Excerpts from this have been doing the blog rounds (I was tipped off by Crooked Timber), but Milton's Areopagitica contains an excellent response, worth reading in full, both to the events of last week and to the hastier demands that are following it:
"Lords and Commons of England, consider what Nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governours: a Nation not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, suttle and sinewy to discours, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to. Therefore the studies of learning in her deepest Sciences have bin so ancient, and so eminent among us, that Writers of good antiquity, and ablest judgement have bin perswaded that ev'n the school of Pythagoras, and the Persian wisdom took beginning from the old Philosophy of this Iland. And that wise and civill Roman, Julius Agricola, who govern'd once here for Cæsar, preferr'd the naturall wits of Britain, before the labour'd studies of the French. Nor is it for nothing that the grave and frugal Transylvanian sends out yearly from as farre as the mountanous borders of Russia, and beyond the Hercynian wildernes, not their youth, but their stay'd men, to learn our language, and our theologic arts. Yet that which is above all this, the favour and the love of heav'n we have great argument to think in a peculiar manner propitious and propending towards us. Why else was this Nation chos'n before any other, that out of her as out of Sion should be proclam'd and sounded forth the first tidings and trumpet of Reformation to all Europ. And had it not bin the obstinat perversenes of our Prelats against the divine and admirable spirit of Wicklef, to suppresse him as a schismatic and innovator, perhaps neither the Bohemian Husse and Jerom, no nor the name of Luther, or of Calvin had bin ever known: the glory of reforming all our neighbours had bin compleatly ours. But now, as our obdurat Clergy have with violence demean'd the matter, we are become hitherto the latest and backwardest Schollers, of whom God offer'd to have made us the teachers. Now once again by all concurrence of signs, and by the generall instinct of holy and devout men, as they daily and solemnly expresse their thoughts, God is decreeing to begin some new and great period in his Church, ev'n to the reforming of Reformation it self: what does he then but reveal Himself to his servants, and as his manner is, first to his English-men; I say as his manner is, first to us, though we mark not the method of his counsels, and are unworthy. Behold now this vast City: a City of refuge, the mansion house of liberty, encompast and surrounded with his protection; the shop of warre hath not there more anvils and hammers waking, to fashion out the plates and instruments of armed Justice in defence of beleaguer'd Truth, then there be pens and heads there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions and idea's wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty the approaching Reformation: others as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of reason and convincement. What could a man require more from a Nation so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge. What wants there to such a towardly and pregnant soile, but wise and faithfull labourers, to make a knowing people, a Nation of Prophets, of Sages, and of Worthies. We reck'n more then five months yet to harvest; there need not be five weeks, had we but eyes to lift up, the fields are white already. Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic terrors of sect and schism, we wrong the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding which God hath stirr'd up in this city. What some lament of, we rather should rejoyce at, should rather praise this pious forwardnes among men, to reassume the ill deputed care of their Religion into their own hands again. A little generous prudence, a little forbearance of one another, and som grain of charity might win all these diligences to joyn, and unite into one generall and brotherly search after Truth; could we but forgoe this Prelaticall tradition of crowding free consciences and Christian liberties into canons and precepts of men. I doubt not, if some great and worthy stranger should come among us, wise to discern the mould and temper of a people, and how to govern it, observing the high hopes and aims, the diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts and reasonings in the pursuance of truth and freedom, but that he would cry out as Pirrhus did, admiring the Roman docility and courage, if such were my Epirots, I would not despair the greatest design that could be attempted to make a Church or Kingdom happy. Yet these are the men cry'd out against for schismaticks and sectaries; as if, while the Temple of the Lord was building, some cutting, some squaring the marble, others hewing the cedars, there should be a sort of irrationall men who could not consider there must be many schisms and many dissections made in the quarry and in the timber, ere the house of God can be built. And when every stone is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, it can but be contiguous in this world; neither can every peece of the building be of one form; nay rather the perfection consists in this, that out of many moderat varieties and brotherly dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportionall arises the goodly and the gracefull symmetry that commends the whole pile and structure. Let us therefore be more considerat builders, more wise in spirituall architecture, when great reformation is expected. For now the time seems come, wherein Moses the great Prophet may sit in heav'n rejoycing to see that memorable and glorious wish of his fulfill'd, when not only our sev'nty Elders, but all the Lords people are become Prophets. No marvell then though some men, and some good men too perhaps, but young in goodnesse, as Joshua then was, envy them. They fret, and out of their own weaknes are in agony, lest these divisions and subdivisions will undoe us. The adversarie again applauds, and waits the hour, when they have brancht themselves out, saith he, small anough into parties and partitions, then will be our time. Fool! he sees not the firm root, out of which we all grow, though into branches: nor will be ware untill he see our small divided maniples cutting through at every angle of his ill united and unweildy brigade. And that we are to hope better of all these supposed sects and schisms, and that we shall not need that solicitude honest perhaps though over timorous of them that vex in this behalf, but shall laugh in the end, at those malicious applauders of our differences, I have these reasons to perswade me."
Posted by Alan Allport at July 11, 2005 04:18 PMIndeed- Milton would have realised the uselessness of ID cards, how they're not about crime but a thin end of the wedge for more socialist fingers-up-anus control, tinkering, monitoring and possibly and end to the pound. He would also have recognised that England has lost control of her borders and that, with the best British magnanimity notwithstanding, we have a govt pandering--Muslim hate speech law; sedulous Politcal Correctness; proposals of Sharia property laws and for polygamy to be recognised in tax affairs-- to a growing population of people who are loyal not to Britain but to a religion that, paradoxically, ironically and sardonically, is opposed to the very ideas that made this country the preferred destination of so many of that population. When one sees the Militant Islamic Mullahs living on housing benefit and preaching hate and destruction of Western Civilisation, one realises the arrant foolishness of the Left's total rights without responsibilities drive.
Those schooled in Academia, the Guardian and the Independent will quite simply be unable to stomach the above paragraph but everything in it is demonstrably true.
Hitch in the Daily Mirror
'The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.'
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15713152&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=07-07--war-on-britain--we-cannot-surrender--name_page.html
And biz as usual at the BBC:
BBC edits out the word terrorist
By Tom Leonard
Daily Telegraph
(Filed: 12/07/2005)
The BBC has re-edited some of its coverage of the London Underground and bus
bombings to avoid labelling the perpetrators as "terrorists", it was
disclosed yesterday.
Early reporting of the attacks on the BBC's website spoke of terrorists but
the same coverage was changed to describe the attackers simply as "bombers".
The BBC's guidelines state that its credibility is undermined by the
"careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments".
Consequently, "the word 'terrorist' itself can be a barrier rather than an
aid to understanding" and its use should be "avoided", the guidelines say.
Rod Liddle, a former editor of the Today programme, has accused the BBC of
"institutionalised political correctness" in its coverage of British
Muslims.
A BBC spokesman said last night: "The word terrorist is not banned from the
BBC."
After hearing the bombings connected to immigration policy here and there I looked this up in the CIA Factbook entry on the UK:
Ethnic Groups: white 92.1%, black 2%, Indian 1.8%, Pakistani 1.3%, mixed 1.2%, other 1.6% (2001 census)
Religions: Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1% (2001 census)
Net Immigration Rate: 2.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
The same entries for Canada:
Ethnic Groups: British Isles origin 28%, French origin 23%, other European 15%, Amerindian 2%, other, mostly Asian, African, Arab 6%, mixed background 26%
Religions: Roman Catholic 42.6%, Protestant 23.3% (including United Church 9.5%, Anglican 6.8%, Baptist 2.4%, Lutheran 2%), other Christian 4.4%, Muslim 1.9%, other and unspecified 11.8%, none 16% (2001 census)
Languages: English (official) 59.3%, French (official) 23.2%, other 17.5%
Net Immigration: 5.9 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Posted by: Alan Hogue at July 12, 2005 10:16 AMDid they take into account the estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants that Whitehall were not prepared to admit a week before the general election but were prepared to admit two weeks ago? Where does the CIA get its figures from? If it comes through the British Government then I'm afraid to say that I don't give much credence to them. If on the other hand they are true, then it shows up the nonsense of multiculturalism as obdurate civil policy.
Posted by: Aibrushed by the Commissars at July 12, 2005 11:57 AMOr are you saying that you think that my assertions (Muslim hate speech law; sedulous Politcal Correctness; proposals of Sharia property laws and for polygamy to be recognised in tax affairs) cannot be true because of CIA figures? Some other immigration facts:
• Net migration into the UK has averaged 157,000 a year over the last 6 years. [1]
• The UK’s population is projected to rise by 6.1 million from 2003 to 2031 – 5.2 million (84%) of this rise is due to immigration.[2] That’s equivalent to a city the size of Portsmouth every year, or 5 cities the size of Birmingham over the 28 year period, needing to be built because of immigration.[3]
• 59,000 new homes will be required in England each year for the next 17 years for immigrants.[4]
• In 2003 12.2 million non-EU nationals arrived in the UK[5]. How many left? No one knows – we have no embarkation controls.
• In Inner London 55% of all births are to foreign-born mothers. [6]
• 70% of net international migration is to London. In recent years a net 100,000 migrants a year have been arriving in London and there has been a net movement of 100,000 existing residents from London to the rest of the UK.[7]
• The cost of running the Immigration and Nationality Department of the Home Office rose from £300 million in 1998-1999 to 1.9 billion in 2003-4.[8] Legal aid costs of £170m a year are additional.
• England is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It has nearly twice the population density of Germany, 4 times that of France and 12 times that of the USA.
• Since 1997 about 308,000 asylum seekers have been refused permission to stay here but only 72,000 have been recorded as having been removed from the UK. [9]
• And those with families whose claims have failed continue to receive benefits worth an average of £15,000 a year tax free.[10]
17 February 2005
NOTES: [1] ONS: International Migration Series MN no. 29
[2] Comparison of Government Actuary’s 2003-based principal and natural change population projections.
[3] The population of Birmingham is 977,000 and Portsmouth’s population is 186,000 according to the 2001 census.
[4] Lords Hansard 8 Dec 2004 Column WA39 – this is based on net migration and other changes of 99,000 a year for England
[5] Home Office: Control Of immigration: Statistics 2003
[6] ONS Birth Statistics
[7] ONS – Internal and International Migration.
[8] Home Office Departmental Report 2003-4 Section 6 Finance and Staffing
[9] Home Office Asylum Statistics 1997-2003 and Q3,2004. Figures exclude dependants.
[10] Home Office Press Release 295/2003 24.10.2003 – ‘Moving even 1,000 [families] off support will save £15 million in support costs in addition to any potential savings on legal aid’
Robbie's source for the above is http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/ -- or at least the above are talking points that appear verbatim on this group's home page. Googling the name "Migration Watch UK" shows the organization to be at the center of considerable controversy. I haven't got time to look into this further now but at any rate I will in future thank Mr. Robbie to state clearly whose work he is quoting.
I won't say more because Robbie's morally false campaign for the ascription of collective guilt is answered amply by that Milton quote, which is one of the grander things ever written on behalf of tolerance.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at July 13, 2005 05:30 PM