"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It’s often meant we have stood neutral between different values. And that’s helped foster a narrative of extremism and grievance.
“This government will conclusively turn the page on this failed approach. As the party of one nation, we will govern as one nation and bring our country together. That means actively promoting certain values.
“Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law. Equal rights regardless of race, gender or sexuality.
“We must say to our citizens: this is what defines us as a society.”
Here is the source.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/13/counter-terrorism-bill-extremism-disruption-orders-david-cameron
]]>Smaller nations and states are a means of preserving cultural and political diversity, and making governments more responsive to the people.
The problem with smaller nations and states is that they are have a hard time defending themselves against larger nations and large corporations.
Here in the USA, large corporations can get pretty much anything they want from state governments by threatening to pull up stakes and move to another state. To some extent, they can do the same thing to the national government by threatening to move overseas.
The solution, I suppose, is to have smaller nation-states and more powerful international organizations. The problem with that, at least in the short term, is that all the existing international organizations - the IMF, WTO, etc. - exercise quasi-governmental powers, but on behalf of global banks and corporations.
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