Just a week before Christmas in 1947 I came into the world by cesarean operation in the long gone Loveday Street hospital in Birmingham. My home with my parents, Bert and Rose, was at the bottom of a yard where I then spent the next seven years of my life until my parents managed to organise a mortgage to buy their first house.
Like many places around the city at that time, the houses at the top of our yard no longer existed due to being demolished by the Luftwaffe during the war. My formative years were that of living in a predominately white and Christian Britain. There were some people around who were black or Asian, but very, very, few of them - until suddenly things began to change in the 1950's when mass immigration began with the encouragement of politicians who, arrogantly, decided we needed cheep Labour to do the jobs that white people did not want to do.
The new arrivals, from mostly Commonwealth countries, were expected to clean the streets, empty the bins, work on the buses as conductors (not drivers), be the cleaners and do any other menial work for little pay. However, then, as currently out of touch people in Westminster, who put this into operation at the time, failed to take notices that many of the new arrivals to what they thought of as the "Motherland" at a time of need, were actually highly skilled people. Many were teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers and others with skills who were promised a wonderful life in the UK. Sadly, when they got here they were treated poorly and the predominantly white British people struggled to cope with with this influx of people who were very different to them. They came from the sunshine to a bombed out, cold miserable, mostly unwelcoming Britain still recovering from WW2
Like all people there was comfort in living in their own communities, and for those with different languages being together made life easier. As the new arrivals began to move into certain areas en-mass, usually lower working class areas with poor housing and low rents. In some areas that had once been the homes of the middle classes, these larger houses were purchased by opportunistic landlords who saw the immigrants as easy money by putting as many as possible into these larger houses. This came to mind one day when, with my father and our trusty book of British quarries, we were wandering around a remote part of Derbyshire looking for a particular quarry as we were interested in a new supplier of stone for our business. We stopped to ask a farmer who had been muck spreading if he knew where the quarry was. After he had drawn a map in the grime on the bonnet of our van, seeing we were from Birmingham he then asked about the riots which had then taken place in the Hansdworth Lozells area at that time. As a man used to living in a rural area where everyone else were just like him, he had difficulty understanding how a once middle class district, could become run down and had no concept of parts of a city which had become culturally separate as we tried to explain it to him, with some difficulty.
The most persecuted race of people, all through history, are without doubt the Jewish people, we too, here in the UK, are guilty of treating them badly when Edward 1, in effect, threw them out. When they began to return they still faced anti-Semitism. In the 19th century when Jews fled persecution in Europe and came here there were no laws to protect them, as there are laws against racism today, they had to integrate and fully assimilate into the British way of life. These days Jewish people live as British people in their dress and way of life and are fully integrated - they are British in every way but still retain their religion and customs in their homes and do not force it onto others.
I personally see the main problem of racism and anti-Muslim feelings today as, unlike the Jewish people, many of them are refusing to integrate they live apart from the rest of the nation and dress as people from other parts of the world. The majority of UK residents have, in reality, accepted incoming large swathes of populations of differing cultures and religions remarkably well over the years. Sadly, it is becoming frustrating for them after being so tolerant to the incomers and their following generations of offspring, who sadly. still refuse to integrate. Many prefer to dress as foreigners and continue to use the language of their forebears rather than being part of the country they now live in. This is often seen by the indigenous British people as a refusal to be part of the country that is now their home and future for the immigrants and their offspring, it is like a snub, it is perceived by many as if they are saying we want the benefits of living here but want nothing to do with the country they are living in and the people of Britain.
No doubt the recent riots we have witnessed across the land are due to these frustrations being vent in the only way by many who feel powerless to change things and that no one in power ever listens to them, their fears and concerns. Sadly, those who are rioting are mostly lower working class and have no voice, politicians make promises such as "leveling up", then ignore and sneer at them, for flying the flag of St George, these people are powerless and frustrated. Like a cornered animal they have lashed out and have been labeled 'far right' by an out of touch elite who know or care little of why so many white, working class people are angry and frustrated. Some of the rioters may have been egged on by more sinister people with an agenda to cause trouble, but rather than just throwing the book at them and giving those arrested long prison sentences, our newly elected Labour Government and Prime Minister, should really be looking at the reasons why the rioters felt it necessary to take the actions they did. They should start with the fact there are now too many people living in the country which has created problems with housing, education, the NHS and keeping pay far too low. That is unless you are in one of the trade unions now dictating to a subservient Labour Government.
The spark that set off the riots was the appalling and savage murder of three young girls in Southport by, what is obvious a deranged young man who was reported to be the son of Rwandan parents. The rioters blamed the Islamic faith despite the fact the majority religion in Rwanda is Christian, the Muslim religion in Rwanda is a tiny minority. Sadly, these days due to so many atrocities being carried out in the name of Islam, when things like this happen it is immediately blamed even though it had no hand in this outrage.
Where I live in the Midlands large areas are now completely Asian, driving through them many of the shop signs have Arabic writing, the majority are dressed in foreign clothes and there is no sign of anyone wanting to integrate into British society. As someone who is a strong believer in personal freedoms, when seeing this I feel like a hypocrite. On one hand I would like to ban the burkha and make it so these people adapt and become part of the culture of Britain, which is the land they are living in, however, the freedom side of me feels that if we are to live in a free country then what right would I or anyone have to force my desire for integration on people who do not want to. I feel this gets to the core of the frustration felt by the rioters who cannot express their opinions in the same way as those who can better express themselves.
It was only right that laws were made to stop the sort of discrimination that existed in the 1950's and 1960's, it was appalling that landladies with rooms to let put signs up stating: "No Irish, blacks or dogs". Sadly, discrimination has now gone the other way, it is the white population and Christian religion now discriminated against. We have read in the press how street preachers are arrested for preaching texts from the Bible, there is a National Black Police Association yet if a white police association were proposed those pushing for it would be branded as racists. There are many other examples of discrimination against white people, such as what is known as 'positive discrimination where Councils, Government departments and some companies set quotas to employ black and Asian people above any white job applicants, irrespective who is best qualified for the job. Sadly, whatever it is called and whatever politically correct spin is put on it - it is still discrimination. If we are to have a truly equal society then there should be no discrimination of any kind and when people apply for a job, no matter what the colour of their skin, gender of sexual orientation, it should be the most suitable and best qualified applicant that gets the job. I yearn for true equality but fear we will never have it and things will only get worse as the left, the woke and politically correct continue to gain the upper hand.
Our new Labour Government are already making noises to undermine freedom of speech, Lord Frost wrote about the attack on our freedoms in the Daily Telegraph on Friday 16th August 2024, sadly, the rioters have now given Keir Starmer and his far left government the perfect excuse to make laws to restrict our freedoms. We have seen people writing things on social media being arrested and getting prison sentences, although what they wrote may have been far from good as no one should ever threaten harm to another, but when one person received a prison sentence for writing: "Who the f… is Allah?", this becomes frightening and shows the coming of an overpowering 'Big Brother'. The question has to be asked, had that person wrote: 'Who the f… is Jesus what recrimination would there have been? Probably none. Hardened criminals and shoplifters get treated more leniently than people writing unpleasant things on social media, many hardened criminals are now being released from prison far too early by this already failing Labour Government.
When the known violent criminal, George Floyd was unlawfully killed by a policeman who had him pinned down in a dangerous life threatening manner, that moment saw the birth of the organisation of Black Lives Matter and protests took place in many parts of the world. However, if we are to have a truly equal society then the slogan should be all lives matter. It is time to stop pandering to minorities at the expense of a frustrated majority. Diversity and multiculturalism has failed miserably and created segregation and is the very reason for the riots. Now is the time to begin the task of ensuring all people living here in the UK accept the history, culture and traditions of the United Kingdom under one rule of law. Only that way will we achieve harmony and social cohesion.
