Secular Sage

The relentless negativity about Britain’s history and culture is both misinformed and tired. It assumes Britain was unique in its endeavors. Which it was not! And that all of history isn’t riddled with war and subjugation, including Britain’s own subjugation to Rome, the Vikings to give two examples.

If reparations are required then it is by no means clear where to start. The Italians? Or perhaps the Scandinavians, who we are so fond of referencing in our defense of environmentalism, equality and other hot social topics? If the most recent past should get primacy then Germany would be first in line to write a check. On the contrary, there is no animosity towards Germany. Walk the streets of Berlin, and the same promiscuous, latte drinking, coke sniffing, liberals (many of which hail from our same shores) can be found soaking up the culture without a hit of resentment. How quickly the greatest atrocity of all time has been forgotten.

And so it should be because all of cultural snobbery is silly nonsense. It is also hypocritical, like the gays for Gaza who wouldn’t last 5 minutes were they to express themselves on those shores. And yet our kids are taught in schools and universities that Britain’s history is unprecedentedly evil and that racism thrives in our country, and our City, to this day.

In reality, alongside our shared and checkered past lies a pinnacle of democracy and a seedbed of independent thought going back hundreds of years. For the longest period, the UK, and certainly London, has been a place where cultures have met, integrated and thrived. The hour leading up to this article makes the point well. An Arab and Russian, both with English accents, exchanged health tips in my local gym. A young French girl ordered coffee from an eccentric gay northerner in my local cafe, with laughs and good feelings exchanged all around, while a Canadian and a Dane exchanged dog stories. 

This rhetoric of systemic British racism is totally misguided. That said, unprecedented immigration has given rise to another misunderstanding in recent times which has served to feed this flame. Immigration is a problem that needs to be taken seriously all across the western world. It is causing some of the pressures on our healthcare, education and other public systems which is creating tension in society. Brexit was a vote exactly against this, as was the healthy majority (not the fictitious majority the labour government currently operates under) received by Brexiter Boris Johnson. The same could be said for the remarkable fortunate of Nigel Farage. A man with so little to say about so much but who finds himself in a country where this democratic voice has been so blatantly ignored, by both conservative and labour governments, and for so long that the country is increasingly willing to take their chances. 

Governments across the world, as well as the media who seem set on doing their bidding, seem content in ignoring these democratic wishes. This is true all across Europe and in America. Take France for example, where recent elections saw the largest number of votes handed to a center right party, and yet through trickery and dishonesty, Macron has managed to silence them so as to continue with his neocon globalist agenda. The media serves the same agenda relentlessly.

When people head to the streets in protest against unprecedented immigration, after years of voting against the same, they are labeled “far right” by every mainstream outlet, including the increasingly captured Financial Times and Economist whose slide towards dishonest, poor journalism and outright antagonism towards the public, who prove not to be in the mood for their agenda, is quite shocking. BLM protests in contrast were supported by normal people, not a mention of “far left” from any quarters.

In reality, any tension that has arisen between groups has occurred due to real social issues and – such as access to health services and schools – and through being blatantly ignored for so long, not inherent racism. What many fail to understand is that prejudice against non-whites for anything other than the colour of ones skin, or race more generally, is not racism. Disliking you because you are taking the places of my kids in school or because you are statistically more likely to commit a crime against me, doesn’t make me a racist, by definition.

The illusion of democracy, the capturing of the press by ideology, the demonizing rhetoric from state and media alike towards large swathes of the public who are fed up with all of this is unacceptable.

On a recent trip to China and Japan, my daughter was constantly aghast at how mono-cultural these countries were, even in their global cities. She was not criticizing them, and nor am I, but kept pointing out how ridiculous it is for her peers to complain about London’s racism and cultural bigotry. The only bigots to be found are the young people who stand on the shoulders of giants, enjoying their many hard earned freedoms, while critiquing everything that brought them here. They should be thankful that they haven’t got the leverage in society to saw off the branch they are sitting on, try though they may.

The only cultural appropriation we should concern ourselves with is this kind of bigotry. Let’s get a grip on our thinking, and perhaps on immigration, so this multi-cultural spirit can continue to thrive in our country, as it has for centuries, without distraction.