LETTER: Common set of ‘basics’ for all


Just as the word ‘progress’ does not automatically mean better, neither does ‘back to basics’ necessarily mean a return to a time of better values or behaviour.
To take a very recent example, do we want a return to the values that fuelled the recent financial crisis? Those were pretty basic motivators – the strongest being greed.
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Hide AdMy mother left school aged 13 to leave home, travel 200 miles and work in service for a large family in a large house. At 5am she could be found ‘blacking the grate’.
True enough, she had food on the table, and I am sure the family she worked for saw having servants as a basic right – but would we want to return to the ‘basics’ of those days?
People today have greater expectations and ambitions than their parents and grandparents. They expect a safer, fairer society with greater opportunity. And so they should.
The fact that food banks need to exist in modern Britain is shameful.
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Hide AdThe phrase ‘back to basics’ can mean different things to different people. A lot of the time it’s used to mean ‘those particular values I agree with’.
Perhaps we could find a way to agree on a common set of ‘basics’ that any society should adopt.
As a start, what about including: compassion and equality of opportunity? Come to think of it, although it’s not strictly a ‘value’, perhaps we should include freedom from hunger as well?
ANDREW GLEW
Threals Lane, West Chiltington