Labour Report: Christmas "should be downgraded" in the UK

Birmingham, UK, Christmas Market by Tim Ellis

Just when you think the UK might be drifting toward common sense, you find incredibly destructive ideas remain.

The "Institute for Public Policy Research", a think-tank for the Labour party in Britain, has made some recommendations for Britain's future, and they aren't pretty.

The report robustly defends multiculturalism - the idea that different communities should not be forced to integrate but should be allowed to maintain their own culture and identities.

Yes, we've already seen how well that is working out in Europe.

It adds: "Even-handedness dictates that we provide public recognition to minority cultures and traditions. If we are going to continue as a nation to mark Christmas - and it would be very hard to expunge it from our national life even if we wanted to - then public organisations should mark other religious festivals too.

I'm all for allowing various ethnic communities to celebrate Holidays their own way, but granting "equal time for all" would be insane. Everyone who immigrated to the UK knew what kind of nation they were moving to. I'm not sure how it helps to simply re-create the societies they were moving from! Moreover, if I moved to Saudi Arabia, I wouldn't dream of demanding equal time for Christian celebrations - so why should others demand the West to change?

"We can no longer define ourselves as a Christian nation"

Last time I checked, the UK had an official Church, the Church of England. So not only can you define yourselves as a Christian nation, you must do so.

nor an especially religious one in any sense. The empire is gone, church attendance is at historically low levels

Maybe you would do better to encourage church attendance instead of mosque attendance then.

Any liberal state should recast the civic oaths and national ceremonies, or institutions like Parliament and the monarchy, in a more multi-religious or secular form

Are these guys even British?? The Queen is the head of the Church of England. Exactly how are you going to change that without a revolution? Such talk, honestly, borders on treason, and one reader of the article commented:

This is deeply offensive and possibly treasonable under the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

Nevertheless, the stupidity continues:

Rural Britain, the report complains, "remains a largely white place". Much more needs to be done to "ensure access" to the countryside for black and ethnic minority groups

That's not really a shock that it remains a largely white place, since the UK is a largely white country... Did they somehow not notice that?

In any case, the last time I checked, rural Africa remains a largely black place, rural China remains a largely asian place... is there some particular prohibition against white people living together that doesn't apply to other races? Unless you can demonstrate that rural Britain is a hotbed of white extremism, ready to wage war on their neighbors, why don't you just leave them alone? What principle says you must supplant one race with others in the rural areas and destroy the last bastions of true British culture (because you don't find much of it in London these days).

The "Ex Pat Yank" blog chimes in:

“Even-handedness”? ”Public recognition”? Given that the city of London, for example, just recognized the observance of Diwali, and that local authorities already do grant fringe faiths special dispensation to keep neighborhoods awake and pets terrified longer than usual, one has to wonder exactly what “multicultural” policies those researchers believe to be non-even-handedly unrecognized?

It's not all complete nonsense. Some sentiments I agree with:

Councils must act to "ensure children mix and are able to form friendships with pupils from different backgrounds".

To function as a society, it is imperative that children are comfortable mixing and forming friendships with other ethnic groups. But I'm a little wary of what methods local councils would use to bring this about.

Britannia, I am a Catholic, but I pray for you anyway...

Minor Update:
Gates of Vienna also wrote about this (I sent them the link, but not sure if they saw it). Amusing quote from "Dymphna":

Why the proposal to throw the Bishops out of the House of Lords? Are they being rowdy? Did Parliament rescind the law about the Church of England? Heck, why not a few imams and Hindus added to the mix instead? I think His Lordship, Sir Mohammed Abu Al-Tahid, has a certain ring to it…oh, right: the Episcopal ring would have to go with the job. Maybe a simple star or crescent tastefully done in rubies…

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