OK. In the one corner, we have the English Defence League. In the other we have David Cameron. Are we about to see a celebrity death match or a right-wing love in? My gut tells me neither. I think you all probably know what I'm getting at. 'Multiculturalism has failed.' An odd statement given that I wasn't aware that the fact that we live in an irrevocably multicultural society was subject to judgement on its relative successes and failures. Nor was I aware that a multicultural society is exclusive of a strong, but civic, national identity. But perhaps I'm wrong. Stranger things have happened.
I must make a brief confession here. I'm not actually all that angry about the comments made by our, and I shudder to even write something so unpleasant, our prime minister. No, I'm just a bit confused. I'm confused about what exactly our values are. Our values as opposed to their values? What about my values? Where do I fit in with the us and them? Are "our values" the values of David Cameron? If so, we are once again faced with some contradictory information. Allow me, if you will, to elaborate.
David Cameron appears to believe that people ought to have the right to elect their own government. This from a leader who was not properly elected, whose route to power was not at all democratic. In fact, the deals that were done behind closed doors in the week following the non-result of the last general election, culminating in a coalition government that is not really making vast numbers of people very happy, were more like the very perversion of even Britain's archaic proto-democracy. We still operate a 'first past the post' system that is at odds with the political diversity that our modern nation truly craves. Our democratic license is still at the whim of those who should be under its control. The system is backwards and it is failing, but even taking that into account, the formation of the current government was not what anyone voted for.
Moving on. What else does David Cameron believe? Oh dear. David Cameron believes in equality before the law. Which law, exactly, in this country today, holds people in equal account? Certainly not tax law. See for example Philip Green. Need we say more? Philip Green, the tax evading, sweat-shop owning, asset-stripping singular embodiment of everything that's wrong with modern Britain, far from being held accountable for his numerous crimes against all kinds of national and international laws is given a job by David Cameron's non-democratically elected coalition of the rich and infamous. I wasn't angry before, but now, I am pretty fucking angry.
Moving on. David Cameron believes that we should be encouraging integration, not separatism. What exactly does Dave think he's integrating when he's driving wide open the gap between obscene wealth and abject poverty? Is that a force for inclusion or separatism? And what about public sector cuts? What about libraries? Free to use libraries. If we are to consider the plans to close down the vast majority of these invaluable assets to a large number of communities across the length and breadth of this country of ours, then we must surely conclude that free libraries are a force for separatism. Why else would they be targeted in this way? How would that look in the battle to integrate hearts and minds?
Moving on. David Cameron doesn't think we should, as a society, be engaging with organisations which do not believe in equality before the law. He doesn't think we should be engaging with individuals or organisations which do not believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government. David Cameron doesn't think we should be engaging with those who propagate separatism and not integration. In short, David Cameron doesn't think we should have anything to do with him or his government. At least, that's my understanding of what he's saying.
