Ace of Spades HQ

October 31, 2007

If It's Halloween, It Must Be Time For The Official Start of the War on Christmas
— Ace

British Labour think-tank recommends "downgrading" Christmas, in recognition that Britain is no longer a Christian nation and of course in the interest of not giving offense.

Bonus: It seems the think-tank actually wished to expunge (their word) the holiday from the calendar, but considered that unachievable.

And there's more: Britishness must be redefined, it seems, as polyglot transnational multiculturalism.

Christmas should be downgraded in favour of festivals from other religions to improve race relations, says an explosive report.
Labour's favourite think-tank says that because it would be hard to 'expunge' Christmas from the national calendar, 'even-handedness' means public organisations must start giving other religions equal footing.
...
The report robustly defends multiculturalism - the idea that different communities should not be forced to integrate but should be allowed to maintain their own culture and identities.
And it says immigrants should be required to acquire some proficiency in English and other aspects of British culture 'if - but only if - the settled population is willing to open up national institutions and practices to newcomers and give a more inclusive cast to national narratives and symbols'.
It adds: 'Even-handedness dictates that we provide public recognition to minority cultures and traditions.
'If we are going to continue as a nation to mark Christmas - and it would be very hard to expunge it from our national life even if we wanted to - then public organisations should mark other religious festivals too.
'We can no longer define ourselves as a Christian nation, nor an especially religious one in any sense.
'The empire is gone, church attendance is at historically low levels, and the Second World War is inexorably slipping from memory.'
...
The report, written by IPPR advisers Ben Rogers and Rick Muir, calls on Ministers to launch an 'urgent and upfront campaign' promoting a 'multicultural understanding of Britishness'.
'Multiculturalism can be shown to provide for a fairer and more liberal society and does not necessarily lead to social division and community conflict, as its critics have claimed,' it says.

On the upside, we're all going to die anyway.

Posted by: Ace at 04:07 PM | Comments (23)
Post contains 379 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Let's downgrade the birth of Christ and try to make the Islamofascists happy.

Yeah, sure. That works for me.

/sarc off

Posted by: Kowboy at October 31, 2007 04:09 PM (kJiXe)

2 I, for one, welcome our new Muslim overlords.

Hooray for dhimmitude! Allahu Akbar!

Posted by: Pandering Briton at October 31, 2007 04:22 PM (wETQ1)

3 It is somewhat hearting that in the comments, people were unanimously appalled by the idea. The next person that find offended by the me saying "Merry Christmas" will be the first.

Posted by: Mark in Spokane at October 31, 2007 04:28 PM (X2AsH)

4 The British people seem to be generally sensible and well-grounded in reality. But what the hell has happened to their intellectuals and governing class? The people are willing to fight for their identity and national survival, but their "leaders" have apparently decided on preemptive suicide.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 31, 2007 04:35 PM (xFUIO)

5 The U.S. Democrat party is only about 6 years behind their British socialist allies, I see.

Posted by: Ron Paul's pooter at October 31, 2007 04:58 PM (p0Yi7)

War on Christmas?

Hell, I invented the modern model of Christmas - lit trees, fat guy in a red suit, dispatching crippled children to carry heavy, dead birds for a feast ... the whole kit-and-kaboodle.

Let the goddamned Muslims popularize their own goddamned holidays and see if the public buys it. Unfortunately, Muslims have a tendency to try and kill off all their talented writers.

Call this what it is: socialized mediocrity.

Posted by: The Ghost of Charles Dickens at October 31, 2007 05:00 PM (UeP9e)

The British people seem to be generally sensible and well-grounded in reality. But what the hell has happened to their intellectuals and governing class? The people are willing to fight for their identity and national survival, but their "leaders" have apparently decided on preemptive suicide.

I wouldn't say they're all that different from us, then. Perhaps a little further down the same path we're on, but not by much. But they are correct about the fact that Britain (and, truth be told, the U.S.) is not a Christian nation. Oh, there are plenty of people who play around with religion in some vague shallow silly way. But it's a fashion statement more than anything else. It's not very different from the kind of shirts you wear or the color of your car. America is one of the few places where someone will say they're a Buddhist because they watched a yoga tape once.

Posted by: The Band at October 31, 2007 05:05 PM (nHRdf)

8 James Lileks summed it up perfectly: "Multiculturalism is simply the time between two cultures."

This is the cultural equivalent of Pascal's Wager. You can bet on Christianity or you can put your cash on Islam. What you can't do is not bet.

So, gents, which do you prefer?

Posted by: Brown Line at October 31, 2007 05:11 PM (x4rbl)

9 Marx with plenary powers could never have achieved the family, tradition and cultural destruction the left has wrought in Great Britain. The great weapon that brought this about: political correctness. It's well advanced here as well, as you may have noticed at the University of Deleware.

Posted by: Banjo at October 31, 2007 05:24 PM (1DQ52)

Rule Brittania was a force for good in the world for centuries.

Cool Brittania is destroying a great nation, slowly but insidiously.

This sucks donkey balls

Posted by: CavMedic at October 31, 2007 05:47 PM (rYFmu)

11 Er, thinktank: England *is* a Christian nation. Its *state religion* just happens to be The Church of England (head of the Anglican Communion). Indeed, its rulers *must* be members thereof. In fact, it is only recently that England recognized that, by golly, those Catholics are Britons too. So, until the Mosque of England becomes the state religion (which might be possible under ash-Shaykh al-Malik Karlas ath-Thalathah a.k.a Charles III) England will be, technically and officially, a Christian state.

Posted by: Muslihoon at October 31, 2007 05:57 PM (EYrp7)

12 until the Mosque of England becomes the state religion

That's scheduled for next year.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at October 31, 2007 06:13 PM (XDffs)

Er, thinktank: England *is* a Christian nation. Its *state religion* just happens to be The Church of England (head of the Anglican Communion).

And the Church of England is about as Christian as Hezbollah.

Posted by: The Band at October 31, 2007 06:48 PM (nHRdf)

Question: What's the difference between a truly Multicultural state and an old-school multi-national Empire, like the old Austro-Hungarian Empire?

Answer: In a multi-national Empire, someone actually claimed to have authority to rule something.

Posted by: Calix at October 31, 2007 07:34 PM (8d3U/)

And the Church of England is about as Christian as Hezbollah.

Well, -that's- a bit harsh. It's not like they're Episcopaleans or anything.

Qwinn

Posted by: Qwinn at October 31, 2007 07:34 PM (/FDfc)

16 'Always winter, never Christmas' was not intended as a campaign slogan.

Posted by: CS Lewis at October 31, 2007 07:35 PM (z6drm)

17 "IPPR later addressed the rape epidemic by advising that since the women probably didn't vote Labour and thus deserved it anyway, they may as well lie back and enjoy it."

Posted by: Master Shake at October 31, 2007 08:50 PM (s62wo)

Looks like we'll be pointing our nukes at the Brits soon, too.

Keep yer powder dry.

Posted by: electron john at November 01, 2007 01:24 AM (ZvbcI)

'The empire is gone, church attendance is at historically low levels, and the Second World War is inexorably slipping from memory.'

This quote gives it away - why downgrade WW2 which has nothing to do with religion? Because it was a high point of British civilization.

It sounds like the liberal think-tank is really just opposed to England itself.

Posted by: adolfo_velasquez at November 01, 2007 03:43 AM (e3YaS)

Well, trimesgistus, unless the "generally sensible" English people make enough of a stink about this sort of thing that the leading Labour and Tory functionaries suddenly realize they're sitting on a powderkeg of proletarian resentment that will blow up in their faces, this gradual slow road to sharia will just get steeper and faster.

And in that case, as much as I love England, I'll side with that great political philosopher James T. Kirk: "let them die."

Posted by: Christopher at November 01, 2007 04:39 AM (zF6Iw)

21 Did anyone else notice how racist the proposal was?

It called for removing the holiday to improve race relations. But anyone of any race can be a Christian, and anyone of any race can be of any other religion, or none.

This is perpetuating racial stereotypes.

Posted by: mischief at November 01, 2007 04:50 AM (9Vboc)

Posted by: U of Delaware st at November 01, 2007 04:58 AM (i1jdV)

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