abroad in Afghanistan.

Stand with them, and by them. Our young people will not, and never will, let us down.

We must never let them down!

IV

Fourteen Years On ~ 2026

How the Tables Have Turned

It is now June 2026 and the world is a very different place and at its most dangerous in ninety years. 

As regards devolution and independence, if Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland wish to become independent - as is there bounden right so to do if the majority peacefully vote for this, then that is the right of everyone. Let it be achieved peacefully through the ballot box. 

Whether we like or not, we are on the very edge. 

To those who cause mayhem on our streets, to those middle-aged overweight people draped in their union jacks, and walking with all the dignity of an elephant on heat, I see only a bunch of thugs draped in swastikas.

You have turned the Union Flag into a Fascist symbol. I write here with authority. I know what it is to be the Honour Guard of the Union Flag. I know the importance of the Saltire, the Dragon and the Shamrock. These, too, are National Flags each with their Honour Guard. The Cross of Saint George? Yes, I guess so. But that is within the Union Flag. 

Stop behaving as a bunch of half crazed Elon Musks and Donny Trumpos running amok.

And you there, yes you, with your shite running down your leg… go home. Sit still for a moment and listen to the silence. Your ancestors will quietly whisper…

“We gave our today so that you might have your tomorrow.”

— John Maxwell Edmonds (1916)

(3 September 2012)
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Liverpool

© 2012 Kenneth Thomas Webb


First Written as a Liverpool Dispatch 3 September 2012

The Danger to Young People is Uncertainty