It is with horror primarily that one reads of the beliefs of Suella Braverman and other Tories in relation to immigration to the UK (“Far right: ‘Braverman’s speech was good for us… let’s capitalise on it’ ”, News).
However, there is a deep sense of bewilderment also at the complete lack of historical context by which these people live their lives. There does not seem to be any comprehension that the UK is already multicultural and has been for thousands of years. If it’s not working, it’s not been working for a very long time indeed. That these people, living primarily in England, a word derived from the “land of the Angles”, a people of southern Denmark, and speaking English, a language derived from Anglo-Saxon, can have such attitudes, is steeped in hypocrisy and irony.
England, and Britain to a lesser extent, was already a melting pot of Angles, Saxons, Norse, Jutes, Frisians, Normans and others in the middle ages. I live in Cymru, otherwise known as Wales (a word derived from Anglo-Saxon, meaning foreigner or outsider).
The world is a beautiful melting pot of some 7,000 languages and cultures. Let’s embrace them, as they make the world a more interesting place to live in.
Iestyn Thomas
Cardiff
In Kenan Malik’s critique of multiculturalism (“Braverman’s bigoted attack on multiculturalism shouldn’t blind us to its problems”, Comment), he rightly sees her as essentially undermining the very notion of a diverse nation, but asserts that multiculturalism “puts people into ethnic cultural and faith boxes”. He also disparages Lord Parekh’s concept of a “community of communities” which he suggests helps racialise social tensions, whereas it is of course malign media and unscrupulous politicians who are the cause of the racialisation, rather than this approach.
Multiculturalism as policy is based on the recognition and celebration of diversity of culture , faith and language that makes up modern Britain. It does not “put people into boxes”, but simply enables minority identities to be respected where people wish to express them.
Europe’s far right – now including the Conservative party – is engaged in an existential culture war over immigration and ethnic diversity, with at its heart a white Christian monoculturalism. This led to genocide and the destruction of democracy in the last century, and is now an increasingly dangerous political force.
Of course, multiculturalism as an aspiration needs to be complemented by other egalitarian values – but in the current climate it needs to be robustly defended.
Gideon Ben-Tovim
University of Liverpool
HS2 was never a green option
Since spades went into the ground for HS2 – huge diggers and tunnellers, ripping apart the landscape – there has been little in the media about the folly of building it on the grounds of environmental damage, including embodied carbon (“A failure of nerve over HS2 would be disastrous”, Editorial).
As you point out elsewhere, Britain is a land deforested more than most in Europe and has vastly depleted wildlife (“Symbolic still: let the gap where a sycamore stood be a reminder of nature’s precarity”, Editorial).
HS2 has already driven through more than 80 ancient woodlands, taken out huge swathes of prime agricultural land and ruined many a rural and urban community. Can all this be sensible in such a densely populated country which needs to worry about food supply chains and how to develop low-impact lifestyles?
HS2 has been justified for reasons of economic growth, the sort of growth that is causing the existential crisis we are facing. New railways aren’t always the “green” option. Far better to go for more localised living and working which require less travel of all kinds. HS2 would just have added to the consumerist lifestyles that are literally unsustainable.
Dr David Dixon
Hexham, Northumberland
Misogyny breeds violent men
Thank you for Yvonne Roberts’ article on violence against women (“It’s half a century since Peter Sutcliffe stalked the streets. Are women any safer?”, Comment). She says the abuse, control and taking the lives of women will stop “when we, the public, insist it must”, but when will this be?
I lived in Leeds when the Yorkshire Ripper was active. It was a frightening time and women felt scared to go out alone. One night, in response, a group of angry women slashed every car tyre along the road where I lived because they wanted to stop men from travelling.
Where is society’s anger now? Imagine if a child, rather than a woman, was killed by a man every 2.6 days? Wouldn’t society be trying to do something about it? Wouldn’t we be very angry indeed? Wouldn’t we wonder why it was happening and educate boys that it was wrong? We wouldn’t allow men to denigrate or promote a dislike of children on social media or TV and, if children were attacked, we wouldn’t have a conviction rate of less than 2%, the case for reported rapes.
So why does society allow misogyny to persist? Why is every misogynistic action, whether a sexist comment or belittling or undermining behaviour, not unacceptable? A world where these actions are not automatically challenged creates an environment where extreme misogynistic acts such as rape and murder can be perceived as less traumatic and immoral than they are.
Rebecca Walkley
Dickleburgh, Norfolk
Spend inheritance tax wisely
As my children are fortunate enough to have a father whose house is worth about 100 times what he paid for it in 1972, they will be liable to pay a relatively modest amount of inheritance tax on my death (“Passing on great wealth to our children spells the end of society. Just ask Aristotle”, Comment). I have to confess that I have taken my financial adviser’s advice as to how to minimise this, so I don’t think we could have any justification for resenting it, but I would be a lot happier if it could be hypothecated. I should be only too happy if my money were to go, for instance, to the NHS rather than Trident.
Peter Wemyss-Gorman
Lindfield, West Sussex
Brexit U-turn is not so simple
William Keegan is no doubt right; there is a strong intellectual case for rejoining the EU, or at least the single market and the customs union (“We really could still rejoin the EU. But Tory Britain isn’t up to it”, Business & Cash).
The difficulty is that Brexit was not just about our constitutional and economic relations with Europe. It stimulated and reflected a toxic decline in our political culture, where a doggedly motivated elite of rightwing economic ideologues exploited populist and xenophobic feelings to create a marginal majority for leaving the EU. This gave platforms to politicians and commentators who cared little for evidence and sound arguments.
We need a new zeitgeist, to tackle real humanitarian issues such as the climate emergency. We need the voice of reason and of leadership. We need to be internationalists, not isolationists.
Roger Truelove
Sittingbourne, Kent
Laurence Fox’s bum note
I was delighted to read that Laurence Fox intends to retain his dignity by scrubbing toilets for the remainder of his working life (“Bluestockings. Unshaggables. It’s how Laurence Fox and co put strong women down”, Comment). Anything that doesn’t involve him picking up a guitar again is a huge step in the right direction.
Ian Grieve
Llangollen canal
