30 posts tagged “uk”

I was most pleasantly surprised to discover that the Islamic Eid celebrations were being held in Trafalgar Square yesterday.  But I couldn’t help wondering after the reasons why I ought to be surprised at all.

Complete article, photographs and videos, may be found at according2ed.com (or, a2ed.com) 

ed

[photographs by 'ed'.  Related images may be used on non-commercial sites and purposes.]

In quotes,

 

“

Where ‘the Devil’ is rendered transparent and called to account for his bigoted and self-absorbed perspectives, his defensive posture is more overt, as opposed to locales where he may couch himself in tolerant benevolence with the aid of bigotry being institutionalised, popularised, and normalised.

 

 

“

When we look at nations where racism is not as overt, but the means and empathy required to eradicate it are absent or insignificant, we can say that racism is ‘pronounced’ because it is Institutionalised with a capital ‘I” and continues an existence unpunctuated by empathy. 

 

“

Pronounced Racism is the means by which the self-efficacy of disadvantaged groups are negatively affected by popular and bigoted perspectives and practices perceived as the norm despite the absence of overt and violent racism.  In this, the final goal of racism, subtle or overt, is realised with impunity.

 

 

*

 

 

I do not, like many, conceptualise pronounced racism in terms of the degree to which it is expressed, but the extent to which the means and pervasiveness of the perspectives required to counter it is absent.

 

Some years ago, a childhood friend of mine by the name of Geevan (indian) who was in the process of migrating to Australia, said, “Yes, there is racism in Australia.  But at least there we can do something about it.  Here (in singapore), we just have to live with it, can’t talk about it, and the majority either don’t care or just say it doesn’t exist.” Geevan, along with a few of his indian professional friends, has since taken his accountancy skills and migrated to Australia.

 

When I went to Australia for a bit, I too encountered racism there.  However, I must admit that the amount of racism I encountered in Australia in a couple of weeks was more than I encountered in the UK in my 5 years here between 1994-1999.  Perhaps it was due to my being located in a student town where anti-fascist/racist movements held sway; students having to contend with and include difference; and it not being a major city where there is a higher incidence of racism.  I was aware that there was overt and gross racism in the UK compared to singapore.  But, I was also made acutely aware that people here seemed to be falling over each other to eradicate it.  For instance, when I looked at the media, I often thought that the ‘Asians’ (taken to refer to Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians, Sikhs, etc.) comprised a significant portion of the population – say, a fifth or so.  Looking back, I realised that I was projecting my learnt idea of ‘significance’, courtesy of the ‘uniquely singapore’ experience, onto the UK.  In other words, upon critical introspection, I realised that in singapore, we were taught to appreciate ‘significance’ in terms of ethnic numbers (and power, prominence, position, socio-economic status, popularity – corollaries of a regimented and conformist society), whereas in the UK, it was in terms of existence and difference.  i.e. singapore’s ‘significance by racially-defined numbers’ vs. UK’s ‘significance by existence and difference’. 

 

Hence, I was then an unwitting bigot myself who thought it natural that a racially-defined ‘majority’ can be expected to ‘naturally’ marginalise a thus racially-defined ‘minority’, and that it was acceptable or 'logical'.  

 

 

The UK is quite the education when it comes to empathetic matters.  Extra advantages are accorded the physically disabled; readers are employed to cater to the visually-impaired; guide-dogs would be trained for them (where in singapore, one tends to see the visually-impaired eking out an existence selling nuts and tissue papers on the streets…’1^st world’ country indeed); parking notifications enabling the disabled to park anywhere are issued; all sorts of organisations exist to care for the rights of foxes, donkeys, horses, dogs, the homeless, children, environment; the public are frequently petitioned for support for integrative and humanitarian causes; buses are provided for university students throughout the UK to ferry them to London for anti-fascist/racism rallies; efforts are made to identify discrimination and eradicate it wherever it exists; ‘minorities’ are well-represented in the media in significant roles or play starring roles in dramas; there are unions for foreign workers; and, unlike singapore, it is not just the ‘minorities’, be they ethnic groups/physically-challenged, who speak up for their own interests but those of relatively advantaged groups. 

 

In fact, one could say that racism becoming more overt in the UK in the present is, in part, a function of the efforts to eradicate it within a relatively democratic and highly empathetic environment. (other scenarios where racism can be pronounced is when a people encounter difference for the first time whilst deeming themselves to be superior in terms of perspective; or on the basis of their being the ‘majority’; or their privileged position being threatened)    If the UK was to adopt the ‘tolerance, harmony, and order by any means’ approach and focused on suppressing dissent as opposed to getting rid of inequality, racism would not have become as overt in the UK as ‘minorities’ would not have been given equal status in practice/the media/policies/etc; be ‘developed’ to view significance in terms of numbers; and taken their ‘rightful’ place within a majority-defined scheme of things.  Thus, the overt racism that is encountered in the UK today is an incubatory phase where the value of difference is being actively and empathetically appreciated.  In a democratic but national/class-based system, that is when overt and violent racism can emerge from the woodwork.  Where ‘the Devil’ is rendered transparent and called to account for his bigoted and self-absorbed perspectives, his defensive posture is more overt, as opposed to locales where he may couch himself in tolerant benevolence with the aid of bigotry being institutionalised, popularised, and normalised.  But, in the long run, in a society such as the UK, minorities add to the definition of ‘British’, as opposed to being assimilated to the past definition of ‘British’ whilst being treated as non-British.

 

 

So, even though racism in the UK can at times be overt and violent, there are significant, empathetic and overt attempts to eradicate its entirety.  When we look at nations where racism is not as overt, but the means and empathy required to eradicate it are absent or insignificant, we can say that racism is ‘pronounced’ because it is Institutionalised with a capital ‘I” and continues an existence unpunctuated by empathy.  Underdevelopment of all, by way of the underdevelopment of the racially-defined few, is a certainty – as it indubitably has been the case in singapore.  Non-overt racism in perpetuity is a greater evil than overt racism that is being undermined from foundation to pinnacle as we can aspire toward the equitable integrative development of all, and through that, the further dialectical development of all.

 

When I look, for instance, at the Indians in the UK from the 50s to the present, I see that many have moved from humble beginnings to professional versatility and prominence.  Additionally, they have and are contributing to the definition of the ‘British’ identity.  However, when I look at singapore, where racism is less overt and violent, the Indians have moved from higher intellectual and creative levels to lesser planes, and the Malays’ cultural persona of communality and vibrancy has not been afforded further development and popular adoption.  Hence, in the present, many are becoming like the ‘majority’ in persona, whilst being perceived as ‘minority’.  It is from this example that one might find the definition of Pronounced Racism. 

 

 

Pronounced Racism is the means by which the self-efficacy of disadvantaged groups are negatively affected by popular and bigoted perspectives perceived as the norm despite the absence of overt and violent racism.  In this, the final goal of racism, subtle or overt, is realised with impunity.  The existence and impact of overt racism is relatively insignificant here in the UK because its final goal of the marginalisation and underdevelopment of ‘minorities’ has been undermined significantly by the empathetic activism of a large, vocal, and significant proportion of the British population. 

 

 

 

according2,

 

 

ed

 

 

 

In my attempt to make unbiased sense of this phenomenon some years ago, I have thought and said quite a bit about it.

 

So, for now, I would simply say to those attempting to, or utilising violence for the attainment of political ends, “Stop it.”  Violence will render your cause, justifiable or not, abhorrent to many.

 

To the rest of the globe and the United Nations, I would say, “give these people a podium of enough significance via which their grievances may be confidently voiced and addressed.”, and, in tandem, redefine your antiquated and geographically insulated idea of the nation-state.  These 3, amongst others, obviously have a notion of familialarity that transcends our present nationally-fragmented conception of it.

 

If not, all that is going to ensue, as it has in the past, is mutual victimisation.  Critical introspection required on both sides.

I personally prefer dialogue bolstered by empathy as opposed to a monologue of tears orchestrated by mutual apathy.

 

according2,

 

ed

 

My first thought when I chanced upon this in the Liverpool Street Station, London, was, 'Free Popular Creativity here seems to beat paid creativity in singapore.'   The last time I heard music this good and ‘played from the soul’ was back in the 80s and early 90s in blues pubs that have since been replaced by chinese restaurants and eateries ever since Singapore turned into a ‘Confucian society’ (I was under the mistaken notion that it was a multicultural one.  Silly me.).  Anyway, I absolutely loved this museical interlude on my way back home after some hours of photographing some of the exhibits in the British Museum.  Hope you like it.

 

 

ed

After a 13 hour flight on SIA's ‘5 upon 10 service with a 10 upon 10 smile' flight, I finally arrived in the United Kingdom, England, London Heathrow. 

 

I always feel a sense of great relief whenever I arrive here - even back between 1994-1999 when I was studying in the UK. I suppose that is the 'culture shock' that I face whenever I come to the UK - a strange sense of the absence of frustration.  Here is where I generally get great customer service, politeness, intelligent conversation, and appreciation of or interest in, as opposed to ridicule or ignorance, of my personal style and demeanor. (in Singapore vs. UK – arrogant vs. confident, complaining/long-winded/critical/troublecausing vs. insightful/intelligent/well-spoken, etc vs. etc.). 

 

I quite enjoyed the taxi ride back to my place of abode in Essex – kind courtesy of ‘V’ – where the taxi-driver in his early 50s, by the name of Jerry, and I conversed on local minority issues, colonialism, fascism, the Labour party, Singapore, and music. After which, he stated, ‘I really enjoyed that conversation’.  Well, so did I Jerry, especially since it was not superficially engaged in, and there was consideration and response to both of our sometimes contradictory views.  No country in the world is perfect.  But the UK is certainly one locale where injustice is strongly complemented by popular empathy, intelligence and activism.  I can’t help but respect such a nation.  Too bad I didn’t video the conversation.  Such reception and conversation tends to help in my getting over the jet lag quickly.

 

After this, I got back, took a quick shower, and went off to the local pub for a couple of half-pints an a ‘mixed grill’ of sausages, lamb and beef steaks, etc.  And the weather is great!  Warm and sunny - approx. 23 degrees Celsius.

 

Nice.  Very nice.  *sigh of relief*

ed

 

 

 

 

related article in The Guardian : Armed Forces Day mocks our Military

“

To honour the institution of the Armed Forces as just in itself renders just all that issues forth from it.  Whilst this dishonours the people as the masters of the state, it paves the way for their descent to being mere servants of their governments via their unquestioning respect for those they love in the Armed Forces.  In this, we could plausibly state that such a stance is nothing short of treasonous as we might be witnessing an attempt by the government to rule the people via the popularly drawn proxy that is the military.  ~ ed

 

First, peruse the following messages extracted from the top of the British Armed Forces Day site.

 

You're doing a grand job its about time our lads and lasses get the recognition they deserve.

mrJolly1 via Twitter

 

Please follow @ArmedForces_Day to show your support for the first UK Armed Forces Day on 27 June 2009. Thank you :)

Crinklebum via Twitter

 

Please follow @ArmedForces_Day to show your support for our brave troops! Thanks guys!

SassyDunn via Twitter

 

V.proud of our heroes, thank you for all you do (incl. my son!)

Moonpoppy via Twitter

 

Sticker's in Car, Flag's on Pole & to top it off Chatham Tickets arrived today woohoo!!!

Deborah_W via Twitter

 

I'll be flying the flag, it's the least we can do!

RoscoeJenkins via Twitter

 

Great idea! Wishing all our men and women of the services all the best. Your doing a great job, and thanks.

ben1gun via Twitter

 

If the happenings in Iran do not make you think about your freedom, what will? A big thank U 2 ALL the troops, past & present

bobttd via Twitter

 

Proud of every one of them. They are not praised enough for what they do or have to put up with. Good Luck to them all.

Soo Perry via Facebook

 

My brother is in the R.A.F I will support your cause.

Simon Collins via Facebook

 

Sons in the Army, Husbands Ex Army so of course ill support !!!!!!!!!

Debbie Ashby via Facebook

 

I'VE GOT MY FLAG AND BEERS READY. GOD BLESS ALL OUR TROOPS.

Nigel Tottey via Facebook

 

 

 

Now, I’m not entirely against an Armed Forces Day.  Firstly, I’d rather it be termed, ‘Defence Forces Day’ so that it can leave open the question if whatever the said forces are engaged in is ‘defensive’ or ‘offensive’.  ‘Armed Forces’ tends to give them a moral blank check.

 

Next, given that the British government is after public support for their offensive in Afghanistan (for the benefit of the ethnocentric Americans out there, it is pronounced, ‘arf-gun-is-starn’ (silent ‘r’) and not ‘f-gan-is-stan) I cannot but wonder what they are up to with this Armed Forces Day that was celebrated for the first time on the 27^th of June 2009.

 

Well, the first possible reason is obvious enough.  When you celebrate and laud an institution in itself, it can desensitize one to the negative nature of whatever it is engaged in.  What we see here is the resolution of the Euthyphro Dilemma – “is what is moral commanded by God because it is moral, or is it moral because it is commanded by God?” – in favour of the latter.  That is, if we laud the Armed Forces as an institution in itself, then all that it does becomes unquestionable as opposed to imposing conditional respect for it on the basis of its actions. 

 

Secondly, I must say that it is very clever to incorporate the aid of the ‘past’ as an alibi with, ‘honouring our Armed Forces – past, present, and future’, as it detracts attention from the fact that this initiative is only being produced around the time when the public is scrutinizing the Afghan offensives.   This can serve to present opposition to the actions of the British military in the present as disrespectful toward its past in wars that the British already commemorate by honouring the ‘war dead’ of WWI and WWII.  ‘If you can honour those in the past, why not in the present?’, seems to be the question that is being incited in the popular subconscious.  And with the word, ‘future’, in the slogan, the presentation of the Armed Forces and all its ventures in the future is supposed to be unquestionable as well.  Why on earth should we be honouring that which you’ve yet to do unless it is based on my unquestioning loyalty and appreciation of you?  In that, I began to wonder, if this is not a desperate effort to ensure that the people’s loyalty to the government is incorporated via its loyalty to the military. 

 

Thirdly, the celebration of the Armed Forces can be for a paradoxical purpose that can serve to further strengthen the position of the government in its offensive ventures abroad, and perhaps, even locally.  I view it as paradoxical – the devil, sir, reigns via paradoxes because it is the most enigmatic of strategies – because, whilst on the one hand, it personalises the Armed Forces by appealing to popular interrelationships with its members in the social and familial arena for support, on the other, it depersonalizes the Armed Forces by presenting it as an institution apart from the populace that ought to be beyond question. 

 

In this, the Armed Forces can serve as a buffer between the government and the people and in favour of the former.  The Armed Forces becomes the deity betwixt the government and the people because it is from the latter that there are drawn from whilst serving as instruments via which popular dissent can be incorporated.  The Armed Forces serves as Peter nailed to an inverted cross.  He isn’t God, but has sacrificed more than those whom fall within the jurisdiction of the former.  And since he is drawn from the people, he becomes an example they can follow, if not in war, at least in support of it because of his involvement in it.  In this, abiding by the whims of the government can be effectuated via the popular love for its saints. Hence, we see the Euthyphro Dilemma being resolved with the equation, ‘All that God commands is right because his saints do not suppose otherwise.’

In the worse case, in a conflict between the people and the government, the Armed Forces rallied betwixt the two can see the backing off of the people.  If not, opposition can be at least compromised.  And where the Armed Forces are sent to offend overseas, opposition to the government peaks prior to the dispatch and starts to decline thereafter as the trials and tribulations of ‘our lasses and lads’ in the army is personalised.  I am not against an 'Armed Forces Day' as i do believe that those whom had died in just wars ought to be honoured.  However, to honour the institution of the Armed Forces as just in itself renders just all that issues forth from it.  Whilst this dishonours the people as the masters of the state, it paves the way for their descent to being mere servants of their governments via their unquestioning respect for those they love.  In this, we could plausibly state that such a stance is nothing short of treasonous.

 

And it is this that inspires an unequivocal ‘No!’ from myself.  The people must always be sacred.  No attempts to incorporate them via saints whom are armed to the molars, picked from the populace, and who are used to elevate the value of the state over the people by their acts of self-sacrifice must be countenanced.  For in this, what is truly being proffered on the sacrificial alter to the state is not the soldier, but the people.

 

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

“

Senior prosecutors are calling for the laws on race hate crimes to be strengthened to counter the threat posed by the British National party.

The threshold for securing a conviction is so high that far-right activists are able to evade prosecution for material that many people would consider to be threatening and racist, according to sources at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Prosecutors blame the lack of convictions on the strict legal test, which requires showing an intention to "stir up racial hatred" or a likelihood that racial tension would be stirred up.”  - The Guardian

 

 

The question that has to be asked in the UK, and the rest of the world, is what is lacking in society that requires proscriptions on ‘racist materials’ that might ‘stir up racial hatred’, ‘or a likelihood that racial tension would be stirred up.’

 

The existence of Laws, might at times serve to maintain the conditions upon which such laws may be flouted, and which hence requires the promulgation and enforcement of such laws. 

 

In other words, there seems to be a symbiotic union between thoughtfulness and a preceding thoughtlessness that sees the production of a rabid dog and, thereafter, a leash of a particular length. Whilst focusing on strengthening the latter, I think it is about time that humanity look into the conditions that produces the former.  It is in this sense that ‘thoughtfulness’ might very well be complicit in the evil it seeks to counter.  As I’ve been saying for some years now, evil cannot exist without the symbiotic collusion of that which is perceived to be ‘good’.  The devil, sir, reigns via paradox.

 

With regards to the BNP’s racist materials, such phenomena would cease to exist when the conditions that bring about the impressionable demand for it, and the violence that might thus be incited by it, is snipped at its source.  Is it the idea that is evil or the conditions that produces susceptibility to it? 

 

And whilst you’re at it, try to consider how the empathy compromising national fragmentation of humanity continues to feed the thus localised tendency to blame on the basis of ‘race’.  Perhaps it is this crime that serves as a significant component of the basis upon which a global problem is localised?

 

I cannot help but wonder.

 

 

Ed

The Cosmopolitan Manifesto

 

 

 

 

I suppose I would, for a period, support the existence of the ultra-right BNP for the same reason that I’m completely against the contemporary celebration of Halloween.

 

BNP

 

This party serves an essential function as a reference point from whence one can determine if one is a racist or fascist.  Can you imagine what might be if such a party, like the concepts of Good and Evil, did not exist, or if we could not use it as a seaman might the North Star to figure out her/is current location?  We might very well find ourselves in a position of criticizing something that might just as well be an apt description of ourselves.  I’m not saying that we will always need a BNP around.  But till anti-fascism and anti-racism is well reinforced in a people by way of the formulation of a ‘coping culture’ that does not resort to fascism and racism to circumvent problems created by the system itself, such a party will remind us to not only be wary of the emergence of fascism and racism in society, but also to be watchful over ourselves, and find other ways and means to make sense of our difficulties.

 

In that sense, the Nazis of Germany in WWII served an essential function in putting forth a criterion by which the location of ‘Good’ could be plotted by its distance from the ‘Evil’ that it was – since the objective appreciation of Good and Evil was already compromised with the combination of the Reformation, Renaissance, and Scientific Revolution (but that’s another topic).  People think that Nazism was a German phenomenon.  That is completely untrue.  The Nazis were actually the culmination of the racist undertones of the colonial era which had, prior to Adolf being a glint in the bartender’s eyes at a local beer fest in Austria, seen the production of pseudo-scientific race theories, the differentiated treatment of the colonised based on the degree to which they differed from the western idea of civilisation, and the perception that the west was doing the world good by turning them into little native capitalists, nationalists, and ‘white’ in all ways except tone and tincture. (I did an independent study of this at my undergraduate level and managed to plausibly support this thesis.)  

Therefore, you could say that the Nazis were the unwitting brainchild of the west.  They were simply a logical conclusion of the already pervasive ambition for empire fused with racism.  And, hence, with Nazi Germany serving as a blatant ‘reference point’, the west finally learnt what it was becoming and had to make a choice.  Nazism was, in essence, what most of Western Europe and the U.S.A. was, except without the distracting garnish of ‘Christianization’ and ‘civilisation’.  It was a clear statement of what was a pervasive but disguised perspective.  From then, it was only a matter of time that all whom discriminated in the west would be perceived as ‘neo-Nazis’ of one sort or another, and fuel the rise of the egalitarian spirit which would be of immense aid to the civil rights movement following in the wake of Hitler’s Wehrmacht.  Of course, the global empathetic and emancipatory movement stopped at the borders of the nation-state as citizenship in itself was yet to be perceived as the new ‘racism’ that turned the citizen of another state into ‘the new nigger’ and contributed to the later emergence of the ‘terrorist’ amongst those who’ve yet to learn to confine their sense of familialarity within the borders of the nation-state.  Empathy and humanity was fought for under the banner of the national flag and it was hence saved from the attention of civil rights movements.  But that is another matter. 

 

The point here is that in ‘modern’ history, much evil was unleashed with the aid of various perspectives and means that were and are thought to be ‘progressive’, and it was the worst logical manifestations of these evils that served to remind humanity, or at least humanity in the west, to put a leash on it.  So, the BNP plays a similar role in reminding western humanity that there is such a thing as a fascist and racist evil with criteria that has been clearly defined form WWII to the present – along with a resistance movement that had become equally and clearly defined in an attempt to disengage from them.  It reminds the people to be ever watchful over themselves and their culture lest, in the course of life within a self absorption-inducing socio-economic milieu, they forget and become, in the best case, an improved and less gaseous version of their swastikad predecessors.

 

As the people’s sense of Good and Evil has largely been abdicated to the PTBs, I take comfort in having at least one of the last symbols of evil around – as represented by the BNP amongst others.  Without them, fascism and racism might very well be pervasive but discounted as conscionable simply because, as I often hear it being discounted in this part of the world, ‘…it happens all over the world.’ 

 

For that, we owe a debt of gratitude to the BNP for saving us from our worst potentials by manifesting it.

 

After all mate, if you don’t know how to appreciate the objective reference points of Good and Evil via empathy and critical introspection, you’re going to need the BNP to serve as the next (lower) level of checks on your worst potentials.

 

In the case of Halloween, in brief,

 

…it contributes to the compromise of the concepts of Good and Evil as reference points independent of the appetites of any particular time and space. 

Historical symbols of Evil become mere entertainment via ‘Buffy’ or ‘Angel’, or costumes which we put on for a party or trick & treating.  Thus, our respectful fear of Evil as something that can wreck havoc without our knowledge is reduced.  It is given an irrelevant form, or a form that is deemed to render the objective existence of evil innocuous.   

This, accompanied by the relocation of heroism, as illustrated by the masses not being portrayed in the clash between good and evil; the presentation of Evil in mythical and fantastical forms such as vampires and demons as opposed to systemic ones; the professionalisation of the citizenry whereby they are rendered relatively ignorant and unanalytic except when it comes to ‘work’; the juvenile being inclined toward immediate and superficial gratification pervading the media, the internet, and determining the market; amongst a host of others, basically leaves the definition of the idea of good and evil in the hands of the PTBs(Powers that Be), juvenile appetites, and the degree to which one’s self-serving interests are compromised.  In other words, not only are the reference points extinguished, but the character it takes to recognise it is, in tandem, diminished by misdirection and miseducation.

 

The independent sanctity of the concepts of Good and Evil is corrupted and everyone is free to define it according to self-serving terms with a simple ‘click’ on a ‘publish’ button.  And accompanying this, we see the death of the philosopher; the demise of alternative systems of thought; and the discounting of the entirety of grand theories by and because of an increasingly ill-educated mass.  Hence, the independence of the reference points of Good and Evil as reminders that what we might think is good or evil might just be the inverse is removed and humanity descends to early medieval times when magic reigned in the hearts and minds of those who didn’t know how to make sense of things in the aftermath of the collapse of the Roman empire.  In this, each historical epoch does not simply repeat itself.  Rather, it renders resilient humanity’s steady moonwalk back to pre-enlightenment times as the referential North Star is ripped from the bosom of time and space and located within one’s self-serving and ignorant mind.    

I sometimes suspect that the ‘separation of church and state’ was historically effected for the purpose of, amongst others, getting the former to transfer its hold over the idea of Good and Evil to the state.  We could say that the Church were the stewards of the independent sanctity of these ideas and which therefore could later be utilised to challenge it as, whilst the Church could claim to be God’s satellite on earth, it could never claim to be or know God in her/is entirety.  Hence, its definition couldn’t fall prey to the appetites of either.  The concepts of Good and Evil were unwittingly maintained in their pure independence to the point that it even enabled the people to access it and bring about the Reformation.  This is not the case in the present where the state has a complete monopoly over it.

 

Ed

 

 

 

Whilst it is indeed worrying that the BNP - the British National Party - won 2 seats in the European parliamentary elections, I take heart in the actions and initiatives of the British public in taking on the BNP, although I wouldn't go so far as to pelt them with eggs. 

In the opposition of the general British public against the fascist BNP, we see that the people are far from being assimilated to the mindset of the BNP as they obviously take issue with them even when their own 'white' interests are not directly affected by their policies.

I cannot but respect a people of such empathy.  They take issue with any attempts to redefine 'Britishness' that is not inclusive, multicultural, and truly egalitarian.  In this, the British ‘coping culture' definitely comprises ‘empathetic confrontation’ as opposed to ‘compensation’ in this context.  They probably realise that there is far more to gain from egalitarian collaboration as opposed to marginalisation.   Thus, true harmony is definitely more than a speck on the British horizon.  With such conscious and conscientious watchfulness, the British subconscious is well protected from the insidious effects of any fascists tendencies and influences being emitted from political parties, the opposition, and their own neighbours and friends.  Friendship, and society, without empathy, is simply drooling Opportunism waiting in the wings of social relationships. 

I've said for quite some time now to my personal associates, that living in s.e.Asia tends to make me lose faith in humanity.  But in the UK, it is reinstated. 

Good one to my compatriots over yonder!

 

Ed