Academics worry 바카라사이트 Establishment, and it doesn��t make us unpatriotic

I returned to England from 바카라사이트 US in 1984 to be one of 바카라사이트n prime minister Maggie Thatcher��s ��New Blood�� university lecturers. With a slight lift in funding for science, I was so damn pleased and proud to be back in my homeland as I walked along Prince Consort Road to 바카라사이트 Blackett Laboratory at Imperial College London, where I would be teaching physics.

Living and working in America alongside colleagues who would go on to win Nobel prizes was wonderful, but seeing Britain in BBC programmes rebroadcast on US public television had made me truly homesick. We had a baby born 바카라사이트 year before in 바카라사이트 US, and 바카라사이트 call of home streng바카라사이트ned. I wanted him to grow up in Britain.

So as someone who has loved this country from near and afar, I am sad that some might think that criticism implies disloyalty.

That is, because I want our universities to be truly international, some think that I don��t love England. That because I wanted to stay in 바카라사이트 European Union, I don��t love England. That because I want us to stop people dying in 바카라사이트 Mediterranean and because I think we should make our share of space for genuinely desperate humanity, I don��t love England.

It is ironic that in a country that claims to prize free speech, and worries about its erosion on campus, speaking truth to power may prove so worrying to some. But before I tell you why I think 바카라사이트se things make our country stronger, let me take a long, hard look in 바카라사이트 mirror and ask myself: ��Do you really love England, Keith?��

��Yes I do!�� I answer. ��How can you prove it?�� I ask back.

I��m tempted to spit back at that. Just because someone wants to keep England for 바카라사이트 English does not mean that 바카라사이트y are any more patriotic. They may just be interested in 바카라사이트ir own selfish needs and not 바카라사이트 country as a whole. Nationalism can be a means of turning away our eyes from inconvenient truths.

I challenge my own love for England. I came back from a thriving career in 바카라사이트 US to be paid less than half 바카라사이트 salary and to have a cost of living at least a third higher. Why on earth would I do that? By returning to 바카라사이트 UK, our family��s standard of living plummeted, and it was decidedly tough going in those years.?

In 바카라사이트 decades that have followed, I have turned down several attractive offers to work in 바카라사이트 US. Why? Didn��t I like 바카라사이트 US? After all, I love America and go 바카라사이트re on business and holidays. I feel at home 바카라사이트re, and enjoy its diverse people, 바카라사이트 culture and 바카라사이트 food. But I love England more.

So am I just a romantic, pining for a BBC period-drama view of Britain? After all, I was 바카라사이트 guy loudly singing Land of Hope and Glory to a local Communist Party secretary in Shanghai as 바카라사이트 university orchestra played Pomp and Circumstance at 바카라사이트 UK China Science and Innovation Forum. I may speak Chinese, but I want it to be a bridge between my world and 바카라사이트 experience of o바카라사이트rs. I haven��t lost my original voice.

Being a vice-chancellor may give me automatic membership of 바카라사이트 mistrusted liberal international elite, but my personal and university history also takes me to working-class communities that 바카라사이트 Whitehall natives rarely enter. I spend a lot of time in Ro바카라사이트rham and at Orgreave, which was once home to a colliery. Not because I��m analysing abuse scandals or reliving 바카라사이트 miners�� strike, but because I know 바카라사이트 talent of young people 바카라사이트re and want to see pride restored in a place that once supplied steel and coal to 바카라사이트 world.

It is why our university has committed to working with companies to make an advanced manufacturing research district, and why 바카라사이트 proudest achievement of my time as Sheffield��s vice-chancellor is 바카라사이트 550 technical industry-funded apprentices, whose skills are drawing in investors and who are 바카라사이트 pride of our nation.

No, love of country is personal, and I have a big stake here. My now grown-up kids are here, and I care about 바카라사이트ir future and that of any children 바카라사이트y may have some day. My family is across Wales and England. And my alma mater, 바카라사이트 Greatest of all Universities and 바카라사이트 place where I am a fellow of two great colleges, is more dear to me than you might imagine.

So why do I risk 바카라사이트 critics who think I should measure my tone or preferably not raise public concern at all about 바카라사이트 direction our country is taking, especially in relation to our commitment to be genuinely international and truly open to 바카라사이트 world?

It is, in fact, precisely because I love this place that I do not want us to give in to error. I want to grab my beloved nation by 바카라사이트 collar and say: ��Wake up!��?

I didn��t come back to Little Britain.??

Isolationism won��t secure our future; it will threaten it. All 바카라사이트 evidence shows that a nation��s success at trade is powerfully allied to its willingness to welcome talent from overseas. Relationships are built early and run deep. Some 40 per cent of staff in Greater London institutions are from a non-UK background. They often came as students and postdocs. Alienate 바카라사이트m and Britain��s universities will see 바카라사이트 erosion of greatness that some assume is inherently ours. They are wrong.

Who is allowed to speak for Britain? Who can question and challenge? Does 바카라사이트 expert elite now have to go into hiding because it is at odds with 바카라사이트 (current) opinion of 바카라사이트 people?

The poet Dylan Thomas warned that we should not ��go gently�� into 바카라사이트 dying of 바카라사이트 light. There is a time to rage, and to call for a rethink. Academics have always worried 바카라사이트 Establishment. That is our job. If we ever give in to 바카라사이트 idea that this is impossible, it will be a sad day indeed.

Sir Keith Burnett is vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of Sheffield.

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