In a typical New Labour opportunist spin-move Peter Hain said on BBC News 24 this morning that what Nigel Hastilow said about Enoch Powell shows that although the Conservative leadership is sensitive to the question of immigration, many lesser conservative politicians are “still racist”. Very clever Mr. Hain. Just the sort of behaviour voters have come to expect from a Fabian toadie like you.
What Mr. Hastilow said was not racist. He simply had the guts to say what many people know is true. The culture in this country has changed as a result of the red carpet having been rolled out for foreigners. I am 45 and when I was a 15 year-old could never have envisioned just how much things could change in thirty years.
I am not racist. I enjoy pluralism in society and I am proud of living in a country that has traditionally taken in foreigners from all over the world. Sure, it probably can be shown that migration has had positive economic benefits but what angers me is the total disregard for the effect that a large influx of foreigners has had on British culture.
“Stiff upper lip” is often a good quality and not necessarily something to be despised. Thirty years ago football players gave each other a gentle pat on the back when a goal was scored. Now they succumb to crowd euphoria, get down on their knees in-front of thousands and hold up their fists as if to say “I am the greatest”. This is “un-British” and has I believe, come about purely because many of our football players are not British any more. It is a small and some would say trivial example of culture change but many such instances of cultural change have combined to make this country very different from what it was thirty years ago.
Another example; driving down the street with ones stereo system at full blast was something initially done by almost exclusively West Indians. There, I’ve said it. It is a fact. It started in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Before that, one “tut tutted” at people who listened relatively quietly to their small transistor radios in public places. I knew people who’d listen to the cricket, for example, when they were out and about but the volume was always kept low and disturbing others was frowned upon. Having ones stereo on at full blast is now practiced by all and seems to have become acceptable but each time I hear the “boom boom boom” of the bass in a car as it passes my window at one o’clock in the morning I think “Asshole! what makes you think that other people want to listen to you bloody music?”. To use public space as though it is exclusively ones own is arrogant behaviour and although it is not politically correct to say it, it is behaviour that was originally started by arrogant young black men. Don’t look at me in that tone of voice! You know I’m right.
It is understandable that immigrants want to bring some of their own culture with them when they come to this country but undeniable that the effect of this has been to change for the indigenous population of “original” Britons. In a relatively short time the recent influx of Poles into this country has seen the springing up of Polish shops all over the place selling Polish produce. Fine, some would say but what is conveniently ignored is the fact that when a Polish shop opens it replaces a British one.
One of my local pubs and probably one of the oldest in the neighbourhood has been taken over by Australians who stock more lager than beer and serve Thai food. Well I like beer and don’t like lager. I like British food and dislike Thai. In the last 30 years I’ve seen my own culture disappearing. Pie and mash shops have gone. Eels are not on the menu any more. Guy Fawkes has been forgotten about and the more commercially viable “Halloween” has replaced it. Fireworks can now be heard at all times in the year because so many different cultures have their own celebrations at different times. Even some local North London parks have instigated a policy of not allowing people to take their dogs off their leads.
Politically and socially Britain has changed beyond recognition. We now have a paramilitary police force who wear riot gear as a matter of course. The right to protest has been taken away from the British people. The Magna Carta has been used as toilet paper by this New Labour government and the very un-British policy of “control orders” are used against people who have never been found guilty of any crime. Something else… I don’t care what anybody says, holding an unarmed man down in a tube carriage and shooting him seven times in the head at point blank range is simply unacceptable and we should be ashamed that British police have done this. Even if it had been a terrorist that the police were dealing with there was no need to do what they did. There was no evidence of bulky suicide bomb vest and it was a disgusting way for anyone to behave, let alone a policeman.
There is no doubt in my mind that the promotion of multiculturalism and tolerance towards other cultures has led in many ways to the watering down of my own. I know many people who feel the same way as I do although most are careful to choose the right time to say it. Nothing is being done to curb foreign influences the cultural values in this country will simply continue to change at an ever faster rate. Our way of life has been hijacked and further tolerance will simply lead to the eradication of a recognisable British culture all together. As a nation of people with a proud historical past that has led to a civilised way of life should we led down this path of cultural suicide like lambs to the slaughter without consultation?
