But surely we have such diverse and radically different traditions and cultures BECAUSE various countries, empires and religious groups have resisted change, enforced their laws and customs on visitors and kept true to their traditions despite being overrun with "Johnny Foreigner" who in most cases appear to be British.

The British Empire spent a hundred years imposing 'Civilisiation' on a developing world, and now, those worlds have developed exactly like the Empire. Karma can sometimes be a bitch.

Although I hate living in London, I love being able to pop up the road for an Indian meal or a Chinese meal, or have Polish bread, Jamaican pattys and a good goat curry. I like it that my friends at work bring in traditional food for the various religious holidays - I like it that although I'm the only white Anglican Christian there, I share my faith with a lady of Asian origin and several people of African origin. I learn more about Jainism from speaking with a follower of that religion, than I ever did in school. I like it that I can talk about black history, white history and all shades of brown and pink in between, I like it that we communicate with each other.

I don't like the fact that, as I stated above, I can make fun of my own culture - that of warm beer, morris dancing, country yokel accents and classical music, but it's bordering on a disciplinary offence to make fun of anyone else's customs, traditions, food, drink or entertainments; and that's what the initial comment from Martin Amis was about.

We are supposed to be multicultural and for the most part, we manage fairly well, but there are certain factions that would have us lose our own identities in the rush to appease others and fawn over them like an over excited puppy.

To counter this, we have another faction who would resist all changes, who actively encourage people to mistreat or ignore other humans. People who deliberately stir the shit and spread lies, rumours and gossip, who only tell their side of the story and refuse point blank to listen to any other, who deny certain types of people the basic civilities, who refuse entry to their 'communities' ~ such people are destined to be the very lonely kings of their own dung heaps... because who wants to visit a dung heap?

LTS