Have we turned into ‘Ghetto Britain’?

GHETTO Britain (Mail) painted a gloomy, but truthful picture of the results of decades of lack of foresight — and it will get worse. The defeat of IS will cause a diaspora of jihadists who will take refuge with sympathisers abroad. This will sharpen antagonisms between Muslim communities and the nations in which they live. Devolution of the sort envisaged could bring virtual autonomy in law, administration and education. Central government’s power to supervise and intervene will be limited. Recourse to sharia courts will become compulsory. Minorities, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh or non-mainstream Muslim, will be harassed. Education suited to the modern world will be affected. These areas of the country would become linked mini-states, determined to avoid cultural absorption. The Government should consider the problems and options. The alternative is a version of the Northern Ireland Troubles — only infinitely worse, and with little prospect of solution. MARGARET BROWN, Burslem, Staffs.

IT’S ironic that people from various corners of the earth who settle here are expected to integrate and adopt our values. When the British explored and settled in already largely occupied countries around the globe, they often established their own enclaves, and superimposed their own culture, values and governance. These immigrants would have failed miserably the ridiculous Norman Tebbit cricket test. Birds of a feather flock together: it’s human nature. A little humility would not go amiss on the part of those in this land who rub shoulders with so many other world citizens who mostly do speak our language, respect our culture, accept our values, appreciate our tolerance and contribute what they can. In most of those lands where we established our Little Englands, we eventually had to subsume into the local culture or depart. How much better to choose to rub along together. We’ll never be all the same, but isn’t that what makes the world go round? JOHN GOLDEN, Chard, Somerset.