Nicely written piece, but you are wearing somewhat rosetinted spectacles if you think that the majority of Muslim immigrants to this country think along similar lines to you. One only has to look at the crowds celebrating in Central London, a city now composed of nearly 50% foreign immigrants, mainly african and asian and notice how this fact was NOT reflected in the makeup of the crowds….indeed, up North, during the celebrations, one council leader, from your same background, chose to fly the palestinian flag over the town hall, while Yassminn Abdel-Mageid railed against the “Nightmare of Union Jack flags everywhere..” Also, in your piece you let slip your mother barely speaks English and wears the hijab…this is somewhat worrying ( but indicative of the issue here) after 3 generations in this country that enough of our culture has not trickled down to make this backward medieval practice outdated amongst British muslims…….The issue sadly is that the majority do not want to take on our values and culture alongside their own, prefering instead to remain in the closed communities and complaining about basic British freedoms such as being able to go and watch a film of controversial subject matter…see cineworld capitulating to menacing mobs of hate filled muslims complaining about the showing of Lady of heaven……
I have lived in Tower Hamlets for 30 years, NONE of the muslim mothers spoke to my wife and the several other only white skinned mothers throughout the whole schooling of my children and last we week we attended a muslim wedding of a friend of ours…..my wife and her friend were separated and made to sit alone downstairs, none of the muslim women their spoke to them, indeed they moved away. Its this kind of behaviour that speaks volumes.
My experience of living in a diverse London neighbourhood of Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and whites is that everyone gets along and indeed the Asians are much friendlier and participate more in the civic life of the community. They did more to organise our Jubilee street party and we were all grateful for the food. Some of the ladies don’t speak good English, but you know they care and show an interest despite the language barrier. I’m not a multi-culti libtard, I’m just describing the reality as I’ve experienced it.
ARNAUD ALMARIC
1 year ago
What on earth did Clement Attlee & Co think they were doing enacting the 1948 Nationality Act?
Planting a Utopian time bomb that they would never see explode?
However it is pleasing to read that at least someone still regards the Empire with affection,I thank you.
R Wright
1 year ago
I stopped reading when the author attacked the English. He and his foreign compatriots are welcome to Britishness, which has been lost to the people of these islands decades ago. That identity is hollow and empty. The English however, will continue as they always have.
There must be an awful lot of people in Britain who only have to look back at, say, their grandparents generation to see that they’re descended from the English, Irish and Scots (I don’t think I have any Welsh). What do they think of themselves as, if not British?
The latter two call themselves British when convenient, whilst the English with extraordinary generosity subsidise both, but hopefully for not much longer.
For me ‘always’ is the same as time immemorial, otherwise known as 1189 AD. The concept of English and an England existed for centuries prior to the unification of the country by Wessex. It’s closer to 1500 years.
In English law and its derivatives, “time immemorial” means the same as “time out of mind”,”a time before legal history and beyond legal memory”. In 1275, by the first Statute of Westminster, the time of memory was limited to the reign of King Richard I, beginning 6 July 1189.
If you want to maintain Britain as a Christian country, it won’t be the Muslims standing in your way but the indigenous population, who have abandoned Chrstianity. I don’t see why Muslims would be hostile to the monarchy. Unbelievable numbers of them fought loyally for the King in both world wars.
Michael 0
1 year ago
I fail to see anything wrong with Powell stating that the British had just as much right to a homeland as any other people on Earth. This if anything shows the lack of spine of the Queen, that she just sat and watched her nation’s identity be eroded into nothing.
Given our idiosyncratic constitution she couldn’t have done anything anyway, and was probably keen to avoid the fate of her uncle, Edward VIII. Perhaps fortuitously her main obsessions seem to be, and in no particular order, horses, dogs (Corgis) Balmoral and her gas bills.
Yes, her much vaunted silences have spoken volumes as to her inability to bolster national pride. Single-handedly, she has presided over devaluing of this country’s flag, heraldic traditions and emblems etc. When asked to head a national day of prayer as in her father’s reign during a different time of crisis, she has remained mute. So much for the head of the CofE,
Ballantrae
1 year ago
This is a very heart-warming tale of this country’s openess to the World, and like you I was very pleased and proud to see, for example, the ethnic mix in the household regiments during the trooping of the colour: a very visible challenge to those who claim, repeatedly, that we are a hateful racist country. However, I’m not sure being bound by the oath of allegiance is enough to keep us all together: why, for example, does your mother speak little English? Don’t you think that this excludes her from being a full member of society, and is a daily reminder to you that you came from “outside”?
I wonder how many British personnel made the effort to speak the local language when they lived on the Indian sub-continent?
On the same subject, I frequently visit France and Germany and am never surprised to witness how the vast majority of our British visitors make no effort whatsoever to speak the local language when they visit. When it comes to French, most of us had to study it as a compulsory subject at school and for many of us, German was also part of the school curriculum.
It appears to me that part of being a good ‘Brit’ is to be reluctant to speak a second language.
Perhaps one reason is the ascension of English to become the lingua franca of many parts of the world. Besides, you can hardly expect anyone on holiday to manage more than a few essential phrases to get by, especially if they visit multiple countries, each with their own language.
If, however, you speak only English and move to another country to seek work, especially starting at the bottom in the host society, you would enhance your chances of success by learning the language of said host. Works both ways.
Enoch Powell actually did learn the local language as did countless Britishers in the Indian army and government. But you’re right that most wouldn’t have.
I have neighbours who don’t speak much English but who are much better neighbours and citizens than white indigenous people in the community. My Pakistani neighbours are always offering food and favours (tidying up the garden etc) while the English people on my street do f-all…though I can see them at the pub. Ultimately I’d say the sense community and common civic identity and pride is pretty equal between the whites and the Pakistanis even if the latter’s language skills are low.
Tom Watson
1 year ago
Enjoyed this very much. A side of postwar history I knew very little about, and pleasing to think.
Nicely written piece, but you are wearing somewhat rosetinted spectacles if you think that the majority of Muslim immigrants to this country think along similar lines to you. One only has to look at the crowds celebrating in Central London, a city now composed of nearly 50% foreign immigrants, mainly african and asian and notice how this fact was NOT reflected in the makeup of the crowds….indeed, up North, during the celebrations, one council leader, from your same background, chose to fly the palestinian flag over the town hall, while Yassminn Abdel-Mageid railed against the “Nightmare of Union Jack flags everywhere..” Also, in your piece you let slip your mother barely speaks English and wears the hijab…this is somewhat worrying ( but indicative of the issue here) after 3 generations in this country that enough of our culture has not trickled down to make this backward medieval practice outdated amongst British muslims…….The issue sadly is that the majority do not want to take on our values and culture alongside their own, prefering instead to remain in the closed communities and complaining about basic British freedoms such as being able to go and watch a film of controversial subject matter…see cineworld capitulating to menacing mobs of hate filled muslims complaining about the showing of Lady of heaven……
I have lived in Tower Hamlets for 30 years, NONE of the muslim mothers spoke to my wife and the several other only white skinned mothers throughout the whole schooling of my children and last we week we attended a muslim wedding of a friend of ours…..my wife and her friend were separated and made to sit alone downstairs, none of the muslim women their spoke to them, indeed they moved away. Its this kind of behaviour that speaks volumes.
They now have ‘critical mass’ as Powell predicted, so why should they change? This will end in tears..
Why on earth do you still abide there?
My experience of living in a diverse London neighbourhood of Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and whites is that everyone gets along and indeed the Asians are much friendlier and participate more in the civic life of the community. They did more to organise our Jubilee street party and we were all grateful for the food. Some of the ladies don’t speak good English, but you know they care and show an interest despite the language barrier. I’m not a multi-culti libtard, I’m just describing the reality as I’ve experienced it.
What on earth did Clement Attlee & Co think they were doing enacting the 1948 Nationality Act?
Planting a Utopian time bomb that they would never see explode?
However it is pleasing to read that at least someone still regards the Empire with affection,I thank you.
I stopped reading when the author attacked the English. He and his foreign compatriots are welcome to Britishness, which has been lost to the people of these islands decades ago. That identity is hollow and empty. The English however, will continue as they always have.
There must be an awful lot of people in Britain who only have to look back at, say, their grandparents generation to see that they’re descended from the English, Irish and Scots (I don’t think I have any Welsh). What do they think of themselves as, if not British?
The latter two call themselves British when convenient, whilst the English with extraordinary generosity subsidise both, but hopefully for not much longer.
The English subsidise British people of Irish and Scottish descent? Including those born in England?
No, only those living in either of those ‘Gaelic Paradises’, currently known as Scotland and Northern Ireland.
England has existed for at most 1,200 years. That is most definitely not “always”.
For me ‘always’ is the same as time immemorial, otherwise known as 1189 AD. The concept of English and an England existed for centuries prior to the unification of the country by Wessex. It’s closer to 1500 years.
What’s 1189 got to do with it, besides the accession of Richard I?
In English law and its derivatives, “time immemorial” means the same as “time out of mind”,”a time before legal history and beyond legal memory”. In 1275, by the first Statute of Westminster, the time of memory was limited to the reign of King Richard I, beginning 6 July 1189.
Thank you.
If the author’s co-religionists became a majority in the UK they would abolish the monarchy. Enough of this nonsense!
Plenty of Muslim nations with monarchies.
Mostly dreamt up by us!
Quite but none of the monarchs wear a cross do they?
If you want to maintain Britain as a Christian country, it won’t be the Muslims standing in your way but the indigenous population, who have abandoned Chrstianity. I don’t see why Muslims would be hostile to the monarchy. Unbelievable numbers of them fought loyally for the King in both world wars.
I fail to see anything wrong with Powell stating that the British had just as much right to a homeland as any other people on Earth. This if anything shows the lack of spine of the Queen, that she just sat and watched her nation’s identity be eroded into nothing.
Powell’s estimates were actually lower than the real numbers would turn out to be, as far as I recall.
Given our idiosyncratic constitution she couldn’t have done anything anyway, and was probably keen to avoid the fate of her uncle, Edward VIII. Perhaps fortuitously her main obsessions seem to be, and in no particular order, horses, dogs (Corgis) Balmoral and her gas bills.
Yes, her much vaunted silences have spoken volumes as to her inability to bolster national pride. Single-handedly, she has presided over devaluing of this country’s flag, heraldic traditions and emblems etc. When asked to head a national day of prayer as in her father’s reign during a different time of crisis, she has remained mute. So much for the head of the CofE,
This is a very heart-warming tale of this country’s openess to the World, and like you I was very pleased and proud to see, for example, the ethnic mix in the household regiments during the trooping of the colour: a very visible challenge to those who claim, repeatedly, that we are a hateful racist country. However, I’m not sure being bound by the oath of allegiance is enough to keep us all together: why, for example, does your mother speak little English? Don’t you think that this excludes her from being a full member of society, and is a daily reminder to you that you came from “outside”?
I wonder how many British personnel made the effort to speak the local language when they lived on the Indian sub-continent?
On the same subject, I frequently visit France and Germany and am never surprised to witness how the vast majority of our British visitors make no effort whatsoever to speak the local language when they visit. When it comes to French, most of us had to study it as a compulsory subject at school and for many of us, German was also part of the school curriculum.
It appears to me that part of being a good ‘Brit’ is to be reluctant to speak a second language.
Perhaps one reason is the ascension of English to become the lingua franca of many parts of the world. Besides, you can hardly expect anyone on holiday to manage more than a few essential phrases to get by, especially if they visit multiple countries, each with their own language.
If, however, you speak only English and move to another country to seek work, especially starting at the bottom in the host society, you would enhance your chances of success by learning the language of said host. Works both ways.
Enoch Powell actually did learn the local language as did countless Britishers in the Indian army and government. But you’re right that most wouldn’t have.
I have neighbours who don’t speak much English but who are much better neighbours and citizens than white indigenous people in the community. My Pakistani neighbours are always offering food and favours (tidying up the garden etc) while the English people on my street do f-all…though I can see them at the pub. Ultimately I’d say the sense community and common civic identity and pride is pretty equal between the whites and the Pakistanis even if the latter’s language skills are low.
Enjoyed this very much. A side of postwar history I knew very little about, and pleasing to think.
I too enjoyed reading thus. Might not agree with everything the author writes but it is thought-provoking and well written. Thank you.
Democracy and freedom is also part of being British but read the news on Cineworld and you’ll see that some don’t respect freedom
using modern merit (universalism) to justify an old sin (colonialism) is a novel but appalling idea.