B. U. G. S.

The BNP just won a biggie in the last elections.

I would like to see bumper stickers saying, “Isn’t there room in the WHOLE WORLD for ONE British Culture?” This is the obvious answer to “multiculturalism,” at least obvious to ME.

Some 22% of Britons say they will “consider” voting BNP. When you realize that means “Nazi” in every publication they read, that is quite a large number.

Someone once asked me what I would advise some European party to do, since I am a recognized political expert. I replied, “I would advice that Party to let me live in that country for a few years.”

I haven’t been keeping up with British politics. I get a free National Review every two weeks, and they were terrified by the BNP’s breakthrough in this last election. Anything respectable conservatives hate deserves a second look. William Buckley was the only national commentator to endorse Europe’s prison-for Hate Laws.

But if I understand British politics somewhat, it is hard for an American to understand how MUCH government they have. So Griffin may talk about housing, which strikes us as a non-issue, but the British Government has responsibilities in housing which would astound an American.

I am always open to correction on this point.

Also, we underestimate the amount of control government has here because of federalism. Britain is centralized, which means that, in theory, every law is made in London. This is largely still true theoretically despite the Scottish Parliament and the European Parliament. I think that has had an affect on our psychology. Our governments tell us where we can live, what the interest rates will be, where our stores will be, and all that.

But it looks different to us when the head of government directly addresses housing, for example. The British are comfortable with “the government” handling all these things whereas we fool ourselves by saying that there is no THE government, but “t he country,” “the State,” the Federal Government” each having their own regulations. If one government was directly responsible for these things, as in Britain, we would feel over governed.

Actually there is an awfully lot of local government in Britain, which we inherited, so this centralization is more theoretical than we like to admit. As I say, they are theoretically centralized and we are theoretically federalized. But we have about as little contradiction of Washington here as they do in Britain.

The last thing I would recommend to someone running for President would be to talk all that much about housing regulations. But I have lived in Britain, which is the only reason I happen to know why Griffin has to.

I am acutely aware when I am an outsider. Not least because I am enough of an insider to know what an outsider can MISS.

But I think a bumper sticker saying “Is there not enough room in the WHOLE WORLD for ONE Danish Culture” would be excellent in that country. It would not interfere with anything they are doing, and bumper stickers are an American specialty.