Saturday, 26 February 2011

England, England über alles...

Most days I spend my time wondering why America can't be more like Europe. Today is not one of those days. From The Guardian:
Huge numbers of Britons would support an anti-immigration English nationalist party [...], according to the largest survey into identity and extremism conducted in the UK.
A Populus poll found that 48% of the population would consider supporting a new anti-immigration party committed to challenging Islamist extremism, and would support policies to make it statutory for all public buildings to fly the flag of St George or the union flag.
Statutory?? It gets worse:
According to the survey, 39% of Asian Britons, 34% of white Britons and 21% of black Britons wanted all immigration into the UK to be stopped permanently, or at least until the economy improved. And 43% of Asian Britons, 63% of white Britons and 17% of black Britons agreed with the statement that "immigration into Britain has been a bad thing for the country". Just over half of respondents – 52% – agreed with the proposition that "Muslims create problems in the UK".
The one thing that I have always found beyond disgusting in Europe is the casual xenophobia of a kind that, in my view, does not really exist in the United States (how do you have xenophobia in a country of immigrants?). But this is shockingly vehement. I mean, "all immigration into the UK to be stopped permenantly"? Really? Really??

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