jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (08/31/84)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From the Jersey Journal (New Jersey) Thursday, August 30, 1984 .............................................................. A recent study published in England by Social and Community Planning, a research group contained the following results: The influx of Asians, Africans and West Indians into Britain has increased racial discord, especially in urban areas. Thus 90% of the British polled acknowledged that prejudice exists and 30% admitted that they themselves are biased against immigrants. This attitude is partly related to unemployment which has reached record highs. But 70% of the British maintain that job opportunities are a function of social class, an indication that they still consider Britain to be a bastion of priviledge determined by birth, wealth and education. Of those polled, 65% of men questioned confessed to driving under the influence of alcohol. Though they adore military pageantry, the British have little sympathy for the armed forces. Only 28% favor the presence of troops in Northern Ireland, the scene of civil strife, and would welcome a British withdrawal from the area. The richest country in Europe 25 years ago, Britain currently ranks below France and West Germany, its standard of living roughly on a par with that of Spain and Italy. Its per capita income puts it in a bracket with Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and a former colony, Hong Kong. Stripped of their empire, in short, the British have slid sharply down the economic scale, and the glory of their past is just a memory.