Pruden notes that nonwhite immigration has transformed Britain—therefore, what?

Howard Sutherland writes:

Not a bad comment from Wesley Pruden on the British mess, on first read. He is even bold enough to say such things as:

But this is not the England of Mrs. Miniver, of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding on Sunday and the stiff upper lip always, as many Americans still imagine. An enormous wave of immigration from South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean has changed, probably irretrievably, the character of Mrs. Miniver’s kind and gentle country.

That’s probably true, more’s the pity. But then one notices what is missing. Pruden says not a word about what one might do about this problem, not even a hint that immigration should be reduced, ended or—better still—reversed. Until I read mainstream commentators writing that and standing by their words, I won’t believe that even atrocities such as this will shake the Western world from its torpor. After all, what followed September 11, 2001, whose decennial we’ll soon celebrate with weeping and flag-waving? A huge increase in visas for Saudi students, including flight students, that’s what!

LA replies:

Pruden has always been a “conservative” without a spark of conservative—i.e., anti-liberal—energy or conviction, and this is typical of him.

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James P. writes:

Pruden is like other “responsible” conservative commentators — he is permitted to identify problems, within certain limits, but not prescribe solutions. Steyn and Limbaugh also do this. The end result is a lot of pointless complaining and the demoralization of readers who are given only problems, never solutions. You would think that an American commentator should not shrink from prescribing solutions for Britain, but of course, we have a lot of the same problems as Britain for a lot of the same reasons, and therefore for him to say “Britain should end immigration, it is a disaster” would only raise the question of why we shouldn’t end it here, too.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 17, 2011 11:23 AM | Send