It is a lucky thing for newscasters and for British politics that the events that unfurled over the weekend in America happened after and not during the British election on July 4th.
We have a clear benchmark for the way elections should be carried out, it is not the chaos that is France nor the mob-rule of the United States, it is our way.
Yesterday we heard one section of the American legal system throw out a case against a former and likely future president on the basis that the legal process was illegal. This is as close to anarchy as I can imagine from a developed nation.
By contrast, the British legal system, overseen for a time by our current prime minister, is in ship-shape.
We have a country where the use of arms is abhorred socially, where carry a gun is illegal and where the knife crime prevalent among young people is highlighted and decried by our cultural icons. There is no space in the UK cultural miasma for violence, other than from imports from the US.
The Government and governance of our country is standing firm at a time when chaos is apparent around us.
Yesterday we celebrated our population growth as we celebrated a recovery in economic growth undemonstratively.
In England and Wales there were an estimated:
• 598,000 deaths, up 24,000 compared with mid-2022
• 598,400 births, down 21,900 compared with mid-2022Natural change was 400 in the year to mid-2023, the lowest figure since the year to mid-1978.
➡️ https://t.co/CsuH9D06i4 pic.twitter.com/YJNJBpFpPw
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) July 15, 2024
We have issues in our various walks of life, in housing, health , the welfare of our current generation of older people and the prospects for our children. We find ways to deal with these as a united nation.
Where there is an imbalance, such as in inward investment into the UK economy, we seek to emulate other countries that have been successful of late, we look to America in particular.
Where there is injustice abroad, we seek to exert our global influence from Ukraine to China to establish justice for people. This is not cultural imperialism, it is our sense of natural justice that puts human rights to the fore.
Where there are injustices at home, as there are in working practices and in the rights of leaseholders and especially renters, we want to get things done. The legislation being put forward to the Kings Speech must prioritise the immediate injustices and right them.
In all things, we follow established processes that have been developed over a millennium. Much of our custom was established prior to in Saxon and Norman times. Our history is central to our self-confidence.
I hope that there are people in America, France , Russia and China who look to Britain and ask themselves how can they live in a country more like ours. Britain has always been Great, we do not have to harp back to by-gone eras, we need to recognise that today’s Britain is an example to the world of tolerance, inclusion and good humour. We can even laugh at our 60 long failure to win a major football tournament!
This is not jingoism. It is patriotism. The big winner is Britain because we have the strength of continuity, strong governance and strong Government. I feel proud this morning to be living in the right country at the right time and I hope you feel that way about Britain too.