herberts wrote:kitchenpete - your very question itself is very revealing of just how far and how successfully the propagandists have over the years, very gradually, managed to dissociate you from any such idea that you should feel a protective and defensive patriotic loyalty for your own British cultural identity in your own homeland.
I was clear that what makes me feel "at home" is the mix of culutures which Britain (in particular the London I know and love) has to offer.
I am well aware that in the 1950s and thereafter, may members of the Commonwealth were
invited to come to Britain to fill a gap in our labour force. I think this is one of the key sucesses of the re-development of Britain impoverished after WWII.
I am proud of our acceptance of the diversity of people this world has to offer, I am delighted to eat in a Lebanese restaurant or go to a hip-hop club when I'm there. I miss these things when I'm not there.
herberts wrote:Ask anyone of the pre-1960's era and you will find that a great many still adhere to the notion of Britain being a sovereign territory whose immigration policy should restrict itself to only those people of a racial and cultural background which are compatible and will resemble the indigenous Britisher within the space of only a generation or two.
Thank you for providing me with a direct answer. I see that you grew up in a different age and have faced different influences in coming to your views. You have every right to hold your views, no matter how much I may disagree with them.
If this is not adequate demonstration that I am no "wimp" then we differ in our definitions.
All that I can say is that I would be happy if your views died out with your generation and the younger generations in the world view them as anachronistic and inappropriate to a world whose population is increasingly globalised and therefore able to communicate between original cultures in an appreciative and understanding manner - rather than with bitterness and resentment.
KP
