I lived for 30 years in South Ealing in West London, which originally was a
model little London village. The Poles who arrived after the war were
thoroughly integrated, the Hindu shopkeepers got on with everyone, including
the local Muslim residents, and although there were new immigrants from
perhaps 20 countries, the pace of change was slow and unthreatening. We knew
that nearby Southall had long since become an ethnic ghetto, but we were
sure this would not happen to us. There were, perhaps, more Indian
restaurants in South Ealing than anyone could possibly require, but the only
local grumbles I can recall were about some Somali refugees who had trashed
their council house.


We all ticked along in our own way. I liked living in South Ealing. But things
changed. What ruined our community and the personality of our neighbourhood
were the young Eastern Europeans who poured in from 2004 onwards. I am not
criticising the character of these young migrants. They were generally
hardworking, eager and ambitious. But they arrived all at once in large
numbers and, most significantly, had zero interest in integrating. They
lived and socialised exclusively together, watched Polish television
channels via their satellite dishes, chatted to family back home for free on
Skype, set up Polish shops to sell Polish food, newspapers and books, and
they learnt only as much English as they had to. Seeing shop after little
shop put up the words Polski sklep marked the end of the village I knew.


This is why I applaud the Prime Minister for admitting that people are
profoundly disturbed by the havoc that mass immigration has wreaked on parts
of Britain. “When there have been significant numbers of new people arriving
in neighbourhoods,” he said, “perhaps not able to speak the same language as
those living there, on occasions not really wanting or even willing to
integrate, that has created a kind of discomfort and disjointedness in some
neighbourhoods.”


Many people across Britain – from big cities to smaller towns – will have
nodded along to Mr Cameron’s comments. I now live in central London, which I
love, but there is no pretence that it is a community: it is the most
cosmopolitan city state in the world and largely reflects the upside of
immigration – a dynamic employment market and a diverse cultural scene. The
downside is visible a few Tube stops down the line from me in places like
Tower Hamlets and New Cross where the communities are far more fractured
than South Ealing. These areas also suffer from the worrying, spreading rash
of Islamism.
Politicians’ consistent refusal to recognise the fractures and strains placed
on communities by mass immigration has led to the voter on the street
becoming more disillusioned than ever. I am a happy Irish immigrant who has
always trusted the instincts of Joe Public. As ministers assured Joe that
school standards were higher than ever, he knew they had gone to hell.
Unlike his rulers, he knew that the way the welfare system worked encouraged
idleness. Political correctness, he spotted, was being used to stifle
freedom of speech, particularly about mass immigration. “You’re a racist if
you say anything about all these foreigners coming here,” Joe would grumble
to his mates, as he looked over his shoulder.
Many of us can identify with these concerns. And being sensible, like Joe
Public, we do not blame immigrants for failing to integrate: the blame lies
at the feet of our rulers for failing to set clear boundaries by requiring
them to learn English, respect British culture and obey the house rules.
Instead, the British have been exhorted to change the rules to accommodate
the newcomers. It may come as no surprise to read that the Office for
National Statistics has discovered that one in eight people in the UK is now
foreign born.


The best-known example of Joe Public daring to raise his head above the
parapet came in last year’s “Bigot-gate” furore – the encounter in Rochdale
between Gordon Brown and Gillian Duffy. What was missed by many was how her
voice trailed off: “You can’t say anything about immigrants because you’re
saying you’re a…” “Racist” was the unuttered word.
Source and more text here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8451917/Who-is-to-blame-for-fractured-Britain.html