England’s Dreaming

1,662 words

Much of the analysis and commentary concerning the recent English riots has been concerned with whether or not race is a relevant, or even a determining, factor.

The historian David Starkey, describing what he regards as the pernicious influence of Jamaican “gangsta” culture on white youths, stated frankly, “the whites have become black.” According to Starkey, rap music, black gangs, and an inelegant form of pidgin English have conspired to create a nihilistic and violent culture which, “militates against education.” He even quotes approvingly from Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, although with the qualification that it is black culture, rather than the black man, which has the whip hand over the white.[1]

That a well respected and famous personality in Britain has gone as far as this is, in itself, quite remarkable, but his analysis is not sufficient to explain the behavior of English people engaged in destroying their own communities. Admittedly, the majority of those rioting were not ethnically English, but this fact does not obviate the need to explain why the minority of rioters who were English chose to behave as they did. In a sense, we understand the motivations of others who riot and loot because they do not see themselves as belonging to our country. But for English people to behave in such a wanton fashion appears perverse. If Starkey is right, and the whites have now become black, it will not do to simply try to wean them off the dire culture they have adopted. Whatever the shortcomings of black ‘gangsta’ culture, and they are considerable, the English will only be vulnerable to them in the absence of a pre-existing, and more suitable, native culture; and it is here that the problem lies.

Since the passing of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act (RRAA) in 2000 it has been a legal requirement for local authorities to demonstrate that they are taking measures to ensure equality of opportunity for ethnic minorities. What this means in practice can be seen from a government report, “Race Equality in Education.”[2] The main recommendations made by the report all involve giving additional resources, additional support, more intensive teaching, more mentoring and closer monitoring of ethnic minority pupils in order to improve their standards. The promotion of racial equality to pupils across the curriculum and in all aspects of teaching and learning is also recommended. This piece of legislation is, of course, only the latest in an ongoing series of legal and cultural maneuvers designed to mask the obvious flaws in the multicultural project of mass immigration. But the speed of this project’s success is increasing.

The effectiveness of a decade of post-RRAA education can be seen in the fact that a slew of reports have found that white pupils, particularly boys, are consistently underperforming.[3] Literacy among white boys from poor backgrounds is worse than in any other group apart from gypsies.[4] And a recent government report found that Christian and atheist children are less likely to obtain a place at university than Hindus, Sikhs, or Muslims.[5]

Behind the adjectives “white,” “Christian,” and “atheist” lies the reality that it is English children who are almost always being referred to here. It is English pupils who are being handicapped en masse by withholding resources, fostering resentment by others, imposing guilt where there should be pride, and the too often accurate perception that all the future holds for them is a life on benefits, just like their parents. Consider also the fact that English students, from next year, will be paying the highest tuition fees for their courses in the world. Most English universities have declared their intention to increase their tuition fees to £9,000 a year, making a total cost of £27,000 for a typical three year undergraduate degree. The Welsh Assembly (devolved parliament) has agreed to subsidize Welsh students for the rise in tuition fees, and in Scotland there are no tuition fees at all. English graduates face a £27,000 penalty for being English.

While it would be ludicrous to suggest that discrimination against English graduates might have had anything to do with the rioting, it is perfectly clear that the English are facing a unique form of disenfranchisement. On the one hand, our Welsh and Scottish neighbors have their own forms of devolved parliaments that are specifically established for them, whilst the English have only the United Kingdom parliament. In 2004, the UK parliament was only able to pass the bill allowing higher tuition fees in England with the votes of Scottish MPs, whose constituents were exempt from it.[6] On the other, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the UK are located in England,[7] necessitating the full implementation of the “equality” measures outlined above, and the consequent debilitation of our English youth.

The English are systematically denied their own unique identity by a cultural cabal who denigrate the indigenous people as post-colonial fools who are getting their just desserts. The English underclass is routinely depicted as stupid, promiscuous, and justly deserving of their jobless future in a way that would be denounced as racist if it were applied in the same way to any other group. And, when viewed from this perspective, what sort of a way out is there for these youngsters who do not even have the residue of a cultural identity to cling to?

Roger Scruton wrote, regarding immigration, “Disenchantment of the homeland is experienced as a loss of control. England, the English believe, is no longer ‘ours.’ In such circumstances hospitality (which implies ownership) becomes impossible. It is not we but they who are inviting these newcomers to stay. Resentment follows as a matter of course.”[8] For some of our younger people the experience is not even one of a loss of control because they have never had any sense of being a part of England. And, theirs is not a resentment towards immigrants, but, rather, a latent well of casual violence stemming from the fact that their existence is defined by purely material things. When existential meaning derives purely from shopping, then looting becomes a form of elevation.

Needless to say, when Scruton writes of ownership of the land he is thinking of a form of stewardship, of caretaking. For those whites who have become black there is no possibility of such quasi-mystical notions. Ownership relates to material things and nothing more, and possessing them is all that counts.

Many looters have been quoted in the media as saying that they will continue looting until they are caught, as though they have nothing else to do. Quite simply, it is fun, lucrative, and exciting. There is not even a whisper of an inner conscience that might question the wisdom, morality, or long-term consequences of what they are doing. Such an inner voice would represent the voice of the ancestors whose accumulated wisdom is handed down organically in the form of codes, stigmas, and taboos, the breaching of which is experienced as shame.  For a people without identity there is no shame.

Wyrd moves in mysterious ways, and so it was that on August 6, 2011, the day that England burned, the seed of a new England was also planted. On that day a unique event was held in rural Wiltshire. The Great English Folcmoot was an event designed to celebrate English culture, history, and identity. Amongst the craft stalls and falconry displays were several stalls selling Anglo Saxon-themed clothing and artwork. There was even a Wodenic (heathen) wedding in the evening.

It was all financed by the Steadfast Trust, a charity which is, “the first and only registered charity which undertakes work specifically for the ethnic English community. It exists to promote the education, legal rights, welfare, and overall interests of the community within England.”[9] What was on the surface a family-orientated summer fête was also the product of years of frustration at the maligning and suppression of English identity.

As the Steadfast website points out, “There are many thousands of charities and other organisations that exist to benefit every other conceivable ethnic group. . . Funding for these organisations amounts to hundreds of millions of pounds.”[10] By focusing on the ethnic English the Steadfast Trust is able to engage the English community in terms that resonate at a deep level rather than concerning itself with more abstract notions of nationality or citizenship. It is carrying out an important task in reawakening a sense of English identity.

If we are to prevent more of our young people from becoming black we must ensure that they are firstly presented with a clear sense of their ethnic English identity. This means that they must understand something of their history which is rooted in their Anglo Saxon heritage. They should also be given a clear sense of their responsibility as a link in a chain stretching back into the far past. This sense of English identity should be used to encourage them to see that there is a continuity of ancestral ownership of their homeland, as opposed to the blatant lies concerning immigration spewed out by all media and educational outlets.

It is necessary that this work should take place outside of official channels, as the political class in England is endemically ashamed of Englishness. As the English Folcmoot has demonstrated, such small-scale projects, outside of conventional politics, are the way forward. The English have been dreaming for far too long. Recent events might even be sufficient to deliver an overdue alarm call. England awake!

Notes

1. England riots: ‘The whites have become black’ says David Starkey, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14513517 ^[2]

2. OFSTED, Race Equality in Education, http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/race-equality-education ^[3]

3. The Steadfast Trust, “Resources,” http://www.steadfasttrust.org.uk/resources.php ^[4]

4. Graeme Paton, “Ofsted: white boys ‘held back by low expectations’,” The Telegraph, January 21, 2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8272027/Ofsted-white-boys-held-back-by-low-expectations.html ^[5]

5. Nick Collins, “Christian and atheist children least likely to go to university,” The Telegraph, July 22, 2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8655201/Christian-and-atheist-children-least-likely-to-go-to-university.html ^[6]

6. “Scots MPs attacked over fees vote,” January 27, 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3432767.stm ^[7]

7. “Born Abroad: An Immigration Map of Britain,” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/05/born_abroad/html/overview.stm ^[8] (accessed August 20, 2011).

8. Roger Scruton, England: An Elegy (London: Continuum, 2006), 8

9. The Steadfast Trust, http://www.steadfasttrust.org.uk ^[9]

10. The Steadfast Trust, “Questions and Answers,” http://www.steadfasttrust.org.uk/faq.php ^[10]