Tuesday 8 February 2011

Multicultural Britain

When you are shit on from a great height people tend to do one of three things. Either they form a circle of wagons with their fellow travelling companions and resist and possibly fight back, or as an individual they lash out, or they cow tow to those that shit.

I firmly believe that Oscar Wilde was right when he said that “patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel”. I have deep suspicions of anyone who is nationalistic, patriotic or even proud of their country. National identity is yet another tool for the ruling elite to oppress the rest of us with.

What the fuck is “being British” about anyway?

It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about the “Big Society” or “Multicultural Britain” it’s all meaningless unless the rules are changed. A cohesive society can only be achieved if everybody is treated the same and if everybody has the same life chances. A few do-gooders doing charity work are not going to change the fundamental inequalities that exist in the UK today. Until this happens communities will remain cellular and inward looking. People are not going to leave the relative safety of their own little worlds and integrate if there is no incentive to do so. It doesn’t matter if you are a banker living on caviar and champagne in palatial splendour, or if you are unemployed and living in cold and mouldy social housing, you are going to stay in your own little world if society dictates it to be so. The odds against social mobility are so heavily stacked that any pretence at a flat and opportunity ridden Britain are just laughable.

There is no definition of Britishness. The nearest thing to it would be some kind of lowest common denominator fudge that would suit no one. I’m a white middle-aged upper working-class man who is interested in politics and the arts. I hate sport with a passion. The stereotypical world of the Sun-reading, X-Factor, Eastenders, football, bingo, burger munching and lager-swilling brigade is a totally alien culture to me. As is the bigoted world of the Daily Mail-reading, Big Question viewing, Jeremy Vine listening, golf club knobbing, Chicken Tikka Masala scoffing, Shiraz necking, Beemer polishing lightweight. We don’t have multiculturalism amongst the indigenous white people of Britain so how the hell can we expect others to integrate?

Starting with a blank sheet of paper and given the task of defining qualifications for being British my number one rule would be ‘celebrate our nations diversity’.



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