Update cont 223 Jan 2019 07:50
Given a choice, would you currently trust £1bn to UK institutions and our rule of law, or those in Saudi Arabia, Iran or China? Whilst that remains the case, being in the EU or outside the EU is secondary to our future success. But if we allow our institutions and rule of law to be further degraded by our current ruling elite, then the predictions of “Catastrophe” and “National Suicide” really would come about, whether we are in the EU or not. And don’t forget this is an EU ruled by an elite even further out of touch with the populace than those in Britain: its decision making vies with North Korea for most secretive; and there has not been any high profile EU figure that has ever been held to account for any greed, incompetence or corruption, despite the accounts not being given a clean bill of health for decades previously.
Now contrast the bumbling incompetence and cringeworthy behaviour of our ruling elite with the confidence and assurance of the Britain built by our ancestors. This is the Reverend John Eadie writing in c1860; and these are not the claims of a politician seeking election, but taken from the Forward of the Family Bibles then found in homes up and down the Country:
“The glory of our land is not only in its profusion of Bibles, but its Protestant liberty of studying and diffusing sacred truth without molestation or hindrance. The Word of God is within the reach of everyone, and neither the reading nor the circulation of it is by authority proscribed. This sacred privilege, won for us by the toil and blood of our fathers, is a prime element of our national greatness. That illustrious rank which our country occupies has been secured for it as much by its Christian institutions as by scientific discoveries, maritime adventure, and mercantile enterprise. Its peace – its liberties – its social progress – its mechanical inventions – its means of mental culture and refinement – its numerous organisations for the relief of want, misery, disease, and old age – its myriads of ploughs, forges, looms, and ships - its vast power and extent of dominion - has really sprung from that impulse, dignity, industry, and self-respect, which Christianity creates or deepens among people who receive it in its original purity and integrity. Christian civilisation necessarily leads to genuine and permanent greatness; for liberty, fraternity, and equality, in the highest and widest sense, can only flourish under the shadow of the Cross. While the Bible brings salvation to everyone who receives it as the Word of God – and this is its great and primary mission – it also soothes and elevates the temporal condition of man. “The life that now is“ is not beyond its sphere of salutary influence. The fruits of the “tree of life” refresh and satisfy the saved, but its “leaves“ are, at the same time, “for the healing of the nations.” No wonder that our reflecting and pious people hold scripture in such high veneration, and excel all other countries in their