Sunday, July 24, 2005

Clarkson vs Livingston on Multiculteralism

Ken Livingston (mayor of London) has explained over and over again that Britain is now a multicultural, multi-ethnic society;

  • Polish plumbers helping Nigerian witches to learn the art of welding
  • Greek lady-men teaching disabled Iranian dentists how to play the bouzouki.
  • A veritable pick’n’mix of ethnical diversity
  • A rainbow of skin tones and religion.
  • A hundred different cultures, all working together in right-on perfect harmony
  • Little Jewish boys playing football with little Muslim girls

Jeremy Clarkson says, "What I think of Albanians now is exactly the same as what I thought of Albanians when they lived in Albania. Nothing, because I don’t know any."

  • Southall High Street is almost exclusively Indian.
  • Brixton is predominantly black.
  • Golders Green is Jewish.
  • Asians come with other Asians.
  • Black kids come with other black kids.
  • Golfers come with other golfers.
  • chat rooms for Muslims,
  • chat rooms for Hindus,
  • chat rooms for Poles
  • We co-exist like birds.

I'm not sure that I agree with Clarkson's proposal:

"Instead of forcing a Pakistani teenager to swear allegiance to the flag and learn English and get some crummy certificate of Britishness from the local mayor, why not let him be a Pakistani who happens to live in Bradford? Let him go to a Muslim school. Let him support Pakistan when they play England at cricket. Let him be what he wants to be. "

But it is a hell of a lot closer to reality than is Livingston's.

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