Well! It's something of a relief to see that the initial, less thoughtful responses here have been tempered by common sense from those who actually absorbed my very brief sentiments. I am a great advocate of diversity! I rejoice in a world rich in contrasting cultures, languages, colours, customs, dress, cuisine; I travel as often as possible to far-off lands in order to meet and hopefully befriend new peoples and to date I have dined, laughed, swam, danced, fished and lived with Pemon Indians, Warao Indians, Massai tribesmen, Karen (Tibet) Thais, Kiwis and most European peoples. What an awful world it would be without diversity! When I am on my travels I take photographs of the countless wondrous people and things I encounter, and when I get back home I can hardly wait to show them to friends and family...it's so DIFFERENT outside of the UK...It's so...how should I put it? DIVERSE! By stark contrast, the country currently being deconstructed by the government exposed by Andrew Neathers (Labour) as deliberately operating an open-door policy since 2000 is becoming anything BUT diverse! Indeed, ****y, your grandchildren will almost certainly be in a minority-grouping by 2050. I trust nobody here can see anything 'racist' about what I've written so far?
The thing which identifies a 'country' is its people and their identity, and their identity is based on their customs and traditions; their common understanding of domestic affairs and of history; their sense of humour, their music and (unfortunately, I think) their religion. Without this unique identity, what was once a 'country' becomes little more than a land-mass populated by disparate peoples with little in common: the 'social cohesion' so beloved by the likes of Harman becomes an impossible dream. Given time - like, centuries - Blue Mink's 'great big melting-pot' will, I believe, produce the uniformity and relative calm it suggests but we ALL know that a colossal barrier to this bland, uninteresting, Utopian world will NEVER be happy.
My original posting referred not so much to 'diversity' per se, but to the over-bearing, constant, Orwellian brain-beating we get day after bloody day from government organs insisting that we WILL modify our THOUGHTS or we'll lose our jobs / get a criminal record.
So, to put this into context, my greatest love in life is fishing - I've done it all my life. I fish, I think fish, I write fish and, as some will know, I draw fish and fishy cartoons too! To protect our pastime / way of life I long ago joined the ACA (1969?) a non-political organization that had the devil's own job but did enormously successful work: it concentrated its efforts on preventing / prosecuting pollution and did not seek to indoctrinate in any way. So far, the Angling Trust has not sought to indoctrinate, but the signs are there...'Equality in Angling' will soon become 'Diversity in Angling' - not essentially undesirable, but having the message forcibly shoved in your face by government or its agents would be very, very undesirable indeed. And no, this is not a rant. It's a measured and, I believe, widely-held opinion. Right...let's get the gear ready.
