The BBC is today reporting a leaked Home Office letter suggesting that crime will go up because of the economic downturn. It says that smuggling will increase as well as property crime - theft, burglary, etc - and violent crime. It also says that there will be increased hostility to migrants as competition for jobs increases and that there will be a tendency towards support growing for far right political parties as a result.
I'm hoping that this won't end up as a socio-political disaster - i.e. far right parties do well, immigrants get increasingly mistreated or worse. It seems to me that British society has spent the last few decades gradually losing its moral centre and as it does so reactionary forces are left unchecked. Each time the economy has a setback, the security and the rights of the weakest suffer.
Society has let itself go. We need a strong moral centre for the nation. We need a sense of justice and we need strong messages of goodness. Everyone deserves it. We need strong moral leadership. The reactionary forces that surface every time the economy (or security) suffers need to be countered by a strong message of peace and hope. Now, more than ever, we need to speak of peace and justice to all, otherwise we run the risk of a 'perfect storm' of social, economic and political events resulting in a great tragedy for the good of our citizens and those who visit our shores.
It is time for men and women of goodness to step and be counted.
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