startled anew by the fact that largernchunks of London were not just nornlonger English, but were not even British.rnHuge numbers of people from entirelyrndissimilar backgrounds, countries, andrnraces, speaking different languages andrnpracticing different religions, immersedrnin cultures unlike any of those ofrnEurope, had permanently settled inrnEngland. The significance of this camernupon me at once; I suddenly realizedrnthat these places had not just been un-rnEnglished, but had been permanentlyrnun-Englished. Not only were the localrnEnglish people themselves disappearingrnfrom these areas, but it seemed as if all ofrntheir primeval roots, all of their history inrnthese English heartland territories, werernbeing set at naught.rnThis sheer waste of all the efforts ofrnprevious generations, and the scale ofrnthis dispossession, shocked me. To thinkrnthat Cockneys are practically extinct inrnparts of the East End is a soberingrnthought. To walk around districts likernSpitalfields, Southall, or Peckham, contrastingrnthe unselfconscious vigor of thernnewcomers with the relatively apologetic,rngreying natives, is to put oneself inrnmind of the Tasmanian aborigines, orrnthe semimythical “tall, red-haired”rnGuanches of the Canary Islands. I sawrnthousands of clenched brown fists punchrnthe air in Parliament Square, outsidern”The Mother of Parliaments,” on thernday the Muslims gathered to demandrnthat Salman Rushdie be put to death,rnand pondered the arrogant, placardedrnmessages: “Islam—Today Our Religion,rnTomorrow Your Religion.” The indigenesrnwere clearly in retreat on allrnfronts—and not just geographically.rnChurches were emptying, schools werernslowly becoming “New Yorkized,” criminalsrnwere being let off scot-free, andrneven self-styled “conservative” governmentsrnwere handing over British independencernto the E.E.C. On the one occasionrnI counted them in 1993, 18 ofrnthe acts in the BBC “Top Twenty” werernAfro-Caribbean or partially so.rnAccording to figures taken from thern1991 census, non-European settlementrnin London is concentrated in certainrnboroughs—Brent and Newham (40 torn50 percent of the population), TowerrnHamlets, Lewisham, Ealing, and Hackneyrn(30 to 40 percent), then smaller, butrnstill substantial, numbers in all otherrnLondon boroughs, except those on thernborders of Kent and Essex. The generallyrnyounger age of individuals from thernvarious non-European immigrant communitiesrnmeans that shortly after thernturn of the century, white Britons will actuallyrnbe an ethnic minority in four Londonrnboroughs—Brent, Newham, TowerrnHamlets, and Hackney—and will almostrnbe in the minority in several others. Thernsame story is being repeated, if on arnsmaller scale, in all other major Britishrncities. (The census recorded the non-rnEuropean population of Great Britain asrn3,018,000, 92 percent living in Englandrnproper—approximately 5.5 percent ofrnthe total population.)rnAlthough some on the far right wouldrnprobably dub post-1945 immigration anrn”invasion,” this immigration has beenrnentirely pacific. Perhaps if it had been arnmilitary invasion, it might have met withrnresistance from more Britons. As it is, allrnexcept the tiny, neo-Nazi tainted partiesrnof the far right and a few renegade conservatives,rnwho regard culture as morernimportant than economics, have beenrnquiescent; most Britons do not seem tornmind being told they are “racist” andrnthat their institutions are oppressive.rnThey do not even seem to mind writingrnout multiple-zero welfare checks forrnpenurious immigrants, with their multifariousrnneeds—and governments norndoubt find it easier to go with the universalistrnflow than to risk censure fromrn”the international community” by enforcingrnthe stricter immigration controls,rnor pursuing the monoculturalist programs,rnthat are now necessary if Britain isrnto retain something of its immemorialrncharacter. Government ministers, seniorrncivil servants, academics, and intellectualsrnhave been affected just as much asrnthe middle classes by the universalist,rnchiliastic philosophies and vague feelingsrnof collective racial guilt that havernmade these demographic changes possible.rnFew could have foreseen what wouldrnfollow in the wake of the trickle of relativelyrnwell-educated West Indians andrnAsians that started in 1945; to them,rnBritain was so strong and so close thatrnthey could not conceive of its dissolution.rnImpossibly cultivated and welleducatedrnby today’s standards, the warrngeneration could not have imagined arnsituation when most Britons, even academics,rnwould regard their own culturernas worthless, or let the insane fallacies ofrndeconstructionism, moral relativism,rnpluralism, equality, and Afrocentrismrnpass almost unchallenged.rnBut this intellectual challenge was notrnmet, save with apology and retreat. Thisrnis why we have arrived at a time whenrnthere is a real danger of British culturernand civilization vanishing forever.rnThe stresses and strains inherent inrnmultiracial societies have been much inrnevidence over the last year or so. Thernhysterical reaction to M.P. WinstonrnChurchill’s candid speech to BoltonrnConservatives in May, which called forrntougher immigration controls; the acquittalrnof those who had been convictedrnof killing policeman Keith Blakelock duringrna London race riot; Londoners injuredrnby Kurdish bombs aimed at Turkish-rnowned properties; black M.P. BerniernGrant’s speech in which he called forrn”reparations” for slavery and suggestedrnsome Afro-Caribbeans should considerrnmoving back; the far-right British NationalrnParty’s gain of a council seat in thernEast End of London (although they subsequentlyrnlost it, they only lost it by arnvery small margin, and polled well inrnother parts of the East End); the settingrnup of the “Muslim Parliament”; an increasernin the number of successful lawsuitsrnand complaints linked to allegedrn”harassment”; and an increase in thernnumber of violent “racial incidents,” includingrnthe murder of a 15-year-oldrnwhite boy near London’s King’s Cross byrna gang of Asian youths. All of these phenomenarnare insignificant in themselves,rnperhaps, but they have cumulative importance.rnThere seems little doubt thatrnBritish society will be irreparably damagedrnif the trends that permit these phenomenarncontinue.rnAlthough it is impossible to measurernit, native resentment appears to be growing.rnOne senses a mood of profound, ifrnso far undirected, dissatisfaction in thernair; and to be even rather right wing is beginningrnto become more acceptable.rnThere is new tension between the rightrnand left wings of the Conservative Party,rnthe hitherto solid “rainbow coalition” isrnriven with dissension, and greater closenessrnto the rest of Europe has paradoxicallyrnbrought us closer to the patriotic,rntraditional right that is so evident in otherrnparts of the continent. Counterrevolutionaryrnactivity in the fields of education,rntrade unionism, and welfare hasrnindirectly weakened multiculturalism byrnweakening multiculturalism’s customaryrnallies. Extremist Afro-Caribbean andrnMuslim organizations have becomernmore active, further alienating an alreadyrnstand-offish Middle England. And muchrnof the indoctrination that passes for ed-rn38/CHRONICLESrnrnrn