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Thread: White,english and what a bore...

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    White,english and what a bore...

    This week, former funnyman John Cleese took to social media to inveigh, in his usual adorable, puckish manner, against the curse of multiculturalism with which London finds itself shockingly beset.

    “Some years ago I opined”, wrote the erstwhile comedian, “that London was not really an English city any more. Since then, virtually all my friends from abroad have confirmed my observation. So there must be some truth in it… I note also that London was the UK city that voted most strongly to remain in the EU.”

    Well. Faced with so much opining, observing and noting it’s almost hard to know where to begin – perhaps in John Cleese’s island home of Nevis in the Caribbean, to which he decamped in autumn, apparently in protest at the tenor of the debate surrounding Brexit.

    In his huffy xenophobia, the ex-humorist joins the still-somehow-not-entirely-cancelled Morrissey, who lives outside of the United Kingdom but returns every now and then to regale the press with this sort of mega-brain posturing: “Although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears. So the price is enormous. Travel to England and you have no idea where you are.”

    It certainly is a rum old truism that, when you leave the country to spend a few years in Hollywood, the city you knew in the 70s looks appreciably different when you return. Who among us can parse this mystery?

    As far as Cleese is concerned, it’s all the more sad that he has drifted towards such reactionary views because he was once such a committed tormentor of institutions, bluster, xenophobia and small-minded Englishness. This is the man who, in A Fish Called Wanda, asked Jamie Lee Curtis: “Do you have any idea what it’s like being… (voice dripping with disdain) English?”

    This is the person who stabbed English pomposity and institutions through the heart with glee in Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and who mounted a blistering satire of racist, small-minded Little England-ism in Fawlty Towers. The latter in particular hums with scorn for the sort of blinkered and rickety dogmatism that uncritical “Englishness” can take. But then you only need to take the briefest of looks at his recent output, with the woeful Hold The Sunset, to see a shift towards the other side, as Cleese indulges in jokes about how confusing it is to put the bins out now, what with all the recycling we have these days.

    The last few years have provided the spectacle of so many former comedic scourges of the right seemingly becoming fed up with the state of the modern world. Of course, the tendency has always been for people to become more right wing and reactionary with age, but there appears to be a particular surge in the field of comedy. Ben Elton, who still identifies as politically left, has railed against the BBC being afraid to make jokes about Islam. The Absolutely Fabulous film spent a disturbing amount of time indulging in transphobia rather than showing us Patsy and Eddie getting pissed – in the process becoming as laughably out of touch as its deluded protagonists.

    Comedy always thrives on subverting and undermining the status quo, which can become a problem as financial security, and views formed in years past, push comedians themselves to become the status quo. In these cases, the status quo tends to turn its gaze back on the perceived “opposite” – the changing world around them.

    Nobody likes to feel disconnected from their times, and the sense that things are shifting beyond one’s control can become unsettling with age – but it’s saddening that in John Cleese that fear has taken this jingoistic form.

    The dogwhistle racism of the word “English” as a stand-in for a culture untouched by multiculturalism is surely beneath the wits of Cleese, particularly if connecting ethnic diversity to London’s Remain vote. After all, Scotland – still very much a Scottish country by Cleese’s apparent metric, with 88 per cent of its population identifying as White Scottish – predominantly voted to remain.

    The irony of these kvetches about the state of modern Britain is that they come from people with a necessarily partial experience of the place they’re fretting about. Cleese doesn’t have to appreciate the country he sees before him – but he can’t deny that it’s England..

    Sigh....

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    Cleese has shown himself to be a cast iron xenophobic idiot. And the irony of his comments is that he is an immigrant himself in Nevis. Poor old Nevis, being beset by multiculturalism! For a bright man he's incredibly dumb!!!

    I've had my own time living abroad and loved every moment of it. I will probably move away from the UK again one day. But I still love my Country for all its faults. And for all the travel I've done, I'd still have London as the number 1 City in the world to work and live.

    Cleese just needs to shut up an stop embarrassing himself.
    Last edited by Maruco; 30th May 2019 at 9:26 AM.

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    There's nothing wrong with multiculturalism, but I'd still rather live somewhere that maybe wasn"t so rich in ethnic diversity, but was just cheaper to live.

    Thats my issue.

    Sometimes people to have to prioritise their location based on cost. Also, central London's not a place I'd want to live if I had a serious disability.

    We can't all live where we want
    Last edited by Marb; 30th May 2019 at 10:13 AM.

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    The opening post is interesting in itself but I'd have thought Gigilo should have attributed it to its original author. The only thing I might argue with is referring to Cleese as an ex-comedian, etc.

    He was never funny.

    I embrace the idea of multiculturalism and hate the notion of one culture considering itself superior. I would be happy to live anywhere I felt safe. I imagine there would be pockets of certain cities in which I would feel less safe among whites than non-whites. There are towns in Scotland where I would be wary of walking down the street wearing green. I certainly wouldn't live in any of those towns.

    I lived in France for a year and Spain for a year. Both places (Bordeaux and Barcelona) were, to me, multicultural and the only racism I came across was an elderly female colleague - a woman who was still lamenting the passing of Franco - who was dismissive of Southern Spaniards in general and Andalusians in particular. I had to set her straight one day when she talked about how sad it was that these 'peasants' had come up north and 'were trying to live as equals'. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, as I knew her, worked in the same room as her and respected her, she was using the word 'peasants' in the literal Spanish sense, ie farm workers as opposed to a derogatory sense.

    I have to say, though, that one city I cannot stand is London. Sorry to any Londoners on here. The number of genuinely friendly and engaging people I've met there (apart from family members) I could probably count on one hand. I accept I'm probably doing the city a disservice in saying that and I've probably just been unlucky as I've probably just been travelling through so not really meeting 'local' folk as such. I found New Yorkers much nicer but I might just have been lucky when I was there.
    Last edited by Desert Orchid; 30th May 2019 at 11:11 AM.
    Illegitimi non carborundum


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    I don't really like citys in general mainly because iof the air,you can taste the pollution i lived in Athens for a couple of years and lived in a hostile with some Iraqis and were the most polite and generous people you could ever meet,how could that possibly have happened if i hadn't visited a city all yiu know about iraqis is what you see via our media biased organisations..The same with muslims,i have got to know quite a few over the last year or so i have been doing some charity work for some syrian refugees moved to the area i live and they are the friendliest most humble people you could meet again i would never have met people like this,seen so much crap in media over the last 2 years thought it was about time i did something and glad i did..Unfortunately we're going to have a period of the right through brexiit and people calling themselves ''libertarians'' where these refugees are going to take a lot of **** and i for one will make sure i stand up for them even if it means facing these wankers face to face,...

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    If that was happening in Israel the West would have definately intervened.

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