OPINION
March 27th, 2024
Greenwich Council has banned a chip shop from displaying a mural with a stylised Union Flag advertising its wares.
Apparently, because the additional mural is at ground level it is not allowed in the conservation area (but the first storey one is OK?).
I show below, without comment, the demographic makeup of Greenwich.
In 2021, 4.2% of Greenwich residents identified their ethnic group within the “Other” category (“Arab” or “Any other ethnic group”), up from 1.9% in 2011. The 2.3 percentage-point change was the largest increase among high-level ethnic groups in this area.
Across London, the percentage of people from the “Other ethnic groups” (“Arab” or “Any other ethnic group”) increased from 3.4% to 6.3%, while across England the percentage increased from 1.0% to 2.2%.
In 2021, 55.7% of people in Greenwich identified their ethnic group within the “White” category (compared with 62.5% in 2011), while 21.0% identified their ethnic group within the “Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African” category (compared with 19.1% the previous decade).
The percentage of people who identified their ethnic group within the “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh” category increased from 11.7% in 2011 to 13.2% in 2021.
Source Office of National Statistics UK census 2021.
In contrast, to celebrate Pakistan Day, the Pakistan Flag complete with the crescent was hoisted atop Westminster Abbey next to the Houses of Parliament.
The meaning of the flag is here: –
The Islamic green of the flag represents the Muslim-majority populace of Pakistan while the white stripe on the hoist-end represents its various religious minorities.
i.e. Non-Muslims, such as Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and others.
The combined star and crescent serve as a symbol of Islam, with the crescent representing progress and the five-pointed star representing light and knowledge. The flag symbolizes Pakistan’s commitment to both Islam as well as the rights of religious minorities.
The Pakistan Flag is based on the original flag of the Muslim League, which itself drew inspiration from the flag of the Ottoman Empire.
When the first flag was mooted at independence, it was suggested that it have a small Union Flag in the top corner. This proposal was rejected by Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the grounds that a flag featuring both Saint George’s Christian Cross alongside an Islamic star and crescent would not be accepted by the Pakistani people.
Source Pakistan Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
As Easter is approaching, we have the usual fuss about Easter eggs versus non-Easter-egg eggs.
An independent store is promoting Easter eggs as gesture eggs.
This has caused outrage throughout the country (some genuine and some manufactured).
In fairness to Cadbury (or Mondelez) the style of promotion was under the control of the store, but still, there is no description of Easter on the facing of the packaging.
Cadbury responded, A spokesperson for Mondelez International, which owns Cadbury, said: ‘All Cadbury Easter shell eggs sold in the UK reference Easter very clearly on the packaging – sometimes multiple times. Cadbury has used the word Easter in our marketing and communications for over 100 years and continue to do so with our new Easter product range. To claim anything otherwise is factually incorrect.
‘We are proud of the role we play within families’ Easter celebrations and have a wide range of products that can be enjoyed throughout the Easter season.’
On examination of the eggs, the word Easter is to be found tucked away on the reverse panel, so Cadbury isn’t exactly vigorously promoting the eggs as Easter eggs. This is all very sad as Cadbury’s were founded by a family with strong Christian traditions; they were Quakers. The major chocolate manufacturers in the UK were all started by Quakers – Cadbury, Fry and Rowntree.
Anyway, back to more serious (or probably less serious) matters: the UK budget came and went.
Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor commented that the Bank rate remained at 5.25% and inflation was at 3.4%, better than forecast levels. It is on target to achieve Sunak’s promise to attain his promised level of 2% by autumn. This will do him no good at all in the polls as with the election later in the year, the electorate doesn’t bother with figures and unless they can see the cost of living being under control the figures will have no impact on the support for Rishi Sunak.
Following on from the budget Jeremy revealed to a Parliamentary Committee that immigration had significantly increased GDP but had little if any positive impact on GDP per head. This may have come at the cost of social unrest. This elicits the famous response of No S*** Sherlock.
So, immigration has increased the size of the national cake, but not the individual share of that cake. What the country has to show for it is net legal immigration of 650,000 with all the demands that has on infrastructure, and more importantly the impact on social cohesion and the increasing separation of immigrants from the “British identity” (whatever that is).
If Sunak can come up with strong action to protect the mainstream culture from excessive dilution, then he will have a fighting chance of saving many of the seats at the election as Labour will be frightened to fight an election with this as a main issue. This, coupled with action on the transgender issue will have a strong impact on support for the Conservatives. But of course, they would sooner face defeat than look in the “too hard” basket. Batshit Bonkers Britain never seems to change.