[Lady Maleficent]

So, Aidan Burley faces being thrown out by the Tories for calling the Opening Ceremony 'multi-cultural crap' - yet pretty much the official Tory line is that multiculturalism has failed?

Confusing...

[Tommyjw]

Ignoring how incredibly vague and stupid any such absolute statement such as 'multiculturalism has failed' is..

You can still have something being 'good' and having 'failed', so both the statements in your post can be true,

[PythianLegume]

(Original post by Lady Maleficent)
So, Aidan Burley faces being thrown out by the Tories for calling the Opening Ceremony 'multi-cultural crap' - yet pretty much the official Tory line is that multiculturalism has failed?

Confusing...

The Tories say that multiculturalism has failed - this means that they like multiculturism as an idea, but think it is bad that Labour let it 'fail'. Think about it: saying 'education has failed' makes you think that people want to improve it.

[Lady Maleficent]

(Original post by Tommyjw)
Ignoring how incredibly vague and stupid any such absolute statement such as 'multiculturalism has failed' is..

You can still have something being 'good' and having 'failed', so both the statements in your post can be true,

Actually, to be fair - you're right. I doubt the Tories would advocate banning curry houses, but they obviously dislike the way multicultural policies have led to segregation.

But, I guess it still seems a bit iffy getting rid of a man for criticising multiculturalism, when the Tory line on it has been mostly negative.

[anna-chipie 95]

(Original post by Elipsis)
I agree wholeheartedly with Aidan Burley. It is a shame that Danny Boyle couldn't help himself but inject so much of his own liberal/lefty slant on the whole thing. Half the UK is not ethnic, yet at least half of everyone involved in the opening ceremony was... and although I respect and love the NHS, I don't see why of all the services the state provides that had to be singled out? Every state and private worker puts their all in to make this country great, and that was just getting deliberately political as an fu to the Right.



Spot the white child. It's a lot harder than wheres Wally, that's for sure.

On the plus side, it was nice to see that many black kids in once place without there being a riot

Remember that girl who got lifted into the air whilst on her bed? She was white ...

[Tommyjw]

(Original post by Elipsis)
I agree wholeheartedly with Aidan Burley. It is a shame that Danny Boyle couldn't help himself but inject so much of his own liberal/lefty slant on the whole thing. Half the UK is not ethnic, yet at least half of everyone involved in the opening ceremony was...

You are aware Danny does not directly pick the peole that epeared in the show It can largely be down to whoever volunteers first and who is actually available etc?

You act as if he went out to the streets and picked every Chinese kid he could.

[Elipsis]

(Original post by CraigKirk)
They probably chose the NHS because it's something that most other countries will recognise; I don't know that anywhere else in the world offers a similar service which is free at point of delivery. They're showing it off, basically.

Yeah but loads of other countries offer universal care...

[Elipsis]

(Original post by Tommyjw)
You are aware Danny does not directly pick the peole that epeared in the show It can largely be down to whoever volunteers first and who is actually available etc?

You act as if he went out to the streets and picked every Chinese kid he could.

Come on now, do you honestly think there weren't thousands and thousands of people who failed to get in, because they clearly chose to put loads more minorities in. You didn't see this happen in China. You saw Chinese people celebrating their country. I'm not adversed to having lots of minorities involved, but pretending that every other person during the industrial revolution was brown is just plane ridiculous.

[Tommyjw]

(Original post by Elipsis)
Come on now, do you honestly think there weren't thousands and thousands of people who failed to get in, because they clearly chose to put loads more minorities in.

Think whatever illogical thing you want, but it is much more logical and raises less assumptions to think, god forbid, it just came out that way .. :O !

You didn't see this happen in China. You saw Chinese people celebrating their country. I'm not adversed to having lots of minorities involved, but pretending that every other person during the industrial revolution was brown is just plane ridiculous.

Did Beijing have one person in all their action who wasnt Chinese? You would rather have that?

[Muscovite]

(Original post by Elipsis)
Yeah but loads of other countries offer universal care...

I think you're getting a little confused - universal health care is not the same as a public-funded health service - it is publicly mandated insurance with a state safety net (which differs from the NHS). I think the point is that the NHS was created in the ruins of britain after the war to tend to the overwhelming demand for urgent healthcare for those who could not afford it. Parochial and charitable institutions were no longer enough; and a new british institution that both left and right loves had to be created - the NHS. It's not left, nor right, it's British. And that's the point.

[PythianLegume]

(Original post by Elipsis)
Come on now, do you honestly think there weren't thousands and thousands of people who failed to get in, because they clearly chose to put loads more minorities in. You didn't see this happen in China. You saw Chinese people celebrating their country. I'm not adversed to having lots of minorities involved, but pretending that every other person during the industrial revolution was brown is just plane ridiculous.

The games is in East London, which has one of the largest levels of ethnic 'minorities' in the country. That's why there were so many non-whites in the ceremony. Furthermore, it was a celebration of what Britain is proud of: we are proud of our ethnic diversity (most of us) and so we were showing off; we don't actually have chimneys rising out of the ground and our nurses wear modern uniforms. it's not meant to be real, it is a representation.

[milkytea]

Obviously the reason there were so many non-white kids in the opening ceremony was because they were trying to involve local people, and it's London. London is now one of the most multicultural cities in the world, and it wouldn't really be right to ignore that, in my opinion. You might not like that, for whatever racialist sort of reason you have, but you can't exactly just hand-pick only the white kids at GOSH for the ceremony.

Cameron's so-called "war on multiculturalism" is a bit of a lefty-induced exaggeration. In the article you linked to, Cameron said he wanted a "muscular liberalism". That isn't a contrary position to multiculturalism, if you take that term simply to mean that you believe different cultures have the right to co-exist in one society in harmony. Saying that groups who don't support women's rights will lose the tiny amount of government funding they currently receive is hardly tantamount to what a lot of anti-multiculturalists on this forum seem to advocate, which I guess is a large reduction of immigration and state sponsorship of dominant culture. So I don't see the Tories' stance as being particularly hypocritical or anything.

As for what Aidan Burley said; I actually think that it's been taken out of context a little. The media are giving the impression that he branded the whole thing as multi-cultural crap, when in fact he seemed just to be criticising one section of it. I wouldn't be surprised if he's sacked, though, he already lost a minor party position because he was apparently involved in some sort of stag do where they made a toast to Nazism...

[OneTimer]

Multiculturalism has always bloody worked and will continue to do so. The only reason some politicians say/said it doesn't because they want to appeal to BNP/EDL voters.

Moral of the story: Politicians lie

[PythianLegume]

(Original post by OneTimer)
Multiculturalism has always bloody worked and will continue to do so. The only reason some politicians say/said it doesn't because they want to appeal to BNP/EDL voters.

Moral of the story: Politicians lie

Your post contradicts itself almost. How can multiculturalism have succeeded if the BNP and EDL exist?

[Ham22]

I still can't get over the fact that someone thought people on hospital beds as part of the Olympic opening ceremony would be a good idea.

[ChloeElizabeth]

(Original post by PythianLegume)
Your post contradicts itself almost. How can multiculturalism have succeeded if the BNP and EDL exist?

That's like saying, how can laws have succeeded if crime still exists. Racists (not to mention sexists and homophobes) will always find each other.


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[PythianLegume]

(Original post by ChloeElizabeth)
That's like saying, how can laws have succeeded if crime still exists. Racists (not to mention sexists and homophobes) will always find each other.


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That's why I said 'almost' .

[ChloeElizabeth]

(Original post by PythianLegume)
That's why I said 'almost' .

Fair enough. My analogy doesn't completely work either (before someone picks it apart) but you get the gist!!


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[milkytea]

(Original post by PythianLegume)
Your post contradicts itself almost. How can multiculturalism have succeeded if the BNP and EDL exist?

Seeing as the BNP and EDL are two pretty small fringe political parties/movements, they don't really have a great deal of significance. Arguing that their existence implies the failure of multicultrualism would be akin to saying that democracy in this country has failed because a tiny minority of neo-Nazis don't agree with it. You'll always get a few people objecting to, well, anything, in a liberal democracy.

[ChloeElizabeth]

(Original post by milkytea)
Seeing as the BNP and EDL are two pretty small fringe political parties/movements, they don't really have a great deal of significance. Arguing that their existence implies the failure of multicultrualism would be akin to saying that democracy in this country has failed because a tiny minority of neo-Nazis don't agree with it. You'll always get a few people objecting to, well, anything, in a liberal democracy.

This one, better than my analogy.

Also I've said it before but will say again, I wish people would differentiate between multiculturalism and racial diversity. They don't like people being 'PC' but don't have the guts to come out and say 'I don't like different races to myself'


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