I more than share your disgust and loathing at the orgy of self-destruction which our society is undergoing. What is so incredible is the pusillamnity of members of parliament who have abandoned their Burkeian responsibility to their constituents for a sycophancy to their parties.

Even more, for it crosses not just parliament but the media and what ought to be responsible society too, is the complete lack of independence of thought and willingness to defend timeless values. Everyone seems to be all too ready to mouth fashionable slogans or to sign up to ridiculous claims by single issue groups, but no-one will advance the interests of society as a whole.

Out of this dissolution can only come one thing, and that is a form of totalitarianism. We are all 'asking for it' as they say. At the root of it perhaps (though maybe not a popular thesis) is the overwhelming success of feminism which has suppressed the male instinct to 'what if' and to project consequences, in favour of the comfort of all emoting together and 'feeling each other's pain'. This is recipe for our society to be delivered up and devoured by others with harder heads. I fear for the future - and the present is ghastly too by any historical standard within my lifetime (but that of course is BB - before Blair).

I have long since come to the conclusion that there is nothing we can do about the distintegration of our society. I have voted for all three main political parties and things have just got worse. I have called the police and written to my MP, and nothing happens. I have complained to newspapers and television channels and they have either ignored or sneered at me. I have raged at the heavens, to no avail.

Living in this country is like suffering death by a thousand cuts. Sentient, thoughtful, rational human beings (of which I count myself as one) are treated like pariahs, while the stupid, talentless, greedy and ignorant are elevated (just watch TV.) I'm afraid all we can do is sit back until the disintegration reaches a critical mass and see whether we turn the corner or fall. Whatever else, it is certain that our politicians will do nothing to help us. It's as though society has set itself on a self-destructive trajectory which they can do nothing to influence. To be fair to them perhaps they, like myself, have simply run out of ideas.

My, my!

I just read your post.

I have one favor.

Go back abroad, take your time, and stop several times in America during your transit.

Return home and report.

We are in need of an upbraiding, too.

Ouch. This is going to hurt.

If as some say, the essence of royalty is to be both public and hidden or mysterious, then the monarchy is doomed if they choose their friends and servants as Diana chose hers. It seems that anyone will betray anyone if the money's good.

As David Aaronovitch wrote "Mr Burrell has written his book about Diana - and allowed extracts to appear in that newspaper - because he 'feels compelled to safeguard her memory and his own future at the same time'. Oh happy coincidence of moral rectitude and material benefit. How rare. "

But the posters here (and Ms Phillips) see this (rightly) as a symptom of a deeper sickness. Even commentators like Polly Toynbee and Jackie Ashley are beginning to notice some other facets of this sickness - such as pervasiveness of the 'all politicians are rubbish' syndrome. I actually think this goes further - to 'all-institutions-are-rubbish'.

The philosopher Hannah Arendt argued that the origins of totalitarianism lay 'in one great unorganised mass of furious individuals" who had nothing in common except their apprehension that the most respected and representative articulators of the existing culture were fools, and the elected holders of public office were fraudulent.

That sounds a pretty good description of England to me.

The situation at the moment for Britain, is that a large part of the media are now creating the news, in order to fit their liberal agenda. There is an abiding hatred, based on prejudice and dogma of anything which is seen to come from 'the right', and liberals or 'the left' as they were once known (no coincidence, the shifting of names to something which sounds acceptable and laudable)are actually committed to destroying all those institutions which offer an alternative to their ways of thinking. The throes of the conservative crisis are awful to witness. And they are the opposition! Talk about easy targets. The press, unable to get a fix on 'Teflon' Blair, go for the wounded animal. In a more healthy society we should be helping them pull through, for the sake of our democracy, even if we don't agree with their policies. Duncan Smith may not be the best leader, but neither was John Smith compared to Tony Blair, and he is now regarded as almost a latter day saint of the left. How much of this crisis is because the press have 'talked up' his failures.
My generation hold such a vehement hostility to the idea of 'conservatism' or 'right wing' views, often it seems, without knowing what it is they are opposed to. It seems de rigeur to say 'I hate Bush', and even compare him to Satan. When I challenge such behaviour, they look at me as if I have just said I have murdered a baby. This surely cannot be a balanced society. It is so boring, as much as anything else, to hear people I respect and like, trotting out the same old sub-Michael Moore loathing of Bush, and the same conventional 'wisdom' peddled. There is surely an element of the herd instinct going on here. My fear is that the constituency for alternative views is shrinking so rapidly, that we will soon have no real choice in how we are governed. Labour or the Lib Dems - same difference.. Those institutions which we have heretofore relied on to provide a sense of continuity and opposition to this bigotry are constantly being run down in the process of destroying them, and it is only when they are gone, and 'President Blair' is ensconced in office, fiddling the education figures, fining us for stepping out of our doors, and telling us we live in the 'best of all possible worlds' as we give him all our money to spend on 'race awareness week', that we will realise what we have lost.
(Phew! what a long sentence - are you still with me?)

I keep asking myself from here in Australia, what are the politicians up to regarding Britain and the EU while the populace is again distracted witless by a royal kerfuffle?

Note that all these directionless clowns have one thing in common: incomes paid by the state, regardless of whether they deliver anything or not.

You're paying 'em, suckers. And will be until you wise up and flex your electoral muscles as we just did here in California.

I couldnt agree more with Melanie's postings and many of the others on this site.

One of the most disturbing trends in recent years is that the growing power of the media: it has always had the ability to distorte trends and shape opinions, of course, but it has realised in the last few years with the breakdown of conventional morality and civic institutions that, as people lack alternative forms of guidance, it has the ability to shape and control the culture to its benefit. On a narrow commerical level this is exhibited by the complete invention of whole micro-cultural trends and (invariably hedonistic) lifestyles in order to push certain products - the newest of which are the ludicrous 'metrosexuals'. Irrespective of any overt political agenda, it follows that large sections of the commerical media now regard all other institutions, particularly the Tory party, which may bring about a moral revival as a threat to the unique position of power that it has.

This is also true at a broader societal level: real power to bring about political change resides these days almost entirely within the media and the legal profession. Parliament is a sideshow: it is these liberal-dominated institutions which are controlling the cultural agenda and deciding how are daily lives are lived. It also may explain why Tony Blair has done so little in office. The new establishment wants to create the illusion that parliament is in control but in reality regards its occupation of government as a way of protecting its flanks from attack from others (ie the Tories) whilst its spearheads charge on agressively through the TV, newspapers, magazines and the law courts. In the words of the odious Peter Mandelson, it is New Labour and its media allies task to 'invent the truth'. The role of the New Labour government is to generate enough heat and light with its endless soundbites, presentations, initiatives, task forces etc, etc that our attention is drawn from the real culturally radical agenda which is going on elsewhere.

Melanie is absolutely right that the real battle must be fought on moral issues, and I do not believe that people would be entirely unreceptive to this either. But that takes real political courage - a quality, sadly, which has always been rather lacking in most Tory MPs.

"You're paying 'em, suckers. And will be until you wise up and flex your electoral muscles as we just did here in California."

Yes, that's really going to solve the problem, by electing a drug-ravaged serial groper and Nazi sympathiser whose ignorance of the English language is matched only by his ignorance of political issues

'disgusted':

Arnold's election is a classic tax revolt, of which we have an honourable line going back to 1776 (when the UK was the would-be taxer). As such it challenges the political establishment where they live, which is by reaching into your pockets.

You should try it some time. If you can do it better than us then go ahead. Instead, the British way is to moan incessantly about the failings of your own society and everyone else's.

Well, George Orwell would be proud - the ideas in his book '1984' of double-speak etc are now part of our culture as Melanie has so plainly indicated ! What happened in the 1984 story in the end? - someone please remind me - thanks

Jimmy

ps. in 1984 what happens to people like Melanie and me - who think like we do - should I end it all now ?

"Our society now is marked by shallowness and sentimentality; a culture where the concept of duty has all but collapsed, and notions of loyalty and trust along with it. These values have been superseded by greed and rapacity, cruelty and humiliation, manipulation and deceit, and a seemingly infinite gullibility in the face of propaganda and lies."

> Please give examples. I'm a member of society; I don't feel that my life is ruled by these defects you point out. When were all these former laudable values superseded? Was it 1997? Or 10th April 2001?

"The ineffable media (of which I am part) with its agenda to tear down and destroy public institutions in order to glorify and empower itself. . ."

> So is your role to tear down and destroy public institutions in order to glorify and empower yourself; or merely the role of the Daily Mail, for which you write? Does that explain why it took it upon itself to organise a "referendum" this year?

The truth is outhere