BACK TO THE LAND IN BRITAIN
(Page 7 of 9)
The British airwaves were made even more attractive just
before the last national elections when the Socialist Labor
Party inaugurated a "University of the Air", now broadcast
over both TV and radio. Anyone, including tourists and
visitors, can enroll and—apart from a two-week
"summing up" session at an actual university—whole
courses in a full range of subjects can be taken via a
radio and a television set. The program is not quite free
(although the lectures are, of course). There's a nominal
enrollment fee to cover correspondence course mailings and
a few books and "Open U" publications to buy . . . but you
certainly receive a great deal for that small investment.
For further details (enclose a dollar if you expect a
weighty reply), write:
RELATED CONTENT
National Extension College
8 Shaftesbury Road
Cambridge, ENGLAND
In the field of "ordinary" education and child care, the
British government provides pre-school schools for the
children of working mothers; milk, vitamins, juice, etc.
for preschool children; and free education all the way up.
A back- to-the-lander will enjoy still other "extras" of
the Good Life in Britain. Consider medical care: to an
Englishman, medical treatment of all kinds is a
constitutional right. The idea that it be withheld
from—or not sought by—those unable to afford it
seems criminally wrong. Throughout the British Isles, all
the following benefits and services are free of charge,
regardless of income (many are also available, as a
courtesy, to foreign visitors): treatment or visits from a
physician; prescribed medications; hospitalization with any
and all treat ment given; all aspects of maternity care,
including at-home and hospital births; prenatal and
antenatal clinics.
Perhaps I should stress that it is never compulsory (as
many Americans presume) for a citizen to accept whatever
the state provides in the British Isles. The alternative of
purchasing the service or substituting another on your own
is always there.
And still more possibilities for Good Living in the United
Kingdom: farm houses (redundant after farm amalgamations)
for rent at $11 per week; town houses WITHOUT land, selling
outright at $1500 (no "O's" left off there!);
live-in-and-help-crew motor yacht cruises on the Thames and
English Channel at $30 weekly and less, all inclusive.
There are many more such gains and very few regretable
losses to take into account. In short, I think a North
American looking for an easier pace and simpler living will
find Britain similar enough to "home" to minimize losses in
transit but different enough to overcompensate in gains. No
one—least of all the British—calls the United
Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
perfect. But perhaps, like democracy, the U.K. is "the
least bad" of a kind.
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