How’s the multicultural experiment going?

If the multicultural experiment in the UK were a clinical trial, it would surely have been stopped by now. Enoch Powell, in his infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech in 1968, was slightly premature, arguably making an unhelpful intervention with a poor choice of words. It certainly saw opprobrium heaped upon him from all sides of politics and, apart from the punishment posting of Northern Ireland Secretary, it put the brakes on any aspirations he held for higher office. It is worth noting that, as pointed out by Ferdinand Mount (not a Powell fan) in his review of Paul Corthorn’s book Enoch Powell: politics and ideas in modern Britain reviewed in the London Review of Books, Powell was demonstrably not a racist, with the book citing specific examples of his generosity towards an immigrant family and his refusal to stay in caste segregated hotels in India. But none of that saved him.

However, I wonder what we are to make now of Powell’s dystopian take on increased immigration into our country. Especially as we now face a situation of essentially uncontrolled immigration with demographics (predominantly young, male and Muslim) that are not favourable to integration into our society. On the other hand, integration is barely referred to now; rather, we ‘celebrate’ multiculturalism. As Douglas Murray points out in The Spectator, with reference to recent events on our streets, there are many benefits of having a multicultural society, but there are also downsides. However, only the benefits are ever referred to. Discussion of the drawbacks is silenced amid accusations of racism, alongside claims that the situation we are currently witnessing is payback for colonialism. This, despite the fact that the bulk of immigrants are coming from countries we never colonised. With the possible exception of Iraq, which became independent at the formation of the League of Nations in 1932, I have looked in vain for evidence that we colonised Iran, Eritrea, Albania and Syria.

However, we do not need to turn to our illegal immigrants to see that we may have problems, our legal immigrants are causing enough. Mostly, they fight amongst themselves; in our efforts to welcome them and create our multicultural paradise we have turned a blind eye to the divisions between various factions in our immigrant community, and mainly within those from South Asia. They have imported their own problems into our society such as inter-Muslim enmity between Sunni and Shiite sects; between Muslims and Hindus and between the strictest interpretations of Islam versus anybody within their own communities who wants to lead a normal life unencumbered by dress codes, dietary restrictions and to taste the delights of John Barleycorn. It may serve to remind ourselves that all of these are permitted by law in our country. Thus, we have people protesting over a film to which they took exception, leading to its cancellation; the female Pakistani government Minister for  Information & Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb is harassed and intimidated on the streets of London (with impunity) by co-religionists for not covering her hair; while Leicester and a few other cities are witnessing running battles between rival cricket fans who just happen to be Muslim on one side and Hindu on the other.

It is customary to acknowledge the positive contribution that immigrants, especially from South Asia and the Caribbean, have made to this country and a great many by invitation when we were short of labour. But that was then, and the world has changed. One particular change is the rise of various forms of militant Islam each vying to be more repulsive than the next. This is clearly having an influence on some of the Muslim immigrants on our streets and it seems to have brought out the worst, very recently, in some of our Hindu community. I don’t have an answer, that is not my job. But if our answer continues to be that ‘there is nothing to see here’ we really do have a problem.

Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.