Fair play wasn't something taught at home or school. You wouldn't have found it on any curriculum. It was never something much discussed or analysed; it was simply there, providing a framework for a reasonable life. People just knew, instinctively, what was right and fair. They did not jostle or push into queues, but quitely awaited their turn. From the playground onwards, fights were governed by unwritten - and immutable - rules; fists were OK; feet, heads and anything remotely resembling a weapon most certainly weren't. And fights were strictly for men and boys. Fighting was not a feminine past-time.
In cricket it was the norm for batsmen to walk when they knew they were out, or for fielders to own up if they hadn't quite managed to hold onto a clean catch. Footballers who dived and feigned injury were treated with contempt by referees, opponents and spectators alike.
Cheating of any kind was considered beyond the pale. Even criminals embraced a rough and ready form of morality. They might not all have been the loveable rogues who worshipped their old mums beloved of popular fiction but, by and large, they didn't prey on females, the poor, the weak or the elderly. Any young man who attacked an elderly man or woman would,have been the object of scorn and, most likely, have found himself on the wrong side of a battering. That is why virtually any middle-aged housewife could disperse a group of rowdy teenagers with a few well-chosen words; something that most policemen wouldn't attempt on their own these days.
So, how have we managed to descend from that innate sense of what is right and fair to our current state of affairs, where queuing is a lost art form - particularly in London - footballers who cheat and win penalties are regarded as the epitome of professionalism and a significant number of young men would not even consider fighting without some sort of edge; whether a real edge in the form of a knife or simply greater numbers than their opponent?
It would take several thick volumes to explore all of the underlying causes. And all I have at my disposal is a hastily-written blog. But, purely at random, here are a few things to consider:
1. Overcrowding. Experiments with rats have shown that colonies break when animals are confined in a small space and their numbers are allowed to grow unchecked. Regard England as a rat colony and you are already a long way to explaining the rapid breakdown in reasonable behaviour; especially in big cities like London. We are a small country that enjoys - probably not the right word - the most people per square mile in Europe. We have more and more people scrabbling for less space and rapidly dwindling resources. It is madness that we don't offically acknowledge the fact and put up the barriers before we all do ourselves a mischief.
2.Officially promoted inequality. Despite the findings, published today by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, that foreigners do not enjoy advantages when it comes to the allocation of social housing, the feeling persists that they do.
Sometimes, the anecdotal evidence looks stronger than any statistics. Take the awful fire that occurred in Camberwell last week. Look at the names of the people who died, those who survived and the people who witnessed the conflagration, all of whom lived in the tower block or one of its close neighbours. They all came originally from eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and points further east and west. How did they manage to get housed in an inner-London borough where the council housing waiting list runs to thousands of names? Whose places have they taken in the queue for council housing? How many elderly people have been left stranded in the area while their children and grandchildren have had to move out in search of affordable housing?
Ask these questions of any politician or local offical and you will immediately be labelled racist. Because, the simple answer is that, despite what the E&HRC says, foreigners who arrive homeless and with large families do seem to be given precedence over the indigenous population. This seemed to be confirmed by what John Healey, the Housing Minister, said on radio 4 this morning: "At present, those people with the most serious housing needs get priority. We are not changing that. " They are not changing it because they can't - at least not without infringing their own Human Rights Act. So, as long as the overarching selection criterion is immediate need rather than entitlement, the refugee family with four children must take precedence over the local couple with just one or two.
It might be the law, but it certainly isn't fair or just. Unfortunately, the only political party that has picked up on this point is the BNP; which is why they made gains at the recent elections which, in earlier, fairer times, they would never have had a hope in hell of achieving.
Harriet Harman will shortly add to this offically enshrined discrimination when she makes it illegal for institututions to discriminate against people from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds. Quite who will set the bar as far as a measurement of poverty or disadvantage is concerned is not yet clear. What is clear, based on the evidence of all prior discriminatory legislation, is that the rules will simply create yet another stratum in our society. Post this act, the poor will be further divided between those shrewd, crafty, well-informed and well-connected enough to exploit the legislation and the great mass who will never quite get the hang of it and go on being just as down-trodden as ever. Plus, of course, there will be another layer created above the other two made up solely of Quangocrats whose job is to monitor, review and enforce the regulations and pad out thei own pension schemes.
3. Much of the blame must, inevitably, attach itself to the people who have guided us for the last 30 years - not just in Westminster but in all the institutions charged with the care and mentoring of our children. They have created the curricula and agenda that have shaped our society. It is the educationalists, philosophers, teachers and other assorted care-givers who brick-by-painful-brick have dismantled a system that took around 200 years to perfect and have replaced it with something that fails in the most basic objective of any educational system; education, education, education.
Doubtless inspired by the noblest of egalitarian motives they are the ones, nonetheless, who have hollowed out our educational system from within. With their insistence on prizes for all - irrespective of talent, skills or effort- they have completely severed the link between effort and reward. Outside the classroom, they have achieved the same effect by eliminating competition from play and sport; awarding the feckless and lazy the same prizes as they do the strivers and achievers. When that hasn't had the desired effect and quashed children's natural competitive urges, they have simply sold off the playing fields. The results of this collective anti-competition activism can be seen in the obese, ill-educated under-class they have created whose opportunities for advancement or betterment are virtually nil.
Even black footballers and athletes from disadvantaged back-grounds rarely have the formal education system to thank for their success. In an earlier era, school sports were organised at all levels from Primary to Senior, with legions of teachers willing to devote time and energy to the running of school teams. Now, thanks to the everyone must win mentality, lack of facilities and Health and Safety issues competitive sport is dead or dying in many state schools. Children in such schools have to depend on external clubs to nurture their talent and provide the coaching and encouragement needed to see it bloom. If the Health & Safety tendency gets its way, of course, these same clubs will soon become so enmeshed in elfin safety regulations and paedo seeking legislation that no sane adult will want anything to do with them - but that's another story altogether.
By contrast, in the private and selective sectors, school sports are flourishing, just as they always have, alongside traditional academic excellence. English/British teams have enjoyed fantastic success in recent years. Probably 90% of the cyclists, rowers, sailors, swimmers, cricket and rugby players who have represented us so successfully on the world's playing fields hail from a middle class or otherwise educationally-privileged back-ground. They can all go on to greater professional achievement in their chosen sports. Alternatively, they could spend a few years getting paid handsomely for something they enjoy and then use their superior academic education to take up another career altogether. Their near-peers, meanwhile, consigned to life in an average sink comprehensive, will be left far behind with very little real prospect of ever catching up.
In other words, in pursuing their dream of unprecedented equality, the levellers have simply replaced a system that gave the majority a fair crack of the whip and allowed the best-equipped to advance, with one that condemns a large majority of its unfortunate participants to a life of unrelieved mediocrity.
Not very fair or just and, by definition therefore, not very British.
