Fallout from the British hostage situation continues.

From Front Page Magazine:

It is painful to see the decline of Great Britain.

Greatness in individuals is rare; in countries it is almost unique. And Great Britain was great.

It used to be said that "The sun never sets on the British empire." That is how vast Britain's influence was. And that influence, on balance, was far more positive than negative. Ask the Indians -- or the Americans, for that matter. The British colonies learned about individual rights, parliamentary government, civil service and courts of justice, to name of few of the benefits that the British brought with them. Were it not for British involvement, India might still have sati (burning wives on the funeral pyre of their husband), would have no unifying language, and probably no parliamentary democracy or other institutions and values that have made that country a democratic giant, now on its way to becoming an economic one as well. But today, the sun not only literally sets on an extinct British empire; it is figuratively setting on Britain itself.

Two recent examples provide evidence:

One is the way Britain handled the recent act of war against it by Iran. Everything about the British reaction revealed a civilization in decline.

Whether the British sailors and marines should have put up more resistance -- i.e., any resistance -- to the unprovoked Iranian military attack is something for military and other experts to decide. Whether the captured sailors and marines offered more information and more cooperation, and more smiles than was necessary to the leader of their kidnappers, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will also be determined in ongoing investigations. Whether the British government engaged in appeasement of Iran or ineffective diplomacy will also have to be judged.

What does seem clear, however, is that the British government did not confront the Iranians in any way reminiscent of a great country, let alone of Britain's great past. If we judge the British government's reaction alone -- without any reference to the behavior of the British sailors and marines -- Iran was the feared power, not Great Britain, which acted like the supplicant.

[. . .]

The other current example of Great Britain's decline is the widely reported (in the UK) decision of schools in various parts of that country to stop teaching about the Holocaust in history classes. The reason?

As reported by the BBC, "Some schools avoid teaching the Holocaust and other controversial history subjects as they do not want to cause offence, research has claimed. Teachers fear meeting anti-Semitic sentiment, particularly from Muslim pupils, the government-funded study by the Historical Association said."
No comment necessary.

But a word of caution: If Great Britain can cease to be great in so short a time span, any country can. All you need is an elite that no longer believes in their country, that manipulates history texts to make students feel good about themselves, that prefers multiculturalism to its own culture, and that has abandoned its religious underpinnings.

Sound familiar, America?

I am reminded of the Pacifico Incident here is what Wikipedia says about it:

The Pacifico Incident concerned a Portuguese Jew, named David Pacifico (known as Don Pacifico), who was a trader and the Portuguese consul in Athens during the reign of King Otto. Pacifico was born in Gibraltar, a British possession. He was therefore technically a British subject. In 1847 his business was attacked and vandalised by an anti-Semitic mob which included the sons of a government minister, whilst the police looked on and took no action. After he unsuccessfully appealed to the Greek government for compensation for his losses, he brought the matter to the attention of the British government in 1848.

Liberal British Foreign Secretary Palmerston, a philhellene and supporter of the Greek War of Independence 1828-1829, took unilateral action in support of Pacifico by sending a Royal Navy squadron into the Aegean in 1850 to seize Greek ships and property equal to the value of Pacifico's claims. The squadron eventually blockaded the port of Piraeus, the main port of the capital, Athens.

The blockade lasted two months, and caused great tensions between Britain, on the one hand, and France and Russia, on the other. Since Greece was a state under the joint protection of the three powers, Russia and France protested against its coercion by the British fleet, and the French ambassador temporarily left London, which promptly led to the termination of the affair. The damage to the reputation of King Otto in Athens was considerable. The affair ended only when the Greek government agreed to compensate Pacifico after Greek ships were seized by the Royal Navy.

[. . .]

This principle of military intervention (or Gunboat Diplomacy) to protect the rights of British subjects became a defining characteristic of Victorian foreign policy and was followed by both Liberal and Conservative governments.

The United Kingdom was a nation which knew how to take care of its national interests by taking care of its people. It seems to have forgotten what it once knew.

Of course not every British subject has surrendered. The fine folks at EU Referendum are doing great work in shining the light of day on the whole mess. However I do not believe that the UK can be salvaged. When a nation becomes a welfare state to the degree that the UK and the rest of Old Europe have the people simply lose the will to exert themselves in any way much more difficult than a trip to the video rental or the liquor store.