I’m not sure that immigrants swearing an allegiance to Britain – as Dame Louise Casey has suggested, lamenting the lack of integration among many migrant communities – is quite in the British tradition.
Historically, incomers didn’t develop allegiance to the United Kingdom through any formal coercion by the state. They “absorbed” Britishness through personal experience, through national activities such as the Last Night of the Proms, Christmas carol services, the Trooping of the Colour and the Queen’s Christmas Day broadcast. And, possibly, cricket.
The fundamental difference between Britain and France was that the French state consciously set out to “make citizens into Frenchmen”, whereas in Britain it was supposed to be achieved by osmosis.
Maybe that isn’t working successfully any more, as Dame Louise seems to conclude. Too many immigrant communities – especially Islamic ones – seem to lead ghettoised lives, whereby they are separated from the values of the nation in which they have chosen to lead their lives.
The misapplied policy of “multiculturalism” is, surely, partly to blame for this. But having immigrants swear allegiance is surely over-playing the heavy hand of the state.
It would be better to draw people into the British mainstream by honouring the host traditions, and ensuring that migrant children, particularly, can join in and become a part of these practices. The nativity play is a prime example of a British tradition in which all children should be encouraged to participate.
The Queen and the immediate Royal family can also be among the most effective agents of integration. I notice that any public occasion is always attended by a widely diverse ethnic and cultural throng.
Don’t boss or coerce people into national conformity: draw people into the host culture by upholding the traditions of the host culture and making everyone feel part of it. And yes, that should mean that people in general accept – as Theresa May has outlined – that Britain is, by historic tradition, a Christian country, even if today it is less emphatically religious than once it was.
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The death of the popular actor Andrew Sachs at the age of 86 occasioned widespread condolences to his family. He brought much enjoyment to many with his portrayal of Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
Someone sent me a link to one of the Fawlty Tower episodes which involves dealing with an exasperatingly deaf hotel guest. As I’m hard of hearing myself, I’m growing accustomed to jokes at the expense of the deaf – and personally I don’t object, since mishearings involving the deaf can be quite funny.
The author and diarist Alan Bennett, who has the same complaint, recounts how he met a painter at a gathering, and asked the artist about his work. What Mr Bennett heard was “I’m from Ramsgate”; and so he responded that he had never visited Ramsgate. It was subsequently pointed out to him that what the man had said was “I paint landscapes.”
There are many opportunities for droll mishearings, and performance comedy has mocked the deaf since at least the 18th century (for some reason it’s always been acceptable to make fun of the deaf, but never of the blind).
In the relevant Fawlty Towers episode (it’s on YouTube: Series 2, Episode 1), the deafie, Mrs Richards, is also a frightful old bat whom everyone finds utterly ghastly. Except, possibly, the cordial Manuel, who is at heart a gentleman.
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Sully is a terrific movie, being the story of how a steady and dutiful pilot, Chelsey Sullenberger, brought a plane-load of passengers to safety with an expert emergency landing on the Hudson river – and was then put through the mincer by the authorities as to whether he had done the right thing. Tom Hanks is superb and Clint Eastwood has directed sharply at the age of 86.
But I find it odd that in re-enacting an aircraft emergency, in which 155 souls are “bracing for impact” (often a prelude to death or serious injury), not a single panic-stricken passenger is seen praying. In real-life emergencies, people pray – not all, perhaps, but many. But secularism now seems to be a rule of the entertainment industry, and praying must not be portrayed, unless in a specifically “religious” movie. Like smoking, maybe?
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