Northern Norm retweetledi
Ok I'll bite. British culture is diverse. But you know it when you see it. It's pub culture. It's Wimbledon. It's airshows and steam rallies on a Summer day's. It's boating on the Thames. It's fish and chips on the harbour. It's eighties nights and rock clubs. It's garden fetes and village galas. It's bingo halls and snooker clubs. It's 40's revival weekends. It may be subjective but it's all around you if you open your eyes.
It struck me recently that a lot of British culture is based around nostalgia, but it's more than that. We come together to enjoy our common heritage, marvel at our accomplishments and remember our fallen.
I tend not to see minorities at airshows, battle reenactments and steam rallies because minorities aren't meaningfully part of that story. I see sons with elderly fathers, and fathers with young sons, passing on knowledge about our country. But I'm always surprised to see a south Asian or an African. They're just not interested.
But then I wouldn't expect to see minorities at such events because they're not exposed to it. Our schools would rather teach black history than English history. It teaches our young people that our history is something to be ashamed of - and something to be contextualised, scorned and dismantled.
But then so many minorities have no interest in integrating at all. I walk through Bradford and see women in burkas and men in pyjamas who can barely speak English and prefer not to - who go to places of worship to hear sermons in another language. They're nothing to do with me.
Pakistanis have been on Bradford for more than fifty years, and whatever assimilation process that might have occurred appears to be in reverse. They don't dress like us, don't speak like us, don't interact with us and don't participate. They don't participate in our local politics. They colonise it. They will turn out in their hundreds in solidarity with Palestinians, and bring their tribal bickering over Kashmir to our streets.
Contrast that with Eastern Europeans who have effortlessly integrated, and are now part of us. Part of our social fabric. They come to our rock clubs and raves, they drink in our pubs, they assimilate into our politics. They're our friends and family now. They're compatible because their places of origin share similar foundational values. Democracies striving for equality.
But what has Pakistani/African/Arab culture contributed to British life? Honour killings, acid attacks, grooming gangs, deep rooted misogyny, suicide bombs, cousin marrying, FGM, forced marriage etc. And for what? They weren't needed or wanted. And now we have parallel cultures that don't interact, and lawless cities that no longer look or feel British in any meaningful sense.
Though it's not entirely the fault of minority groups that they don't integrate. It's a two way thing and it's human nature to seek out the familiar. Most of us don't really want anything to do with your culture and we'd prefer it if y'all weren't here - even if we keep that sentiment to ourselves. It's not a racial thing. It's not personal. Xenophobia = evolutionary instinct + experience. Y'all just don't fit here, spend most of the time denigrating and complaining, and seem intent on turning our country into the sort of corrupt basketcase slums you hail from. So you're not really welcome.
It might be different if we could see any kind of effort to integrate and if we felt like you appreciated being British as much as we do, but when we see Muslims taking to the streets to stand with Hamas and call for Jihad, how can we not conclude we have an enemy in our midst?
Ultimately a functioning country is about kinship. The more alien cultures we import, the more diluted our commonality - and the more fragmented we become, to the point where we're just a rabble of competing tribes, where there's no sense of obligation to each other. A failed state basically. Those who won't integrate need to be gone.
Bushra Shaikh@Bushra1Shaikh
Genuinely I ask, what is British culture? Born in the UK and lived here for 40 years and yet we are constantly told 'we're not integrating'. Not Integrating into what culture exactly?
English
