Don’t knock diversity

Last Thursday I was doing my civic duty by contributing to the footfall in County Square, the High Street and North Street by flapping my size thirteens toward the KE office (I wonder, does the footfall figure increase according to the size of the feet that are doing the falling?)

As I plodded along, I enjoyed the cosmopolitan flavour of the town. Black, white, brown and many shades between are all here. And as for languages; impossible to identify and count. One of the positive things to be said about Ashford is the diversity of the population.

When I arrived at the KE front desk, I was handed an envelope addressed to me in shaky handwriting. Thinking you might be interested to know what its equally shakily written contents said, I quote it here:

“Interesting information Mr. B. But please don’t mention a word of it in your column which I like reading. For Before you could say Kosher Bacon Sanwick (sic) you would be out of a column.”

Included with this just legible work of prime penmanship was a printed anti-Semitic diatribe condemning the ‘Jewish Conspiracy’ and another condemning multi-racial societies conspiring to eliminate the white race.

It all reads like the kind of thing that the BNP might have originated and some Daily Mail readers and UKIP members might endorse.

Being, like all other Englishmen,

‘Few racists would turn down essential treatment by a doctor whose ethnic origin was different from their own.’

a mongrel myself (my maternal grandfather was an extremely unconspiratorial Jew and my father’s family, I’m told, descended from the mediaeval influx of Flemish weavers), I find such rubbish pretty laughable.

Sadly, I suppose it must find some support among those who do not seek the true facts, yet most are happy to see multiracial football teams.

Few racists would be so stupid as to turn down essential treatment by a doctor whose ethnic origin was different from their own. But to happier topics... Our shops are offering a minor tribute to Hallowe’en just now, with a few pumpkins and fancy-dresses on display but the big deal at the moment is CHRISTMAS.

Already M&S have racks upon racks of Christmas trivialities, Maltesers are housed in festive boxes and, most significantly, the small oriental lady with her vast display of calendars has made her seasonal appearance in County Square.

So now all we need are the moans that ‘Christmas is becoming too commercial these days’.