Always changing
What the world really needs is another blog. With only 175,000 created every day, there is clearly a gap in the market.
Well, maybe not. But I am hopeful we can make this blog a genuinely valuable space on the web.
The United Kingdom is changing fast. If you sat yourself on a cloud in the upper atmosphere and had one of those time-lapse cameras looking down at our islands, what you see would astonish. The movement of people in and out of our island is unprecedented.
Every week, more than two million people enter through Britain's ports. That's two or three people coming into the UK every second of every day and every night. And there are almost as many going the other way. In. Out. In Out. In Out. From our cloud, Britain would look to be throbbing with travellers. Fizzing with humanity on the move.
And it's not just people burdened with physical luggage. They travel with new ideas, different customs, food and music and language.
Fixing a different lens to our camera we can see those swirling currents of ideas and cultures. And this maelstrom is even more dramatic because it is supercharged by technology which transports the ideas without the individual having to move outside their bedroom - global communication systems - chiefly, of course, the internet.
And with globalisation comes tension. Fear of other people is the common denominator in so many of Britain's concerns - fear of criminals, immigrants and terrorists. But we are also bewildered and frightened by change itself. The fear of being left behind, or missing out in a world that moves so fast. Of losing our way or our very identity.
So amid the shifting sands of the early 21st century, this place intends to offer some solid ground. A haven for reflection and debate and argument.
We've called the blog Mark Easton's UK, which suggests I am claiming ownership of the entire country. But I don't even want to claim ownership of the blog. This is a neutral space where all are welcome to contribute within the boundaries of common courtesy.
However, in shaping where our conversations might take us, I have deliberately avoided traditional government demarcations. There's no box marked Education Policy or Health Service Reform. We can talk about all these things but I hope we can do so in a forum that encourages greater perspective.
So it might be about the way we live, the way we learn, the way we relax, the way we spend, the way we think or the way we behave. Or maybe there's another "way we" you would like to suggest, some part of the changing UK that we are neglecting.
I also intend to post a weekly map of the UK. Hopefully, each image will surprise, inform and prompt discussion. Let's see how it goes. I think it might be good fun.
And that is an important word - this enterprise is supposed to be fun. The fun of learning and conversing and arguing about our brilliant, fascinating, occasionally exasperating but always changing United Kingdom.
I'm 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~59~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
The thing about blogs is content, as in quality of content. If you have something to say that is worth saying and worth reading, then readers will come back, and a little community will form round it.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.
PS GT Kovacs, born 1959 of Hungarian emigre parents (1956 and all that), lives in a small village near Winchester. British.
Complain about this comment
We have borders for a reason. People are born into different cultures IE France Germany etc. Without Borders people with like minded ideas would fight those with opposite ideas. For example in the UK in the past we had Wales Scotland Ireland. All with their own borders. After much conflict and violence gradually over time and through integration we have become united. But not completely the process is not quite finished. You can see examples of this around the world. For example Pakistan and India. Iraq Iran Kuwait iraq Israel and everyone else. In fact where on this Planet can you see cultures splashed together come out the other end in a nice mosaic of multicultures? IT DOESNT HAPPEN. What you get instead is one side opossing the other. One side thinking its unfair or they get his blah blah. In the end a single event can kick off trouble for example someone might say a young girl was raped? Or someone beaten. The catholics and prodestants for years The British in ireland. etc..
Your wise words
QUOTE
And with globalisation comes tension. Fear of other people is the common denominator in so many of Britain's concerns - fear of criminals, immigrants and terrorists. But we are also bewildered and frightened by change itself. The fear of being left behind, or missing out in a world that moves so fast. Of losing our way or our very identity
------------------------------------------------------
Echoes the dream of the EU to have a new inter mixed working class countryless and without roots. You wish to see everyone in a brave new world..
How sad that you disrespect people so much that your willing to sell them all out to help create a fantasy that will turn into a hell hole for many.
Complain about this comment
The United Kingdom is changing..We always need a different blog.
Complain about this comment
Well here we go - although born in Esher, whipped straight off to Barcelona and then (aged 3) to Yemen for another 6 years I am actually English married to an Egyptian and have Egyptian/English children! We come from Danish stock as far as I know - at least in the family bible King Frederick 1V sits there 4 generations ago - and apart from the Danish bit I do believe there is Canadian and probably Irish blood among others. So God knows what my childrens' children could claim to be. Who can say what is purely English/Scottish or anything else? If we were talking about mixed races a few hundred years ago the mind would boggle at how mixed up we really are.
I think it is inevitable that Britain will lose her 'Britishness' as the last few generations once knew or perceived it but in place of that we have a wonderful mix of people and languages from all over the globe.
I remember during my childhood partly lived out in a village in Sussex it was practically unheard of to have a 'foreigner' living there let alone a foreign restaurant. When I told my mother Currys delivery was at the door she was momentarily confused as the nearest Indian restaurant was in the next town miles away.
I think it is wonderful to get to know and tolerate each others' cultures and religions so that barriers can be broken down and the ignorance that breeds fear can be eradicated which, of course, would lead to fewer misunderstandings, hatred and violence.
Complain about this comment
Yes, the UK is always changing. I visited first in the eighties and then moved here about ten years ago. I look at fashion, literature - how they change for example.
I wish more British people would take an interest in how other people live - even on the continent. Many people in Wales for example have no interest in German ways of life where I am coming from.
Life in the UK is more different than I had thought when I first moved here. I like your Blog, Mark.
Complain about this comment
For most people this is a great fear being melded together with peoples they dont understand. Even though for the most part we are in a physical world with people all around us we still retreat the village in our minds of how thing were and used to be. Not seeing the world around us untill it has changed so much that it breaks its way in to these safe little mind villages that we live in. Suddenly on route to your shop in the town center there is a new avenue off your safe familier world and the village that seemed so peacefull in your head has grown and expanded with things that are strange and alien to us.
Complain about this comment
I am of mixed race but liken the immigration numbers flooding in to this country to a mini take-over and destabilising influence.
Many do not respect our traditions and seem to be intent to use the country for their own agendas and know enough about human rights in this country to get through the system. We are a soft option and are becomng very vulnerable, I feel.
My grandfather came over to this country as a young officer at the turn of the century. He stayed and married an English woman. Entering his home was like being in a foreign country.
As an immigrant he did not abide by the same rules of the community because he did not truly belong to it.
Immigrants create their own rules and world and in a way are free - that is why they often do so well, because they interpret our laws differently.
Also because they tend to band together they become closed group.
I like other cultures, but do not want to feel as though I live in ithem 24/7
Complain about this comment
I am of English descent - with a family history deeply embedded in Kent. At the age of 15 I joined the armed forces (Royal Navy) and for the next thirty five years saw the world. I rejoiced in visiting foreign lands and meeting the people. I deliberately went into their communities, accepted their hospitality, ate their foods, talked with them, marvelled their culture. But I was always grateful to be able to return to England. For it was "a greener land", it was safe, familiar - and home. Now considerably older, still travelling extensively, England no longer looks "greener", its familiarity has disappeared and I no longer feel safe.
Following the death of my wife, I met and married a "foreigner" and am preparing to emigrate to her country. With a multi-cultural family, one son lives in Latin America with his Latin wife and family, the other in the far east, with his Asian wife and family, any attachment that I ever had with England has been severed.
England no longer belongs to the English, it belongs to a multi-racial society (and I include Europeans in this) who, in my eyes, are only too keen to give away, disclaim, bury, dishonour, the heritage that it does not own.
Complain about this comment
Descended from Saxon mercenaries who accompanied William in 1066 and chose the wrong side in the palace coup of 1086, my father's side of the family has bounced along for about 930 years in South East England.
My mother's side were lowland Scots/English borderers, who made and lost fortunes in the expansion of commmerce and empire.
I'm married to Spanish ancestry from the West Country where sailors escaped, when they could, from a terrible life at sea in the 17th, 18th and 19th Century.
There have always been, and will continue to be, population moves that change everything, but then, everything is always changing.
Read "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond, which explains it all.
The translation of Pizarro's brother's account of the capture of Attualpa puts most cultural and personal change in perspective. 13,000 years of human migration, what a ride!
Complain about this comment
Who ever thinks 7/7 bombing is justifiable he/she must be mentally il. I cannot understand how people can attempt to blow up their own country. Shame on them. Then again, mentally imbalanced people, intolerance people and extreme expressionists' do selfharm or can be suicidal too. Equally greedy powercraving politicians are also distructiove too but they do not do selfharm. Therefore justification seems to be just a matter of perspective. However, in this current modern sociery dodgy justification should not be accepted.
Those who think '7/7 justifies anything', need to be aware of them.
Complain about this comment
I am certainly looking forward to how this blog develops.
As someone that left the UK in the mid 70's to live in Australia for 30 years and more recently (the last 2 years) has lived in one of the ex communist European countries, I have been saddened by the changes to the UK in that time and feel everytime I re-visit that I am glad I no longer live there and would never consider moving back.
Of course things change (people and countries) but with the negative changes I encounter, each re-visit (to see family) supports my belief it was a good decision to leave and never permenantly return.
But, I was born there and still have family there so do have a constant interest in what happens and hope this blog serves up some interesting views and opinions...be them similar or different to mine.
Complain about this comment
I left UK in the early 80s. Everywhere I've gone has been different and has had advantages and disadvantages.
Why should globalisation cause tension? Why are people so afraid? What are they afraid of?
I've found friendly people everywhere and rude people everywhere.
"this enterprise is supposed to be fun.", you said. I would apply that to life.
Find a job you like, friends you like, hobbies you like.
And yet, it appears so many (not all) British people in UK are miserable, negative, complaining and ultimely blaming someone else for whatever....
Complain about this comment
I believe that it will take radical thinking and implementation to resolve the basic problem we have in the UK right now. I never voted or asked to have so many foreigners come to my Country that show no respect for it, flaunting the British culture under the guise of religion or whatever. Had I been asked my opinions on allowing foreigners come to my Country I would have said sure but under strict rules of conduct.
Allow them in provided they swear legions to our Queen and Country above their religion, must be prepared to join our armed forces without conditions. Only then would I have agreed. Then once they arrive I would have them monitored for a period of ten years. Breaking the law for serious crime would invalidate their rights to stay. The Passports should have been given in two or tree stages and interviews given at each stage change to see if the person is fitting into our Society and culture. Now we have missed the boat I have no idea how we will fix things now, but with a great deal of effort I know it can be done.
Complain about this comment
Hi mark, well this is the first time I have joined a blog, and this looks interesting!!
So i am watching and hopefully contributing with interest
regards,
ariesalanwhite
Complain about this comment
My first comment is how difficult it is for a dyslexic to work out how to sign in to be a member. The next comment is why are we suprised at the way our police and immigration officials behave when doing their jobs, after all we have seen the police kill and get away with it we more recently observed police assaulting defensless women who will probably get away with it. I also remember some years ago watching the police using truncheons on children and animals, they were not prosecuted then so why should they believe that they should be prosecuted now. Until these people are held responsible for their actions they will continue to behave in this manner.
Complain about this comment
Mark thank you so much for your bravery in taking on the real issues affecting our lives and asking truly pertinent questions.I know I'm opinionated but the issues you present always seem to evoke such a passionate response because they're so spot on. To me, the anger and vitriol is a beautiful thing because it gets to the heart of people's core beliefs. As long as people care to argue it means they care to listen and something new too!
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS