Our loss of pride began with the end of National Service
I AM a three-times graduate. My first graduation was as an infantry officer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; my second at the University of Reading, in agricultural economics; my third from the College of Traditional Acupuncture, Leamington Spa, where I studied and practised for seven years. Sandhurst taught me to uphold my nation and even be prepared to die for it. Acupuncture taught me an unending patience for the infirm of our society. University was a disappointment, as there were too many school-leavers with no real purpose for being there. Public schools once taught obedience to the system, an ideal preparation for civil servants, while state-schooled pupils went around feeling wronged and disadvantaged. But the public school ethos of service without personal reward has changed, due to the influence of big money interests. It may now be a prerequisite for political success, but being focused on globalisation does not lead to an understanding of national loyalty and cohesion. There are far too many in the corporate world and politics who will sell out the people to foreigners with vast money reserves who have never paid a penny of income tax. Ever since national military service was stopped, subsequent generations have a very low understanding of the value of our nation. Unused to any notion of defending their ground and devoid of the tools to enable them to stand firm, university graduates especially submit too readily to perceived higher and more threatening powers, such as the European Union and militant Islam. They believe they can buy their way out of trouble by effectively bribing others with aid in the false hope that the recipients will then like them. I believe academia is at the heart of this loss of national pride and dignity.
PHILIP HODSON, Newmarket, Suffolk.