Britain in Crisis?

Is Great Britain in crisis?

With the arrests of nine men in Birmingham over the alleged plot to kidnap a British solider on his return to Britain and televise him being beheaded, the recent drama about "racism" in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Britain's steel maker Corus being sold to India's Tata, Scotland's ever increasing call for the break up of "the Union" and many other such stories, one can't help but feel Britain is in crisis.

It's sad to think that a tiny, but growing number of British Muslims, are willing to kill another British person in a bid to divide our culturally rich land. What these extremists do by their "racist" attacks on other Britons, is create new extremists from the white community. As I listen to every day conversations I have a sense that we are heading for a future melt down. Where communities have lived side by side for many years in peace and tolerance, the work of extreme Muslims and right wing Brits will undo the good intergration and "force" people to a more extreme view.

Britain as we know it is changing, culturally and economically and we need to guard against taking the narrow minded view, but at the same time we need to openly discuss issues as they arise - as seen by the Big Brother "race" issue recently. While you may not agree with the outcome, the fact it raised healthy debates about race/upbringing/ignorance/bullying/minorities and caused the nation to examine itself and its attitudes more closely.

The business world has changed as China and India become the emerging powers and counties like Great Britain, that once ruled the business world, become secondary. The sale of Corus (formally British Steel) to India's Tata demonstrates this clearly that things have turned. As we become "weaker" the 300 year Act of Union between England and Scotland looks increasingly likely to fall apart as the Scots call for independence.

All of these stories lead to the question "Is Britain in Crisis?" - 2007 will be an interesting year in answering this very question.