I mention this here to show that there was, in fact, a basically straight forward venial motive for an act of vandalism that had understandably led to speculation as to more sinister motives, including mindless xenophobia. As a fact, over centuries past, many historic ruins of castles, abbeys, cathedrals and even Stonehenge have been cannibalised for their stones.

Recall that report in The Economist of 7 December 2006: “Nearly a third of British adults do not have a basic school-leaving certificate. More than a tenth have no qualifications at all. A fifth are functionally innumerate and nearly as many are functionally illiterate. And the workers of tomorrow aren’t much better. One student in six leaves school unable to read, write and add up satisfactorily.” [subscription required]
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8382461

With the continuing relatively low stay-on rates in education or training compared with most other affluent countries, Britain is unusually well-endowed with unskilled young people – on the evidence. Unsurprisingly, Denis MacShane, previously a New Labour government minister, doesn’t see fit to mention that factor but try the chart in that piece in The Economist of 26 August 2006 on “No end of them” [link available on request].

If that’s true, then what appears to be anti-semitism here could be just a symptom of general xenophobia, and Jews may not necessarily be the preferred target of the perpetrators. If Laleh in #3 is correct, then it could be just a bunch of hoodlums who didn’t get the memo.

“Most fires in churches in the UK are caused by accident, not arson. The insurance group Ecclesiastical recorded 64 incidents of arson in UK churches in 2001 with a total value of £4.1 million, and 67 incidents in 2002 with a total value of £1.1 million. By comparison, 1,450 incidents of accidental damage by fire were recorded in 2001 with a total value of £4.3 million, and 2,439 incidents in 2002 with a total value of £5 million. However, the cost of arson tends to be far greater. The average cost recorded by Ecclesiastical for the years 2001 and 2002 was £2,400 per accidental incident, and £40,000 per incident of arson.”
http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/churchfire/churchfire.htm

Sadly, in these times there is much wanton vandalism. In my locality, the polycarbonate panels in bus shelters are subject to periodic epidemics of destruction. It would perversely comforting in its way if this was motivated by some coherent, if malevolent, ideology but I rather doubt that it is. The motivation is probably more akin to that which led to the murder of that young woman “because she was dressed as a Goth”:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3834296.ece

“Britain’s chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, today delivers an unprecedentedly strong warning to Israel, arguing that the country is adopting a stance ‘incompatible’ with the deepest ideals of Judaism, and that the current conflict with the Palestinians is ‘corrupting’ Israeli culture.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,781113,00.html

In British academia, perceptions of the Palestine conflict have probably been much influenced by Avi Shlaim: The Iron Wall (Penguin Books, 2001). Avi Shlaim, who holds joint British-Israeli citizenship, is professor of international relations at St Anthony’s College, Oxford. This perhaps provides a fair, readily accessible insight into his assessment of Israel’s predicament in Palestine.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/feb/22/israel

Re 23 & 24…

Rumours of anti-semitism’s death (in the UK) seem a bit premature.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/denis_macshane/2006/09/post_354.html

And by police figures, Jews, proportionally, are four times more likely to be attacked than are Muslims.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1537128/Jews-far-more-likely-to-be-victims-of-faith-hatred-than-Muslims.html

Also:

http://thepcaa.org/writtenevidence.pdf

http://abs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/51/2/232

http://fra.europa.eu/fra/material/pub/AS/Antisemitism_Overview_Jan_2008_en.pdf

The admission of 10 additional states to the EU15 in 2004 and by a further two in this year will have changed that make-up somewhat but I have no firm data to hand.

This, from the Guardian in 2005, claimed more than 300 languages are spoken in London:

“Altogether, more than 300 languages are spoken by the people of London, and the city has at least 50 non-indigenous communities with populations of 10,000 or more. Virtually every race, nation, culture and religion in the world can claim at least a handful of Londoners.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jan/21/britishidentity

The Times of India on 14 November 2006 reported:

“LONDON: The British capital counts more people born in India than any other country among its foreign-born residents, official figures for this thriving metropolis of 7.3 million people reveal. Indian-born Londoners numbered 206,000 in the three months ending June this year, said the Office of National Statistics (ONS) . . ”

In all, WASP hardly seems a remotely accurate description of Londoners.

Oop north, they knew how to deal with foreigners:

“During the Napoleonic Wars there was a fear of a French invasion of Britain and much public concern about the possibility of French infiltrators and spies. . . ”
http://www.thisishartlepool.co.uk/history/thehartlepoolmonkey.asp

But times change. It emerged during President Sarkozy’s recent state visit that with 300,000 resident French citizens, London is currently the 6th largest French city, equivalent in numbers of resident French citizens to Nice – but then Nice, appropriately, has a Promenade des Anglais along the seafront.
http://www.clipser.com/watch_video/133391

An impressive display of Britain’s military might turned out there, even without goose stepping, but I’ll bet the French residents of London don’t all speak English when they get home, despite Mr Blunkett’s injunction.

Perhaps one of the more significant issues is to wonder why so many folk from around the world come to London to live. Until about 20 years ago London’s resident population had been falling on trend since at least the 1930s – something which is relatively easy to document. Mrs Thatcher changed that and London’s population has been growing since.

The fact is that travelling on public transport in London – which I do almost daily – is a multicultural experience, as is a visit to any of the several superstores or pubs in my neighbourhood. What I notice is that most folk get along well and with a goodly sprinkling of ethnically mixed couples.

Btw I live in what was the Saxon heartland of England. At a place about five miles away from my home, seven Saxon kings were crowned there before the Norman conquest of 1066. About a mile away, the archaeologists uncovered the foundations of a substantial Roman villa. The local parish church is part Norman and the manor house nextdoor, with a great hall dating back to the 14th century, once belonged to a Norman family. About four miles away are the ruins of Nonsuch Palace, built by Henry VIII and intended as the finest palace in all Christendom. There’s a bricked up cave about 200 metres away which – according to the London Encyclopaedia – contained evidence of human habitation going back at least to the middle stone age. The neighbourhood contains the span of human history.

Well, speaking as a foreign born London resident, it might be because many of them are WASPs.

“The injection of large numbers of unskilled workers into the economy does not benefit the bulk of the population to any great extent. It benefits the nanny-and housecleaner-using classes; it benefits employers who want to pay low wages; but it does not benefit indigenous, unskilled Britons, who have to compete with immigrants willing to work hard for very low wages in unpleasant working conditions.”

A longer study of the subject is at:
http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/Rowthorn_Immigration.pdf

Professor Rowthorn is author of several books, including: Capitalism, Conflict and Inflation (Lawrence Wishart, 1980). He is not widely regarded as being “right-wing”, rather the opposite, in fact.

Doubtless fascinating stuff. Presumably, BBC polls and surveys of the following kind, which refer to “white working class”, will all be banned in the New Order.

“A majority of white working class Britons feel nobody speaks for people like them, a BBC survey has suggested. Some 58% said they felt unrepresented compared with 46% of white middle class respondents to a Newsnight poll. White working classes were also negative about the past decade with 62% saying life had generally become worse in the UK.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7279997.stm

It was a very interesting documentary about the 43 group, Harry – it may have been the presentation, but the impression that came through was that their activities had a real, and positive effect, although some of the protagonists clearly weren’t so proud of the violence now, looking back.