lemon garden

Ruth Kelly, the Minister for Communities and Local Govenment, has created a Commission on Integration and Cohesion. She says, in her speech launching the new commission:

I believe … we have moved from a period of uniform consensus on the value of multiculturalism, to one where we can encourage that debate by questioning whether it is encouraging separateness.

The idea seems to be that we need a more integrated and coherent cultural life in Britain. It is an idea that gives me the creeps.

Multiculturalism is part of British life. Yet, in the last decade or two there has been something of a shift towards a monoculture, with many towns and cities around the country losing their distinct character and many people leading much the same sort of life. But this is a bad thing and should be, and is, resisted.

One thing I love about North Yorkshire is that, when you wonder around Skipton or Thirsk, you know you are in a North Yorkshire market town. Nowhere else in the world is quite the same; the style of the buildings and the stone used, the cobbled market place divided by the main street, are all so characteristic of Yorkshire market towns.

I love that a German friend was mighty confused when invited to a Yorkshire home for tea, and was presented with a meal rather than a hot drink. I like the chapels, canals and Mill buildings of northern England. I love that Yorkshire cheeses are very different from Somerset cheeses. I love the thatched cottages you see in various parts of the south of England and the strange Sussex pub games, entirely unknown to me, that my cousin dragged me into playing last time I was visiting.

There has been religious plurality in England since Cromwell (well, barring a few setbacks here and there). Britain has a diverse and wonderful culture. Would we really want Cornwall, Perthshire, London, Newcastle and Cumbria to all be the same? Multiculturalism is a great thing. It is a monoculture that is to be dreaded.

Having a varied cultural life in this country causes no problems. Having different people living rather different lives causes no problems. We seem to have a problem with a handful of crackpot muslims that want to blow things up, but I do not think this is because of the glorious plurality of culture on this beautiful island.