Multicultural Britain, Olympic Games, Danny Boyle – Spectator Blogs

Back from holiday and it seems just about the only “controversy” at these splendid* Olympic Games lies in Danny Boyle’s exhuberant opening ceremony. According to its critics it was multi-cultural crap or pap or something. And, of course, in one sense it was a hymn to multi-cultural Britain. Why else would Boyle have begun with choirs in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England (spliced with rugby footage) if not to remind the audience (in London and further afield) that the United Kingdom is not quite the same thing as England.

Of course, that’s not what the critics of multi-culturalism really mean when they sneer at “multi-culti” tripe and political correctness “gone mad”. One of the problems with discussing these matters is the difficulty of defining and agreeing on terms. If your understanding of multi-culturalism is that its proponents believe in some kind of parity of esteem between all cultures and all cultural “practices” in Britain (which leads to a revolting tolerance of intolerable matters such as forced marriages and the like) then your having one discussion.