The Twilight of Britain
Subtitle: Cultural Nationalism, Multi-Culturalism and the Politics of Toleration
By: G. Gordon Betts
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 295
ISBN-13: 9781351325844
Subjects: Multiculturalism; Toleration; Government policy; Nationalism; Ethnic relations; History; Multiculturalisme; Nationalisme; Aspect social; Social aspects
Description: ""Betts is to be commended on his careful and insightful elucidation of the complex and novel sets of dilemnas now facing the British people at a time of superficial calm masking serious divisions."--AlbionThe erosion of British sovereignty, national identity and culture, the subversion of its history and traditions, and the demoralization of its institutions and public services, are a source of increasing unease to many. The process began, Betts argues, with the end of the colonial empires. Since the beginning of the last decade, concern about the consequences has been heightened by global instability. The demise of the Communist empire, the rise of national independence movements, and the eruption of long standing and bitter ethno-national conflicts have resulted in a mass migration of economic refugees and asylum seekers to Britain and other Western nations. In Britain, public attitudes are ambivalent. In part this is a consequence of the promotion of the myth of the multiracial Commonwealth, the regional devolution of the United Kingdom, and the transition from a European Economic Union into a politically federalized European super-state. Britain's national interests have become secondary to those of the United Nations and an inchoate and unwilling international community. Influenced by an outmoded UN Convention on Refugees and the lack of a consistent immigration policy and failure of those immigration controls that do exist, gradual but major political, social, and cultural shifts have occurred without the express consent of the majority of the British electorate. Virtually all public debate by the government and by politicians on these issues has been taboo, effectively silenced by fear of being accused of xenophobia, discrimination, and racism. The result is cynicism and disenchantment with the political process as a whole. Betts's objective is to promote responsible and informed discussion of these issues. In the absence of this, he warns, we risk the twilight of a harmonious British society, diminished pride in British institutions and national identity, and competing and conflicting separatist ethnic, racial, and cultural claims. Twilight of Britain will be of interest to general readers, those interested in modern Britain and Europe, as well as sociologists, political scientists, and philosophers. G. Gordon Betts was educated in the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, Greenwich, and Kent at Canterbury. He is a chartered chemical engineer, having spent his professional career with a major British oil company in the petrochemical industry."--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Chapter 1 Introduction and the Principal Propositions  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 2 Culture and the Appeal of Culturalism  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 3 The Convergence of Race, Culture, Ethnicity, Class, and Identity  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 4 Relativism: Cultural, Moral, and Political  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 5 Multiculturalism and the Politics of Identity  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 6 The Multicultural Threat  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 7 Cultural Imperialism and Cultural Nationalism  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 8 The Appeal of Nationhood and Kinship  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 9 The Nation-State, Sovereignty, and the European Union  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 10 The Obligation of Loyalty and Patriotism  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 11 The Re-Emergence of Ethno-National Conflicts  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 12 The Education and Understanding Fallacy  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 13 The Fiction of Global Idealism, Cosmopolitanism, and the United Nations  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 14 The Misappropriation of Universal Human Rights  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 15 Global Migration and Refugees  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 16 The Failure of Immigration Control  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 17 Prejudice, Stereotyping, Victimhood, and the Culture of Complaint  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 18 Racial Intolerance and Reverse Racism  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 19 Positive Discrimination and the Equality Paradox  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 20 Cultural Assimilation or Separatist Ghettoisation  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 21 Freedom of Speech, Social Censorship, and Political Correctness  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 22 Freedom of Religion and its Misuse  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 23 Toleration and the Demise of the Anglican Church  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 24 Toleration, Human Nature, and Distancing  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 25 Toleration and its Features  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 26 Toleration as a Moral Virtue and its Limits  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 27 Pragmatism and the Politics of Negotiation  -- G. Gordon Betts; title: chapter 28 Cultural Nationalism and Multiculturalism Revisited -- G. Gordon Betts.