A Case Study

In my first article, I wrote that:
... there are many political battles in various European countries which appear to be between "native" Europeans and Muslim immigrants. In fact, these political issues are argued between left and right within the native political community, with the immigrants themselves as interested but largely powerless bystanders.
As a case in point, Wretchard at Belmont Club today picks up the story of Islington Council in London wanting a school to change its name to remove the word "saint".

At first glance, this backs up Wretchard's point about Europe abandoning its Christian roots, but there is more to the story than meets the eye.

First, Islington Council is about as representative of European culture as the UC Berkely Student Government is of America. James Kempton, the "children spokesman" who was quoted in the story, was elected to the council with 1129 votes, on a turnout of 29%. Local government in Britain is a complete joke; with virtually no powers, elections are treated purely as opinion polls on the national government, and corruption and incompetence are rife. The current Islington council is moderate compared to its predecessors, who declared Islington a "nuclear free zone", and were notable mainly for running children's homes in which the children were routinely sexually abused by staff. (In a sick twist, the leader of the council at the time is now "Minster for Children" in Tony Blair's government).

Second, this story is really about the state education system in Britain. The government does such an appalling job of running schools that atheist parents all over the country are turning up to church to qualify their children for church-run schools. The ideal for a parent is a school that is paid for by the state (so they don't have to pay), but run by the church, to protect it from the malign influence of the state system. The school in question is one of those. Because it is a decent school, the local authority wants to claim it as theirs, whereas the Church of England, which has made it a decent school, doesn't see why it shouldn't get the credit. Hence the argument over the name. The people who would supposedly be "offended" by the school being called the "St Mary Magdalene Church of England Primary School" are nowhere to be seen.

Update: Of course, this sort of thing is not seen here as "typically European", it is rather seen as importation of American-style political correctness. There is some truth in this, as this post The War On Christmas on Chigago Boyz shows.

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