England, my England |
The country I grew up in 70 years ago no longer exists.
Post-war England was a land where people were emerging from a period of hardship and austerity. There was a sense of solidarity within and between different groups, whether based on religion or ethnicity, and what interested most people was the success or failure of their favourite football team, the comings and goings of the Royal Family and the weather.
It was a country of ‘live and let live,’ of free education and free health services for all. One where the daily newspapers reported political events in measured tones, and only a few of them were in tabloid form. It was a time when no one shouted in public or thought of carrying a knife. It was an era that could be called ‘pre-Murdoch.’ It was only in 1969, five years after I left England to live in Israel, that Rupert Murdoch bought up several British newspapers and, in my opinion, brought down the tone and level of reporting of the entire English........