By Neil Coupe

I have never been asked what my favourite letter is. A favourite food, even a favourite colour, but never a favourite letter. If I were to be asked, I think I would choose ‘B’.

So many memorable phrases seem to start with the letter ‘B’. Maybe ‘B’ has a comforting gentle sound. It has a nice double-spherical shape. Its curves are so much more friendly than the straight lines of a no-nonsense T, E, Y, or a L for example.

It is the letter of celebration – a Birth, a Baby, a Baptism, a Bar mitzvah. Who does not like the concept of a Blushing Bride?

We all understand and like the idea of ‘Bobbies on the Beat’ and admire the hard-working ‘Busy Bees’.

Music is covered from Beethoven to the Beatles, without needing to consider Brahms, Bob, Bruce, Billy or even Bono.

B has traditionally been a great source of alliterative political campaigning.

Black and white footage from the 1960’s shows peace campaigners in Aldermaston with their Ban the Bomb placards. Who can forget the Burn your Bra protests at the 1968 Miss America beauty pageants, heralding a new era of feminism?

During the 1970s the instinctive answer to any unruly behaviour was always to Bring Back the Birch.

As recently as 2012, a petition was submitted to Parliament to bring it back, and allow judges to impose sentences of between three and 30 lashes according to the severity of the crime.

It would be nice to think that at least one of the seven signatories to the afore-mentioned petition is reading this.

A couple of ‘B’ based slogans have entered so snugly into the lexicon of public consciousness that they are almost accepted as fact.

Brussels Bureaucrats were always an easy scapegoat for the perceived failings of the EU – would Boris have got his Brexit without the bane of Brussels Bureaucrats?

This brings us to David Cameron’s famous slogan about ‘Broken Britain’ at the end of the Blair and Brown era. This is the one phrase that seems to reflect the unarguable consensus view that the country has failed, that it has ‘gone to the dogs’. A view that lingers to this day.

Is this really the case?

There is no doubt that the UK faces challenges and it is easy to point to examples of where our resources are not perfectly allocated.

I recently had the good fortune to visit the beautiful but largely mysterious country of Georgia. As our travelling companions were extremely friendly, we found ourselves involved in conversations with several different people.

Georgia had been invaded by Russia as recently as 2008, and one day we found ourselves in a cable car with a Ukranian woman and two Russian-speaking Israelis.

One gentleman was glowing with pride as he told of how his son had managed to gain a scholarship to join a famous English Public School in Year 12. Within 12 months he had become Deputy Head Boy, and had managed to get two weeks of work experience with a Cabinet Minister. Broken Britain or the Land of Opportunity?

We found ourselves in conversation with a bright young female entrepreneur who had raised investment for an app to enable drivers to automate paying for their petrol using their mobile phone. Her ambition? Despite being unsuccessful with her applications in 2021 and 2023, to one day get a visa to pursue her ambitions in the UK.

Should we bemoan Broken Britain or should we feel Blessed to be British?

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