Often, I am asked by friends “what is the mission of the Daily Globe?” Usually, they want me to pigeon-hole the site. They want to know if the Daily Globe is a political website, a social website, a rant website- they want to know what exactly is the Daily Globe? So in this column, I will attempt to define it for everyone. What is the Daily Globe all about? In one sentence: it is about British Values with a Global Perspective.
Now many might be wondering, what are British values? David Cameron and other political leaders have attempted to define British Values as individual rights, respect for rule of law, tolerance of others etc. And I think Cameron and his Conservative party are basically correct in that assessment and are right to promote it. For too long Labour emphasised Multiculturalism over British values and that is partly why, in my opinion, some ethnic communities were ghettoized to the point where we had radical jihadists, sharia law and illegal gangs operating freely in places like Rotterham, Tower Hamlets, and Birmingham. Thus, I think the government is right in intent (maybe not completely in all their proposals, some encroach too far on civil liberties) to try to tackle extremism and re-enforce a sense of Britishness in the United Kingdom. However, I would go farther than the government in promoting British values, at the Daily Globe we believe British values are universal.
As I wrote in my first article on this site, the globe needs the United Kingdom today. In the past, (though the record was not perfect) it was the British that brought the globe the concept of liberty protected by the rule of law, representative democracy, capitalism and free trade, and the abolition of abhorrent practices such as slavery or wives being forced to throw themselves on the burning funeral pyre of their husbands. The British helped save the world from many great tyrannies ranging over centuries. However, today “British Values” are no longer confined to just Great Britain. They belong to Americans and Indians, Mexicans and Australians, Canadians and South Africans and Swiss. They are global. They belong to every freedom loving person everywhere.
So how does this love of freedom and British values tie in with the Daily Globe and how it operates? I would say in two ways. The first way is from the purely British perspective. Because the Daily Globe wants a Great Britain that is truly democratic and has the ability to engage the world as it pleases, we are categorically supporters of leaving the European Union. The Daily Globe loves Europe, its rich history, and its diversity of people. And we want Great Britain to trade with Europe. But we categorically reject the idea of having unelected European bureaucrats over-rule the will of the British people expressed in Parliament. Parliament must be supreme- to trade, to make immigration laws, and to prosecute criminals and in all other areas. The Daily Globe believes rather, that the EU nations should be a small part of a complete global engagement. The EU is declining and is a shrinking part of the global economy. Great Britain should have the authority to decide how she wants to diversify who it trades with for the prosperity of her citizens. So from an editorial perspective, the Daily Globe is pro-liberty and anti-EU.
Secondly, the Daily Globe wants its writers to be people who come from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences and support British values. We want writers of all walks of life, British yes, but also any other nation around the globe. We want men and women, white, black, brown, and yellow, young and old, straight and gay, tall, short, beach-body ready or not, to come join the Daily Globe’s conversation. We want your thoughts on everything ranging from philosophy to poetry to art to food to education to travel to whatever you think the world needs to hear.
British values are about openness to the globe and personal empowerment. The Daily Globe is here to promote those British values all over the globe. Join Us.