Links - 15th July 2019 (1) (John Cleese on London being English)

RAMZPAUL on Twitter - "These are the people discussing what it means to be English
Good Morning Britain: *6 brown people around a table*
'John Cleese: Racist Tweet? Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Comedian Dom Joly have criticised the post'"
We are told that diversity is important - but that only applies in one direction. Panels without representation from 'minorities' are a bad thing, but presumably it's good to have no majority representation

John Cleese Criticised for Saying London Is 'No Longer an English City' | Good Morning Britain - YouTube
It's amazing how much some of the guests read into his tweet.
Luckily the female host pushed back and pointed out he could be talking about things like humour, and that Russian and Arab money had really changed London
Also one guest suggested that 42% of the population not being born in the country means something, if 50% of the people in London were Scottish we could say it was very English and that since he was born in Russia he can't say he's from London/England and that he identifies as British not English. And another said it was nostalgic, not racist

John Cleese on Twitter - "Some years ago I opined that London was not really an English city any more Since then, virtually all my friends from abroad have confirmed my observation So there must be some truth in it... I note also that London was the UK city that voted most strongly to remain in the EU"

British actor John Cleese says his comments about London are 'culturalist' not 'racist' - ""It might interest those people who seem to think my remarks about London are racist as opposed to culturalist, to consider that what I like about spending time in Nevis," the 79-year-old posted. "Nevis has excellent race relations, a very well-educated population, no sign of political correctness......He continued: "......no sign of Rupert Murdoch, conscientious lawyers, a relaxed and humorous life style, a deep love of cricket, and a complete lack of knife crime And, of course, wonderful weather (sic)." The Monty Python star was not done there and, in another dig at the UK city, he added: "And the icing on the cake is that Nevis is not the world centre for Russian dirty money laundering.""

John Cleese defends remarks about London 'not being English city' - "The comedian said: 'For example, I prefer cultures that do not tolerate female genital mutilation. Will this will be considered racist by all those who hover, eagerly hoping that someone will offend them - on someone else's behalf, naturally.'... 'I suspect I should apologise for my affection for the Englishness of my upbringing, but in some ways I found it calmer, more polite, more humorous, less tabloid, and less money-oriented than the one that is replacing it.'"

Why the herd hates Cleese - "Cleese had said that London is “no longer an English city”.The remark was made in the aftermath of the 2011 riots – during which several nights of violence paralysed the capital and briefly spread to other parts of the country. The point Cleese was making was obviously based on personal observation and said not in a spirit of venom or demagoguery but merely one of observation and regret. Which in any sane and normal world would have been an end to it... You would get the same response, as I have explained in my last book, if you were to remark upon the official findings of the 2011/12 UK census. Which found that people who identify as ‘white British’ are a minority in London.Whether it is Conservative or Labour politicians in charge, after the initial outrage, the mob always comes back after any such observation is made: “Diversity is our strength.” This means, then, that the progression of their general argument in relation to the demographic and cultural make-up of London goes something like this: 1) You can’t say that. 2) It’s not true. 3) It is true but it’s great.Whenever anybody discusses the findings of the last census, this is the response: don’t mention it; you’re lying; it’s true so deal with it... In 1979, when ‘The Life of Brian’ was released, Cleese and his Python partner Michael Palin were memorably involved in a television debate with the then Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood, and the then prominent Catholic convert Malcolm Muggeridge. The debate can still be seen through the miracle of YouTube. It has generally been agreed in the intervening years that Stockwood and Muggeridge did not win the argument.In that studio, 40 years ago, Cleese and Palin stared down the clerical, po-faced, literalists, one of whom was of course literally wearing clerical gowns. On that occasion, Cleese made an especially impassioned and precise defence of the rights of comedians and anybody else to say what they liked even about those things which other people held to be sacred.And he also, crucially, insisted on sticking to the significance of facts... In the world of social media mobs, this is an un-returnable move. To not prostrate yourself before the mob is an unforgivable move. To behave like an independent adult, with a mind of your own, confident in your own opinions and receptive (though dismissive when necessary) of the opinions of others, is something the herd cannot deal with.Well good. Forty years ago Cleese’s opponents actually wore clerical frocks. Today, they might as well. Forty years ago they talked of “heresy” and “blasphemy”. Today, they talk about “diversity” and its “celebration”. They are the same breed, these opponents. Always scolding. Always unamusing. Always hypocritical. What a glorious sight it is to see that while the clerical class has entirely changed over the last 40 years, John Cleese has not."

The John Cleese copypasta. Courtesy of /pol/ : copypasta - "he was a progressive liberal degenerate comedian in 1960s uber-white uber-polite Britain that could take the piss out of the people he saw as uptight and repressed while enjoying the clean, safe streets and quiet little hamlets full of those same, uptight, repressed, polite-to-a-fault, helpful, white Christian anglos. the best part was that those same conservative British anglos were generally pretty humorous about themselves, so when you made fun of them they laughed along with you and shook their heads, saying "haha, you know Margie, he's got a point!" it was heaven on earth for him. be a popular "counter-culture" icon loved by conservatives and liberals alike for being hilarious, but also enjoy the benefits of a strong, stable, homogeneous culture.
now he's an old man staring at a desolate wasteland where London is majority non-white, everyone is suspicious, the hamlets and villages are economic dead-zones, every week there's a new group you're not allowed to make fun of, no one has a sense of humor anymore, little girls are being sold as sex slaves by your own politicians, women are being harassed in the streets and the white men are all suspicious and surly over their lowered living standards. the sinking realization that the world he made fun of, but loved more than anything, is gone forever and will never come back. and the horrifying suspicion that his own counter-culture irreverence may have helped kill it. so he impotently gripes on twitter and wonders where the laughter went? when did the jokes stop? where are those wonderful, repressed and uptight conservatives?"

A city without citizens - "I know someone, now in the twilight of her life, who has lived on the same London street for the past 45 years. Many of her local friends have died or moved away. Where the street once buzzed with English, spoken in a variety of accents, now you can go through an entire day without hearing English. From her small terraced house, she hears Pashto over one garden fence, Romanian over the other. In the nearby row of shops, the English-speaking Indian-owned mini-supermarkets have given way to Polish shops outside which young men gather every evening, speaking Polish. The cockney greengrocer and small butcher’s are distant memories – they disappeared three decades ago – and the most common shops now are African barbers and Eastern European markets with grand names like ‘International Food Emporium’. The people inside rarely speak English.This person says she often feels lonely and isolated, like a foreigner on her own street. Does that make her racist?... The time she feels nostalgic for is one in which her nextdoor neighbours, and best friends, were a black family. And where her other neighbours were a Jewish couple (the first Jews she ever met). And where you couldn’t buy anything locally without having a conversation with an expressively English-speaking Indian shop-owner. Life was diverse then, but diversity wasn’t the purpose of life. The accidental fact of diversity was entirely subservient to the conscious yearning for common speech and common concerns. People spoke English, they spoke about similar things, they felt connected. There were many foreigners, or descendants of foreigners, but the street didn’t feel foreign.That has changed. This street, like others in London, feels foreign now... The 2011 census found that one in 50 people in the UK cannot speak English well or at all. In Newham, Brent and Tower Hamlets, more than eight per cent of inhabitants do not have an ‘effective command of English’. Should we celebrate that as diversity, or see it as entirely debilitating to the individuals concerned that they cannot converse in the national language? Isn’t cheering the ‘diversity of languages’ deeply irresponsible given that it detracts attention from the fundamental alienation these non-English speakers must experience on a daily basis?... To me, however, it is clear that London feels like a city without citizens, and while that might benefit elites that prefer their populations to be passive and separate, it is a disaster for the people of this great city and for the values of the United Kingdom"
Presumably you don't need to speak English to be English. That's racist

Afghan asylum seeker 'was fuelled by desire to kill English people' - "An Afghan asylum seeker who allegedly attacked random members of the public with a knife was 'fuelled' by a desire to kill English people, a court heard.Samiulahaq Akbari, 32, is accused of swinging a 10ins kitchen knife at three 'total strangers' within a 10-minute period in Thornton Heath and Croydon in south London after 'demanding to know their nationality'.Jurors at the Old Bailey in London were told he approached the first alleged victim, Nicholas Speight, in a Tesco Extra in Thornton Heath on January 8, tapping him on the shoulder.After Mr Speight confirmed he was English, Akbari allegedly 'took a powerful swing at him' with the blade"
He didn't get the memo about everyone in London being English

Willem Pearson on Twitter - "I'm an ethnic European whose family has been in South Africa for 330 years. I was born in KwaZulu Natal (place of the Zulus) and can speak Zulu yet these same people would laugh at me if I told them I was a Zulu."
"> European with roots in SA going back 3 centuries --> still not African
> African who arrived in Italy yesterday by boat --> just as European as you!"