In the wake of Euro and local elections in which Ukip almost swept the country, it’s the perfect time to look at our national insularity. 

Before I critique our entire national culture, let me say to any Daily Mail-reading Ralph Miliband detractors out there, this article is an entirely constructive exercise.

“Blighty,” as Nigel Farage might call it with real ale-induced jingoism, is becoming alarmingly inward-looking. This isn’t new of course — “small island syndrome” is intrinsic to Britain’s history — there is more than simply 22 miles of water between us and the continent. As Churchill wrote in 1930: “We are with Europe, but not of it.”

Our lack of international outlook is remedied little by the government or our education system. In 2008 Think Global, concentrating on 11-18 year olds, found many shortcomings in the way schools address global learning. 

One in five of those surveyed said they hadn’t discussed news stories from around the world at all in school. 

Michael Gove’s attempt to redraft the national history curriculum in favour of an uncritical celebration of English history and the yearly decline in foreign language learners are further signs of a country forever navelgazing. 

Such educational neglect is staggering considering the proven benefits of encouraging a global outlook. The same study found that students who had been taught about world affairs were “more likely than average to be open to people of different backgrounds, be more keen to learn about world problems and try and make the world a better place.”

Combined with the current government’s anti-Europe and anti-immigrant stance, young people in Britain today are worryingly overexposed to insular, Anglo-centric attitudes.

The government has categorically failed in addressing issues of global ignorance but not only that, it has encouraged a kind of narrow British nationalism and a downplaying of the importance of international development. 

Its anti-immigrant scaremongering was seen most grotesquely in its line of “Go home” bigot-mobiles it proudly showboated through London streets like BNP-themed flotillas. In short, the overwhelming evidence is that the Cameron crew are looking for anything but a socially responsible, outward-looking populace.

Insularity is markedly more threatening in times of recession such as today. When so many are living with so little, and young people see a country forever stuck in recovery mode, finding scapegoats is made an easy task. 

The Tories know that to cut away the tendrils of Ukip would be to threaten a state of mind common in the country - that of “it’s not us, it’s them” — which keeps the finger of blame away from their policies.

David Cameron has retracted his labelling of Ukip as “fruitcakes” and “closet racists,” and EU involvement has been debated on Ukip’s terms. Almost half of Conservative activists now want Cameron to forge some sort of pact with Ukip before the 2015 general election.

When following the immigration debate, the narrative is all about the “hordes” of eastern Europeans coming here, the impending crime wave and the jobs “they” will take from “us.” The framing of the debate denies us knowledge of an outside world we cannot afford to disassociate from. Romania and Bulgaria are depicted as far-away countries, people of whom we know nothing, when actually they deserve our full attention.

If we want to see Britain’s humanitarian obligations respected we must also develop an internationalist attitude, now more than ever. The coalition only began providing sanctuary to Syrian refugees after a U-turn due to pressure from charities and Labour, and have still held out against becoming full members of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), a scheme in which 18 other countries are participating.

We need to honour our international responsibilities especially since our government has played an active part in destabilising Syria, where the refugee crisis has seen millions flee their homes. 

The 2010 Think Global study found that half of those who had learnt about world poverty since school agreed that despite the pressure on public finances, the UK should meet its commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid. By contrast, only one fifth of those who had little knowledge of global issues agreed.

Even if one was to accept the myopic argument that we need to focus on “our own problems,” ironically, insularity has a damaging domestic impact. 

Without the means to find out about global problems, a third of the population are neither involved in, nor want to be involved in, any form of positive social action according to the Think Global study. 

In order to ascertain why so many of us fall victim to “small island syndrome,” it is also important to look at other sources of information in our society that are failing us.

The media have been referred as the “unelected legislators,” with unmatched power over public attitudes and knowledge of world affairs. Bearing this in mind, and the way in which information in the public domain is sourced from the these unaccountable bastions of private power, the fact that there is no form of education about consuming the media is astounding. 

We are presented with so many compromised sources about world issues, and are not equipped to use our critical faculties. 

The coverage of the Romania and Bulgaria immigration debate was anything but balanced. Romania’s ambassador to Britain, Ion Jinga, mocked right-wing newspapers that gathered at airports on New Year’s Day expecting a flood of immigrants, comparing them to Beckett’s Waiting for Godot characters, Vladimir and Estragon.

The press will always operate in this manner, focusing on salacious gossip while ignoring or misreporting global affairs. Social media users and campaigning organisations must find ways to break through this barrage of distortion and offer alternative views on world reportage, otherwise the gap between popular and important news stories will become ever wider. 

So here we are in the year 2014, and about to plunge into a commemoration of the outbreak of World War I, which Gove has already made Anglo-centric with his comments about British soldiers fighting for “Western liberal values” against the Jerry. In the end it’s Farage and his ilk who are the main beneficiaries of this continuing obsession with ourselves.