Sky Views: A tougher world has changed Britain
Wednesday 7 June 2017 09:29, UK
Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent
Turns out 12 years is a heck of a long time.
Long enough, certainly, for a country to morph into a different one. Short enough to feel like it has happened in the blink of an eye.
It's not entirely surprising, I guess, that Britain, 12 years ago, appeared a very different place.
At the time, Facebook had only been been going for a year, Twitter hadn't yet launched, there were no iPhones, both WhatsApp and Instagram didn't exist, the Arab Spring hadn't happened, millions of people were yet to trudge to Europe in the biggest migration since the Second World War, and Islamic State had not been formed.
Yet, to me it still feels like a ridiculously short time. It is only 12 summers; 12 birthdays and 12 times you might have written festive greetings.
Twelve years ago, there was a pretty seismic event closer to home - my home.
My family and I left Britain to travel and work in a range of countries outside the United Kingdom.
What kept on striking me was how all these different people from vastly different backgrounds... are all crammed onto this relatively small island and somehow expected to get on
In the interim, events both inside and outside Britain have moulded and shaped the views of those all crowded together on the island.
Over the past few weeks, I've been discovering just how disparate those views are.
A British convert to Islam told me how accepting people were when she became a Muslim.
"I'm so happy and fortunate to be born to be in Britain and that I'm British," she said.
She believes it's not nearly so easy to be a Muslim in other countries.
But she also teaches kickboxing self-defence classes to other Muslim women who fear attacks.
Her fellow Muslim friends (many also converts) told how they felt vulnerable wearing their hijabs. Islamaphobia swells and grows with every terror assault, they said, and British Muslims have to endure the backlash.
A white hotel owner from Essex took me for a spin in his Lamborghini along the Southend seafront and told me his concerns over Britain losing its "Britishness" because of the large number of immigrants coming to the country.
"We're full up," he said.
A black businessman admitted he had started his own modelling agency for ethnic minorities because they weren't getting the roles due to their skin colour.
"If you're a white employer you may just want to employ someone who's like you," he said.
"I think its a reflex thing… it's not racist per se."
One of his British Asian models said the Brexit vote made her feel rejected in her home country.
Both said they wanted to leave Britain because they believe their skin colour will be less of an impediment to success elsewhere.
Three generations of a family of sheep farmers in Bridgend spoke of their passion and pride for Wales, but how they worked all hours just to keep their business ticking over.
They have been helped by EU handouts for years, yet they're desperate to break free from Europe and start afresh.
An Eritrean refugee confessed she would probably never feel really British, despite being in the country for well over a decade, having a British passport, and rearing a daughter who has gone on to win national ice skating medals.
She works at helping other asylum seekers integrate, teaching them English: "That is the biggest barrier and there are lots" - and generally trying to "give back" to the country that has offered her shelter.
A Scottish paramedic team in Aberdeen told us how forgotten they felt by the rest of the United Kingdom, how they loved their job despite the relentless demands, but wouldn't want their own children to follow them into the career because of all the death and tragedy they witness.
Britain HAS changed, no doubt - it couldn't not. The world has too.
But what kept on striking me was how all these different people, from vastly different backgrounds, doing very different jobs and holding markedly different views, speaking in different accents, but all with British passports, are all crammed onto this relatively small island - and somehow expected to get on.
It has largely become a much tougher, less tolerant, more isolationist globe altogether. Is anyone really surprised that Britain may well be a reflection of what's going on worldwide?
There are people out there who feel cut off, excluded, threatened, passionate about their heritage and defensive about perceived threats to it.
The 95-year-old Welsh sheep farmer who is still working on his family business made the most poignant comment when asked about the biggest change he's seen.
He paused, then said: 'Helpfulness… everyone used to help one another.
"Now there's a tendency of 'what's in it for me?'"
Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published every weekday morning.
Previously on Sky Views: John Sparks - Putin can't fix Russia's economy