Re: Bnp
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bifta
I'm curious as to how our culture has changed, and what exactly it's changed from due to immigration. It's made no noticeable difference on my lifestyle. Personally I'm struggling to think of one aspect of British "culture" that actually needs preserving.
|
This is part of the problem. Immigration into the UK has been largely concentrated on a few urban areas. That means large parts of the UK simply don't understand claims that we have become a 'multicultural' society, and some parts of the UK feel threatened because they live near to a neighbourhood that has accommodated large numbers of immigrants and their descendents.
In both cases, there is a risk of so-called 'native' British people resenting demands to accommodate other cultures. So far as the majority of this country is concerned, it's the race relations industry that is to blame for this. We are constantly told that we are 'multicultural' when as an entire nation we quite plainly are not. I suspect that (as usual) London is to blame for this; London is extremely multicultural and there is as we know a tendency for some to fail to see the difference between London and the UK as a whole. In those areas where there has been a large concentration of immigration, blame is a little harder to apportion, I think. Those who came here naturally wanted the security of their 'own kind' in a strange land. It would have been wrong to deny them that but perhaps we could have done more in the way of British citizenship 'training' to make it easier for them to integrate into British life without losing their own heritage or cultural identities. As a people, perhaps we could have been more welcoming too. There's nothing like an atmosphere of hostility to make you want to seek safety in numbers.
None of the above, however, justifies the stance of the BNP. There is no such thing as a British monoculture. Yes, there are certain things that we all have in common but there is plenty of diversity. Just try convincing a Yorkshireman that he has anything in common with those soft southerners. And what have the Welsh got in common with the Scots, except an inability to play football and an almost comical hatred of all things English ;) :D ? We are an island populated entirely by immigrants, with a wide range of traditions. Some of us arrived 40,000 years ago; some a mere 1,500 years ago, plenty more came here in the last 100 years. Why should the BNP draw an arbitrary line in history and declare all immigration after a certain time to be unacceptable? Worse, why should they determine ancient immigration from continental Europe as acceptable because they are genetically more similar to 'us' than immigrants who came from further afield? The very notion is absurd. |
