> However, London is not just a capital city of England and the United Kingdom. It is a global city. It is the historical heart of the British Empire and the British commonwealth of 56 nations. [..] And because of all this, it is one of the most diverse cities in the world.
Edit as reply because apparently 4 posts in 2 hours is "posting too fast":
> I don’t see a contradiction, causal impact can unfold over decades.
The British Empire was considerable as early as 1815, so it's more like centuries.
In any case, it was the author that made a claim that runs counter to the evidence - the more the British Empire shrunk, the more diverse London became. The only justification he gave was "because of all this". It seems to me those four words are carrying a lot of weight, and need some elaboration.
For example, what, exactly, is the causality here, and why does it lag so much? What is it that makes it impossible for England to say no to immigration now, but it was able to say no for the preceding ~200 years when its empire was at its peak?
I added the context of the British Empire and the Commonwealth to point at the fact that these historical activities have transformed the UK over a period of time.
These timing of British Empire runs on for a while, but around the time when it ended post-WW2, that is when citizens of the British commonwealth countries (an institution that exists as a result of the British Empire) were invited to come and help rebuild the UK.
A couple of generations later, and London becomes one of the most diverse cities in the world.
So that is the context in which I meant the phrase “because of all this”. It’s playing out over a long time as a casual link, not all things happening at the same time.
On the 2nd question of why it is impossible for England to say no to immigration now rather than the preceding 200 years. I would offer these points.
1 - Technically, we have always had immigration. It’s a question of how much did it matter to the people at the time?
2 - Multiple politicians have used it to position it as a problem that they are uniquely positioned to solve (Michael Howard under the Conservatives during the 2005 Election Campaign, Nigel Farage in the 2015 UKIP election campaign).
3 - It was promoted as a problematic issue during the EU Referendum - flyers were distributed suggesting that Turkey was about to join the EU, and that 80m Turkish citizens would have the right under freedom of movement to move to the UK. It wasn’t true but the flyers were distributed anyway: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/unfounded-claim-tu...
So over time, the UK’s public opinion has been shaped and steered in the direction of treating immigration in a negative context.
In the post I mentioned that there are people in the UK painting the St George cross on roundabouts, and some like the protester who was interviewed in one of the links talking about having the UK be for "white people".
4 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 19.2 ms ] threadAll those things (except the last) were true for London in 1961, when it was 97.7% white: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_London#Ethnici...
Edit as reply because apparently 4 posts in 2 hours is "posting too fast":
> I don’t see a contradiction, causal impact can unfold over decades.
The British Empire was considerable as early as 1815, so it's more like centuries.
In any case, it was the author that made a claim that runs counter to the evidence - the more the British Empire shrunk, the more diverse London became. The only justification he gave was "because of all this". It seems to me those four words are carrying a lot of weight, and need some elaboration.
For example, what, exactly, is the causality here, and why does it lag so much? What is it that makes it impossible for England to say no to immigration now, but it was able to say no for the preceding ~200 years when its empire was at its peak?
I added the context of the British Empire and the Commonwealth to point at the fact that these historical activities have transformed the UK over a period of time.
These timing of British Empire runs on for a while, but around the time when it ended post-WW2, that is when citizens of the British commonwealth countries (an institution that exists as a result of the British Empire) were invited to come and help rebuild the UK.
A couple of generations later, and London becomes one of the most diverse cities in the world.
So that is the context in which I meant the phrase “because of all this”. It’s playing out over a long time as a casual link, not all things happening at the same time.
On the 2nd question of why it is impossible for England to say no to immigration now rather than the preceding 200 years. I would offer these points.
1 - Technically, we have always had immigration. It’s a question of how much did it matter to the people at the time?
I would argue that perhaps we aren’t as familiar with British history in the 1700s as we ought to be. For example, I had no idea until a few years ago that the first Black person to vote in the UK was a person named Ignatius Sancho: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_Sancho - https://www.boughtonhouse.co.uk/sancho/
A slavery abolitionist and a composer who lived in London. Who knew?
Secondly, the reason why I think immigration is such a hot topic in the UK’s public sphere is because:
1 - The tabloid press have dedicated so much time and attention to it - https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/press/migrants-in-the-...
2 - Multiple politicians have used it to position it as a problem that they are uniquely positioned to solve (Michael Howard under the Conservatives during the 2005 Election Campaign, Nigel Farage in the 2015 UKIP election campaign).
3 - It was promoted as a problematic issue during the EU Referendum - flyers were distributed suggesting that Turkey was about to join the EU, and that 80m Turkish citizens would have the right under freedom of movement to move to the UK. It wasn’t true but the flyers were distributed anyway: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/unfounded-claim-tu...
So over time, the UK’s public opinion has been shaped and steered in the direction of treating immigration in a negative context.
> Turkey.
That would only work as a gotcha if DHH was in fact xenophobic.
In the post I mentioned that there are people in the UK painting the St George cross on roundabouts, and some like the protester who was interviewed in one of the links talking about having the UK be for "white people".