Apparently, according to a headline introducing a weekly Telegraph podcast, “Most people now accept multiculturalism has failed in the UK”. The podcast was the usual moaning about immigration, and a claim that ““The dominant view amongst the people who run Britain is that being British or English now is just about welcoming other people. …” Ye gods. Where do you start? Is this article just simply a deliberate attempt at both pandering to people’s prejudices and riling up those not so prejudiced. I guess so. So rather than go on a diatribe of my own, I’ll just make a few observations:
I doubt that there is anyone amongst ‘the people who run Britain’, whoever they may be, that think being British or English is just about welcoming other people. Who on earth is so simple minded. There are clearly those who believe there are good reasons for not turning away everyone who might be headed in our direction, but they almost certainly recognise how complex an issue this is.
And where does the idea that multiculturalism has failed come from? Multiculturalism has been a huge success and most people are able to accept that those with different backgrounds and original cultures bring a healthy diversity to the country. Yes there are those who cling too strongly to their own cultures, such as I dare say do many of the British expatriates wherever they settle around the world, but within a generation or two the descendants of immigrants to this country are pretty much British. Where they retain a vestige of their original culture this a good thing not bad.
Whilst a sort of aside, I do wonder the extent to which those who write articles such as these actually understand British history, the history beyond the jingoistic we brought civilisation and democracy and happiness to the world. Britain grew rich in the 19th century primarily by exploiting other peoples who subsequently grew poorer. We fought wars to force China to keep accepting our exports of Opium for god’s sake. I’m not one for saying we need to now make recompense for all the bad things we did to the world, pretty much every nation has done much the same and the fact that for a while we were good at it does not particularly make us any more guilty than others. But keep a sense of perspective, and yes, we need to look after the interest of our own people, but this is not best served by building high walls, as many in the US cheering on Trump will one day realise.