The ‘Indy’ Goes For A Godwin

Adrian Hamilton in the ‘Indy’ gamely goes to bat for the discredited theory of multiculturalism:

Multiculturalism was once a term of tolerance, an acceptance of difference in an increasingly cosmopolitan and urbanised western world.

That’s what it might have been intended to be, certainly, by a few well-meaning individuals. It was only in operation, and due to inevitable mission creep, that it became the utterly-loathed policy that now stunts true progress.

Today it has become just a convenient label which politicians can use to assault immigration.

Aha! Another Open Borders advocate…

Having invited immigrants in by the millions to fill a labour gap in an expanding market – just as Britain did after the Second World War – the governments and society that welcomed their arrival now think that they should conveniently disappear, taking their wives, their children, their benefit needs and their political antagonisms with them.

Funny you should mention their ‘political antagonisms’, Adrian. Do you actually read your own newspaper?

Still, maybe groups of Muslims calling for the murder of other groups of Muslims adds a vibrant dash of exciting, exotic culture to sleepy Kingston-upon-Thames, eh?

Forget morris-dancing and the Changing of the Guard, Third World religious grievance is the new black, baby!

With her fast-falling poll rating and fraying party loyalty, it was little wonder that the German Chancellor finally seized this opportunity to up her voter-approval figures and try and breathe new life into her dying party. Little wonder but hardly admirable. Dispense with all the finer analysis of political advantage, forget the excuse that mainstream politicians must express the bubbling concerns of their constituents…

If they don’t do so, what are they there for?

We here in the UK and in most other European countries have opted for representative democracy. Do you need me to define that word ‘representative’ for you?

…and recognise what is happening here.

So, tell us. What is happening here?

The attack on "multiculturalism" is just a mask for expressing prejudices that would have been regarded as unacceptable and unrepeatable a decade ago – that the "guestworkers" were basically welfare scroungers, that they didn't and wouldn't subscribe to the culture of their hosts, that they were less educated and less educable than the majority "whites," that they somehow resented and challenged social values based on culture, language and the Christian religion.

Ding ding ding! Here comes that Godwin!

All across Western Europe there is a gathering chorus of concern on the migrant issue.

Exactly. And our representatives are acting on that. That’s all.

…it is significant that the language being used is the language of racism of the 1930s – that it contains and implies attitudes of ethnic purity and cultural superiority, alongside xenophobia, which are dangerous in their logic and potentially extreme in their emotion.

Hmm, the 1930s, the 1930s…

You might want to actually mention the 'N' word (no, not that one - only rappers can use that now), just in case the people reading this have recently been through the British educational system and haven't a clue what you're alluding to.

The belief that the children of immigrants would become more like their neighbours remains true, but in doing so they have taken on a desire for self-identification which has, in individual cases, proved violent.

But hey, what’s a few honour-killings, acid-scarrings and 7/7 terrorist attacks, eh? Those are just individual cases!

So, what will resolve this awful crisis, Adrian?

The real problem with the multicultural debate is not the critics, however. Politicians will always seek routes to populist votes. It is better that the views are aired in public rather than whispered in private. The true worry is the lack of voices to come out in defence of toleration, the paucity of figures ready to defend the values of an open society and to take the battle back into the opponent's court, forcing Mrs Merkel and her like to define just what they think immigrants are doing or threatening to do and just what the politicians would wish, or force, them to do instead.

Ah. More leftists to start braying in every online forum, TV show and newspaper column. Yup, that’ll help, I’m sure.

But you might want to change some of their talking points, Adrian. They are - frankly - so worn out and debunked it's like going into battle without the proper resources...