Doffing the Cap

There is a trend in the media, in politics, even in the population as a whole, to down-talk Britain's position in the world. With the latest round of the EU debacle coming to the fore, with Israel once again bringing the middle east to the brink of general war, with the US making noises about withdrawning from the European theatre to focus on the East, there has been plenty of opportunity for the nay-sayers to remind everyone, at volume, that Britain is no longer a world player. 

They're wrong.

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Tempted as I am to stop there, I'm never-the-less going to go on to give a defense of Britain. We should be proud to be British, and we should be proud of British power in the world. While we may not be a match for the United States or China anymore we are still a titan amongst the nation's of the world. At our command is the power to end in the world in nuclear fire, to end world hunger and poverty, to reach the distant stars. That we make poor use of that power is an undeniable fact, but its time we took a stand against the rot that is making people doubt that we ever had it.

As a bit of context there are 206 sovereign states in the world.

So compared to these 205 competitors, where does Britain stand?

Economics

Britain is/has;

The seventh largest economy in the world by nominal GDP.

The eight-largest by purchasing power parity (i.e. accounting for costs)

A member of the G7, G8 and G20 (all three of the 'big economy' clubs).

London is the (joint) centre of the global finance industry, and the city with the largest GDP in Europe.

Britain contributes the third highest number of scientific papers of any country in the world.

Four of the world's top 10 universities.

Politics

Britain is;

One of only five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and has been since it's inception in 1946.

Arguably 'first amongst equals' of the British Commonwealth, which includes 54 countries.

A member of the Council of Europe and the Council of the European Union (in which we have the joint largest number of votes).

Has a seat on the WTO (left vacant now due to the EU minister taking all decisions for Europe)

Military

Britain is/has

The fourth largest defense budget in the world

Second biggest contributor to NATO (in £s)

One of only nine nuclear armed states

A slightly suspect rating of the "5th" highest firepower in the world from the firmly tongue-in-cheek Global Firepower . com


I could probably drag this list on ad infinitum, but I think the point has been made. On the whole Britain is not a two bit player with an over-inflated ego, we are consistently in the top 5% of nation's in the world using just about any measure you want.

Is also bears point out that the two super-powers of today are conglomerates. Both the US and China's gigantic economics and militaries are based of them being a collection of what, in Europe, would be separate nations.  The relationship between the US and Europe comes far more into focus if you consider Europe as a whole, or individual states against individual European countries.

(Just to put that in perspective the European economy is 13% larger then the US economy, despite the current crippling economic problems).

There may come a time when Britain's role in the world has faded, there may be a time when the Old World finally is forgotten by the New and the Developing one. But it's not here yet. and its time people start remembering that.

/Z