The Liberal line of modernism

Whenever there is a debate between liberals and conservatives about the EU, multiculturalism or reform, one of the favourite arguments used by Liberals is something along the lines of: "Well you've got to get with the times. Things are changing and we have to accept globalism".

That argument gets my back up because it is so illogical and ignorant. Let me explain why.

Britain has always been a nation that punches above her weight. As a small island, we have achieved political, financial, artistical and sporting success well out of proportion to our size. These phenomenal successes have been based around our system of 'conservative progress'.

What I mean by that term is not that we use outmoded or inflexible government, but rather, we base our progress around steady, established laws and customs. Not since the Magna Carta (the first ever 'bill of rights' )has Britain ever used a written constitution. We've never needed to, because we have been very infrequent with coups, revolutions or massive overhauls. Even the "glorious revolution" of the seventeenth century resulted in a new bill of rights and an end to absolute monarchy!

As a result we have established a system of common law, rights and customs that have progressed and adapted gently, backed up by a core set of values and identity. That's why our House of Parliament has served as a model for many others, and the adversarial nature of our debates have changed little since Charles 1st sent his soldiers to arrest MP's during a debate in 1640.

So when Liberals talk of conservatives of being "afraid of change", I wonder what change it is that liberals actually want? Do they want to scrap the Magna Carta? Overthrow our system of common law and start over? What are the progressive changes they are looking for? Do they want to smash the ideology that has allowed them the education and awareness to spout their nonsense? Because if so, we need to make damn sure we have something pretty special to replace it with.

To say we should "get with the times" and accept the sweeping changes of EU nationalism, multiculturalism and various other Marxist ideologies on the Labour agenda as no more sensible than suggesting we scrap the English language because it is old.

English has grown from a tiny provincial language used in England into the world's language. It achieved this because it is rich, flexible (Shakespeare used nouns, verbs and adjectives in ways they had never been used before) and progressive (it acquires new vocabulary for each dialect) yet it is unmistakably English in character. In fact our language is the perfect representation of what is great about Britain or England and its conservative nature and traditions.

Now I wonder: with Blair and Brown planning a written constitution - not just for the EU but for the UK - unprecedented EU powers and a wave of political correctness, how long will it be before he imposes some kind of Orwellian reforms to our language, too?