Finally, after decades, the doctrine of multi-culturalism is being questioned. The chatterati have long held onto this doctrine as a core belief, a multi-cultural society where hundreds of different cultures exist side by side, and anyone criticising it has been labeled as a racist. This was because those promoting multiculturalism were suffering from a post-empire guilt complex, and so conflated culture with race. They promoted their vision with encouragement to immigrants to retain their cultures and, rather than becoming British, should stick with their own culture and language. As the cultural ghettos grew, any opposition from native Brits was put down to racism [occasionally it was] and the whole issue of whether immigrants should be encouraged to become British was undiscussable. In effect, it was turning Britain [and other European countries] into a land of bantustans, a system akin to apartheid. Only the extreme right ever raised the subject, which meant criticism of multiculturalism became even more associated with racism.
Now this deranged idea is coming under increased criticism; in France, Germany, and Holland, and also in the UK, it is now being seriously challenged, in the UK by the chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, but not without resistance from the media luvvies who are reacting in their usual brainless way to the very suggestion that those who have been saying multiculturalism is a bad thing and responsible for much of the reaction to immigrants have been right all along.
Now, immigrants, who have been encouraged to form their own communities and have as little to do with the macro society as they wish, are being told they must learn the language of their adoptive country and integrate. New immigrants are being taught English as a matter of priority, and a Citizenship test and ceremony are in place.
I look forward to the day when government agencies no longer have to print leaflets and other information in six or more langages because some people who have been here for years still haven't learnt the language. It's difficult for them of course, they built their little enclave of 'home' and felt comfortable in it. It's doubly difficult for Muslims who had thought they had everyone running scared of upsetting them, and now find they aren't so scary after all. The head scarf issue in Holland and France is central to this, it is a very visible signal of muslim men's power over women and decidedly non-European. Some are banning it from schools, but many have sidestepped confrontation in favour of an easy life. The chatterati will fight back of course, they won't give up their core beliefs without a fight, and will find themselves on the side of some of the most repressive people on the planet; the self-elected mullahs and other petty dictators from cultures which are still in the fourteenth century.
One only has to look at countries which have been multicultural for a long time, such as India, to see that separate cultures side by side leads to frequent friction which can easily break out into violence such as burning down of temples and mosques, and mob violence against those of another 'faith' or culture. We have seen some of this in the UK already, with Asian and Caribbean British gangs attacking each other and then the police for coming between them. This is not a recipe for a stable, peaceful society.
I have been arguing against multiculturalism for decades, it always struck me as a dangerous scheme which would lead to social disintegration rather than integration, and now the government have seemingly rethought it and are also arguing for integration and the sharing of values. Many argue that the bombs of 7/7 were a direct result of multiculturalism; British born Muslims who had grown up in a separate society, resenting and opposed to the macro culture they felt no part of, tiny Midlands Muslim mini-states surrounded on all sides by British secular society which is itself a mixture of many different cultures.
