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Vanishing England
Townhall.com ^ | Cal Thomas

Posted on 08/28/2007 4:19:23 AM PDT by Kaslin

"There'll Always Be an England" - popular World War II song

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - Perhaps there will not always be an England. An exodus unprecedented in modern times, coupled with a record influx of foreigners, is threatening to erode the character of the land of William Shakespeare and overpowering monarchs, a land that served as the cradle for much of American thought, law and culture.

The figures, making headlines in London newspapers, tell only part of the story. Between June 2005 and June 2006 nearly 200,000 British citizens chose to leave the country for a new life elsewhere. During the same period, at least 574,000 immigrants came to Britain. This number does not include the people who broke the law to get there, or the thousands unknown to the government. Britain's Office of National Statistics reports that middle-class Britons are beginning to move out of towns in southern England that have become home to large numbers of immigrants, thereby altering the character of neighborhoods that have remained unchanged for generations.

Britons give many reasons for leaving, but their stories share one commonality: life in Britain has become unbearable for them. They fear lawlessness and the threat of more terrorism from a growing Muslim population and the loss of a sense of Britishness, exacerbated by the growing refusal of public schools to teach the history and culture of the nation to the next generation. What it means to be British has been watered down in a plague of political correctness that has swept the country faster than hoof-and-mouth disease. Officials say they do not wish to "offend" others.

Hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers are about to be granted "amnesty" to stay in Britain. The government's approach is similar to that pursued by President Bush, who failed to win congressional approval for his amnesty plan. In Britain it appears likely to succeed. Migrants will be granted immediate access to many benefits, including top priority for council housing. Taxpayers will foot the bill.

The Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, called the policy a "stealth amnesty." Again, in a comment reminiscent of the debate in America, Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said: "This is yet another example of the Alice in Wonderland world of human rights. If you break British law for long enough, you acquire rights not penalties."

British media have carried stories about an Italian immigrant who murdered a schoolteacher and was sentenced to life in prison. He is about to be released after serving just 12 years. The government wants to deport him to Italy, but a combination of British human rights legislation and European Union law are making it impossible to do so. This does not bode well for deporting Islamic terrorists who call for the overthrow of the government and incite young people to acts of violence.

Abraham Lincoln said no nation can exist half slave and half free. Neither can a nation be sustained if it allows conditions that result in mass emigration, while importing huge numbers of foreigners who come from backgrounds that do not practice assimilation or tolerance of other beliefs. When one factors in the high number of abortions (one in five pregnancies are aborted in England and Wales), the high birth rates of immigrants (15 times those of white Britons), it doesn't take a population expert to predict that the days of the England we have known may be numbered. The problem for Britain and the United States isn't just the change in demographics. It is the reluctance of both countries to inculcate the beliefs, history and, yes, religious ideals, which made our nations so successful that others wanted to come and be a part of them. The difference between many of the current immigrants and those of the past is that the previous ones wanted to become fully American or fully British. The current ones, in too many cases, would destroy what makes our countries unique. And the "leaders" of Britain and America refuse to stop it.

The greater tragedy is that the people of Britain have little say in any of this, so they are taking the road of last resort. They are leaving.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; United Kingdom
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To: britemp

Where did you live in the US ?


61 posted on 08/28/2007 7:36:46 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Go Hawks !)
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Comment #62 Removed by Moderator

To: Wallace T.

‘I must question some of the numbers in this chart. First off, Nigeria is 50% Muslim, making a church attendance figure of 89% rather unrealistic, unless mosque attendance is counted. Ireland’s numbers look excessively high as well. While high church attendance numbers may have been characteristic of traditionally Catholic Ireland until about 40 years ago, the effects of secularism, liberal theology in the Catholic Church, and recent immigration from other countries (presently one out of ten residents of Ireland is of foreign origin) make the claim of 84% church attendance very suspect, certainly on a weekly basis. OTOH, the statistic for 2% church attendance in Russia seems low. This number may be based on a citation from the Russian Interior Ministry, which I found in Wikipedia, that said weekly church attendance is less than 2%. Even if his number on weekly attendance is accurate, the other statistics, including the one for the United States, may be based on monthly attendance.’

By all means question away, but unless you can provide figures with a similarly strong provenance from a respected source, you’re just guessing.


63 posted on 08/28/2007 7:38:41 AM PDT by britemp
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To: padre35

‘My source is laughable?’

Yes. Have you clicked on my link? :)

‘do we now have to do background research on quoted sources as well as quoting them?’

Only if you want them taken seriously. Try to quote from official sources rather than those with an axe to grind.

‘It’ what google brought me’

Despite the similar name, Google is not Gospel my friend! :)


64 posted on 08/28/2007 7:43:20 AM PDT by britemp
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To: Kaslin

Isn’t this the whole premise of Londonistan?
http://www.amazon.com/Londonistan-Melanie-Phillips/dp/1594031444/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-2110231-0042044?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188312205&sr=8-1


65 posted on 08/28/2007 7:43:56 AM PDT by anton
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

‘Where did you live in the US ?’

Mainly in Chesapeake, VA with a stint in Miami and San Diego. You’ve got the whole of Kentucky between there and the Ozarks so I never got there, sorry! )


66 posted on 08/28/2007 7:49:02 AM PDT by britemp
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To: JackRyanCIA

‘Englandstan’

As we’ve already shown England to have a higher percentage white anglo saxon christian population than America, Americanistan is more apt.


67 posted on 08/28/2007 7:50:45 AM PDT by britemp
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To: britemp

‘‘My source is laughable?’

You obviously didn’t click on his biography page or you would’ve realised all your quotations on Christianity were from a source who describes his religion as ‘Satanist’! :D


68 posted on 08/28/2007 7:53:25 AM PDT by britemp
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To: All

There have been countless articles like this one in the UK press over the last few months. They are all sensationalist and deviod of fact and deliberately ignore other facts. Just a few points:

1)As britempt has noted, most emigrants return to the UK after a few years or less. We live in an age of mass migration and most Western countries are experiencing the same thing.

2)The article suggests that people are leaving the UK because of immigration (obviously the irony of them then being immigrants themselves doesn’t register). Britain is an overwhelmingly while, anglo-saxon country still. The notion that the threat of Islam is forcing people out is laughable. Muslims form 2% of the UK population and despite the tragic terror attacks on 7/7, the UK population faced a far larger threat in the face of Irish nationalists over the past few decades.

3)Many, many people emigrated from the UK in the 1960s (when according to papers such as the Daily Mail crime didn’t exist). They weren’t ‘fleeing’ anything, so why must modern emigrants be said to?

4)Crime in the UK and gang culture is a concern. However, these do not compare in any way to the levels of murder and gang warfare in some US cities. In many ways, the UK is just starting to develop elements of this culture (decades behind the US). This is not a criticism of the US, just an observation


69 posted on 08/28/2007 7:55:14 AM PDT by uksupport1
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To: All

There have been countless articles like this one in the UK press over the last few months. They are all sensationalist and deviod of fact and deliberately ignore other facts. Just a few points:

1)As britemp has noted, most emigrants return to the UK after a few years or less. We live in an age of mass migration and most Western countries are experiencing the same thing.

2)The article suggests that people are leaving the UK because of immigration (obviously the irony of them then being immigrants themselves doesn’t register). Britain is an overwhelmingly while, anglo-saxon country still. The notion that the threat of Islam is forcing people out is laughable. Muslims form 2% of the UK population and despite the tragic terror attacks on 7/7, the UK population faced a far larger threat in the face of Irish nationalists over the past few decades.

3)Many, many people emigrated from the UK in the 1960s (when according to papers such as the Daily Mail crime didn’t exist). They weren’t ‘fleeing’ anything, so why must modern emigrants be said to?

4)Crime in the UK and gang culture is a concern. However, these do not compare in any way to the levels of murder and gang warfare in some US cities. In many ways, the UK is just starting to develop elements of this culture (decades behind the US). This is not a criticism of the US, just an observation


70 posted on 08/28/2007 7:55:22 AM PDT by uksupport1
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Comment #71 Removed by Moderator

To: Kaslin

bttt


72 posted on 08/28/2007 7:57:14 AM PDT by HockeyPop
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To: JackRyanCIA

‘America is not more apt at all. Europe will fall long before we do.’

I agree with you, it will. But Britain won’t.

‘Not saying America isn’t trying though.’

In both our countries, the greatest enemy is the enemy within. Not terrorists, just ignorant apathetic citizens.


73 posted on 08/28/2007 8:02:48 AM PDT by britemp
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To: britemp

‘You obviously didn’t click on his biography page’

LOL! Replying to myself is the first sign of madness! :)


74 posted on 08/28/2007 8:04:12 AM PDT by britemp
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To: yankeedame

It’s true. If Britain had been a real empire, Ghandi would have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, and that would be that.


75 posted on 08/28/2007 8:04:43 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: britemp
The UK is still 92.9% white anglo saxon celtic christian so compared to most countries we still have a long way to go before we disappear completely. ;-)"

When I googled the UK national statistics site it told me that 7.9% are from a "non white ethnic group".

Given the way states tip toe around the subject I think your Celtic count is a tad inflated. Besides, at least over here, Semitic, Persian, etc. are not 'non white', Hispanics can choose to be either, and "white" is not "Celtic".

Neither Hispanic nor islamic are ethnicities for purposes of a modern census.
("Hispanic" doesn't even make sense, but nevermind)

Please do not disappear, we need you as much as you need us.

76 posted on 08/28/2007 8:05:51 AM PDT by norton
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To: uksupport1

‘We live in an age of mass migration and most Western countries are experiencing the same thing.’

Very true. In just the little island of Britain there are more than a quarter of a million American ex-pats living and when you ask them why they moved to Britain they invariably say because of US crime levels or President Bush! :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3956061.stm


77 posted on 08/28/2007 8:09:06 AM PDT by britemp
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To: britemp
The home page for NationMaster.com states that it draws its statistics "from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD." Assuning the primary sources are valid, which must be questioned in the first place when one is dealing with UN statistics due to the leftist bias of that body, the issue is whether NationMaster interprets data correctly. There is no evidence that NationMaster conducted an impartial, scientificly valid survey of church attendance in the many nations that are represnted in this chart. Unless such evidence exists, it is justifiable, and indeed necessary, to question the statistics you cited.

In any case, even if we assume the validity of the NationMaster statistics, numerous other researchers (Barna, Gallup) have shown that Americans adhere to major points of Christian doctrine at a higher percentage than Europeans, especially Western Europeans. If you were to calculate a weighted average of the Western European nations cited in the NationMaster chart, the church attendance figures in the U.S. would be higher. That being said, my main point was not an attack on European agnosticism and atheism but the clear evidence that American religious belief is heading in the direction of Western Europe.

78 posted on 08/28/2007 8:12:33 AM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: mtbopfuyn

I believe that Jamaica is quite a popular destination. A lot of immigrants are, apparently, emigrating now.

Strange eh?


79 posted on 08/28/2007 8:12:45 AM PDT by Vanders9
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To: Daveinyork

‘It’s true. If Britain had been a real empire, Ghandi would have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, and that would be that.’

No, you’re confusing a constitutionally democratic monarchical empire with a totalitarian dictatorship. Everything we did in Empire had to be passed by parliament. We couldn’t just go killing opposition leaders because they disagreed with us. That’s the job of the CIA in central America! :)


80 posted on 08/28/2007 8:13:58 AM PDT by britemp
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