By Lloyd Levy
LONDON–Britain appears to be sinking like a stone, in moral and economic terms. The whole structure of the State and public life has been shown to be corrupt and amoral. Our political and business leaders have betrayed their trust, and we fear for the future of our children in these frightening times.
Our politicians have been shown to be feathering their own financial nests at the expense of the taxpayer. There is a judicial investigation on going that has highlighted the intimate links between our politicians and the media.
This last week or so we have found out that our banking industry has for years been dishonestly rigging the LIBOR interest rate figures, and selling completely toxic products to the general public and small businesses. Goodness knows what else will come to light. The banking regulation failures are incredibly serious for the UK, because the whole country depends on the city banking industry for its overall prosperity.
Many commentators mock the mess the Greeks are in because they falsified their financial data, yet it is increasingly clear that the UK has been doing the same, albeit not in such an extreme manner. For many years indeed, it has become apparent to me that the whole economy relies upon the “City” and on the public selling grossly inflated houses to each other and using their homes as ATM machines. If the banking industry collapses, it is hard to see how the country will make its way in the world. Manufacturing has been killed off by globalisation, and we scarcely have an agricultural base.
What surprises me, is the total lack of input from the various religious leaders in the UK, including the Chief Rabbi. There has never been a better time for many years, for the churches to bring a sense of morality and right versus wrong, to the public arena. Our moral decay and sheer self centred lifestyle, cry out for a new sense of direction. Yet we hear nothing from the churches- maybe they are just not getting their message across in the media.? The “native “English are renown in their lack of religious belief, and anyone espousing religion in public is ridiculed .
The country is crying out for some moral clarity and sense of direction in public life. Otherwise a strong figure will emerge from the right , and we will have a repeat of the phenomenon that brought Hitler to power, in the aftermath of the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
Thus we face an uncertain future, which is always a troubling time for Jews.
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Levy is a freelance writer who divides time between England and Israel. He may be contacted at lloyd.levy@sdjewishworld.com