In praise of an old country          by Richard Heller

published in the Yorkshire Post 10 Mar 2009

Shortly before becoming Prime Minister Tony Blair made one of his vapid and verbless speeches describing Britain as a “young country.” The baleful phrase slipped into Barack Obama’s otherwise admirable inauguration address.

Blair’s speech launched a foolish cult of youth and novelty in British government, which engendered calamities great and small: cool Britannia and the Millennium Dome, a raft of fatuous initiatives, decrees and targets, and endless costly reorganizations and rebrandings of public services, drenched in management pseudo-science and technobabble.  The cult contributed to Iraq and financial meltdown. Many experienced people knew that invading Iraq was a bad idea: New Labour ignored them. Many other experienced people knew that debt was out of hand and that the financial system could not depend on the endless sale of assets which buyers and sellers could not value or even understand. New Labour ignored these fuddy-duddies too. It had created a new economy and discovered the secret of perpetual motion.  

The political wheel has turned. As New Labour heads for history’s well-filled dustbin, all the main political parties now extol experience. “No-novice” Gordon Brown restores a graying Peter Mandelson, the Tories recall Ken Clarke (68) the Liberal Democrats spotlight Vince Cable (65). 

The shift is overdue. Britain has always been an old country. Tourists come here to look at old things, not new ones. Foreigners admire our established institutions – our legal system, our Parliamentary democracy, our armed forces, our civil service, our professions, our seats of learning – not our attempts at modernity. The savings of older people keep our economy afloat. Their unpaid work as carers keeps the health service from collapse. Countless charities and voluntary bodies are dependent on older people, as indeed are the political parties and local government. The average age of councillors is now over 58 – 86 per cent of them are over 45. Older people are far and away those most likely to vote.

We should now bury the young country and celebrate being an old one. As an overdue riposte to Tony Blair, I offer the following manifesto to Britain’s political leaders. First come, first served…

“Britain is an old country, and blessed for it.  

“An old country is nourished by its history and its collective memory. An old country can cope with crisis and emergency because it has come through so many in the past. The oldest people in our country today pulled it through two world wars and mass depression. They overcame deep-seated barriers of class and wealth and gender and race and all manner of prejudice and preconceptions. They made a country which is fairer, more mobile, more tolerant and a happier place to live. There is nothing that an old country cannot do because there is nothing it has not already done.

“An old country is never hidebound. An old country is always inquiring and innovative, because older people remember how many things once daring and extraordinary have now become commonplace. But an old country also knows how to distinguish between what is truly innovative and what is a fleeting fad or a fashionable fake. An old country has learnt the value of truth and logic and rigour in argument. An old country knows the difference between good and bad science, good and bad economics and politics, good and bad culture.

“An old country is compassionate. An old country knows both the meaning of suffering and the meaning of mercy and grace.

“An old country understands the nature of war. It never embraces war as an instrument of national policy. It never goes to war lightly and casually, or for short-term advantage, or on the basis of ideological or political presumptions, or to make its leaders feel good about themselves. It does so reluctantly as a last resort, only with the certainty that war is lawful and necessary.

“An old country respects law, due process and equity. It knows that basic rights have been very hard to win but are very easy to throw away.

“An old country is thrifty and saving. An old country uses resources wisely, not wantonly. It has learnt to make do and mend: it never throws away anything that can be made to work. An old country cares for itself and its planet. An old country cherishes its environment and landscapes: it preserves things not only for their beauty but for their memories. 

“An old country is tolerant. It knows the harm done by political, social and moral tyrannies. An old country respects people’s rights to choose their own beliefs and way of life, so long as they do no harm to others.

“Although slow to anger, an old country is an impatient one, which knows that there is a short time to achieve its goals. An old country knows how to concentrate its resources on the issues that are important.

“An old country is determined to become a better place for its inheritors.”