Don’t fear the multicultural country we live in
THIS week I joined music lovers everywhere celebrating the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s 9th symphony with its inspiring final choral theme reflecting Schiller’s epic poem in praise of friendship and international cooperation.
In 1985 it was adopted as the anthem of the European Union, Ode to Joy, symbolising the combined impartiality, justness and fairness of nations.
But, as Brexit revealed, there are many who think otherwise.
At the heart of the withdrawal from the EU is the question of multiculturalism and its effect on homegrown British aspiration. I take the view that multiculturalism is not only essential for economic and cultural reasons but it is also a vital moral objective. But of course, for as many that will agree there are as many who disagree, particularly for leaving the EU citing the loss of sovereignty and indigenous establishment.
If you recall, the issue of sovereignty came from the upper deck of the campaign bus – ‘time to get our country back!’ the promoters roared. And here it is again, restated by the Reform MP, and former Conservative, Lee Anderson. “I want my country back!” the same war cry swirling in the same mists of nostalgia, yearning for the settled past of England’s glories.
I could sympathise with memories of village green summers, the comforting sound of ball on bat; bus trips to Blackpool lights, fish and chips wrapped in paper; the Swinging 60s breaking the chains of deference. But it’s not about fondness for the past. It’s about restoring regulation and central control.
Taking the country back means wishing for the return of possession and ownership. It is dreamlike, something that is unexplained even by the former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman with her declaration from high parliamentary position: ‘Islamists are in control of Britain’.
It’s the same wild hypothesis that Anderson has repackaged, pointedly naming London’s mayor Sadiq Khan, as being ‘under the control of Islamists’.
A very dangerous statement if you choose to ignore the truth that Islam and Islamism are not at all synonymous in political terminology and in religious understanding. ‘Clumsy’ was his reason for its use.
What then does taking our country back mean? For nationalists it can only mean regaining power.
That was the message of Brexit, implying that in the world view we are no longer recognised as possessing the authority of self-governance and influence. They saw that EU membership served only to relegate rather than lift us to an equal level with nations that Great Britain had previously liberated or defeated when it was a global power.
Yes, I can see the reasoning in that. And I can see why Brexit influencers used imperial themes in the message that by accepting membership of the EU we had surrendered ‘Great Britain’ for the bureaucratic ordinariness of ‘United Kingdom’.
Today our lives are multiculturally bound by necessity. Official House of Commons figures show in 2022/23 some 16 per cent of the UK population have minority ethnic backgrounds, a significant proportion of which in recent years has achieved political and public status.
Of the 66 MPS taking seats in 2019, 10 per cent had a minority ethnic background. The holder of the highest political position in the land identifies as a British Indian taking his oath of office on the Bhagavad Gita, an astonishing achievement whatever political view you take.
And it’s worth noting that of the 44 sitting Stoke-on-trent councillors 10 have ethnic minority cultures.
Last year’s annual report published by the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard shows black and minority ethnic staff make up a quarter of the workforce, an increase of 27,500 since 2021. A celebration surely of the success of multiculturalism.
I can understand the reasons why many voted to leave the EU. And I understand how easy it is to be taken in by the selfinterested influencer.
We are adjusting to life in a world of scams fed by lies and fear. But the fear of multiculturalism is unrealistic. Let’s not be taken in by the alarmists.