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I remember about 45 years ago when I was driving through Birmingham on my way, together with my parents, taking them to visit my grandma. She was living in Edgebaston at that time. It was a time when there was no such thing as a SatNav so it was a case of map reading and asking for directions as we got nearer or when we lost our way. Even in those days driving through Birmingham was a nightmare especially if driving through the ‘Bull Ring‘. It was easy to take the wrong turnoff the roundabout. I hadn’t been driving for too long and found it quite easy getting lost! We needed to stop and ask the way which we did. We asked several people for directions and none of them were caucasian. They were either ethnic Caribbean, African or Asian people that we came across. I remember saying to my parents, ‘Don’t white people live here any longer’? So even as far back as 45 years it seemed that there were more people other than native caucasian people living in some places in the country. Obviously far more live amongst us now and indeed some towns have practically no Caucasians living in them at all. When driving through Preston last Sunday I noticed the town was filled with people from other ethnic origins, so much so it felt as though we were in another country. Can we still call this the same England as it was long ago? We, like many countries in the world, have become a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country. If we can all live together in peace and harmony that is wonderful but unfortunately this ideology is hard to achieve due to the prejudices of some people. Multiculturalism has been the cause of many disturbances and unrest within our society as a result. I am not about to preach about religion at this point nor am I advocating racialism but one thing I remember from Scripture is the story of the Israelites and their acquisition of the land that God had promised them after their forty years of wandering in the desert through their disobedience. Before they could take the land the were told by God to drive out all the Peoples that were there else they would be a thorn in their side but they failed to do that and consequently a thorn in their side they became. The descendents of some of those people (the Philistines) still live in the area today. They are the Palestinians. So it isn’t always desirable to live in mixed cultural societies simply because of the differences between us. I get the feeling that this country is slowly being taken from us because we are so passive in not stemming the tide of immigration. Suggestions have been made to lower the immigration rate and indeed laws are planned to be in place this year to do just that but are we closing the barn door after the horse has bolted? The future of this land may not be in danger but on the other hand it could very well be.

Shirley Anne

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