London is no longer an English city

[Leafyhouse]

Said by John Cleese (he of Monty Python fame), recently. Link to story is here:

www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-48451384

What do other people think? I do see London's diversity as being its great strength, but maybe it's just because I live in the London bubble - and maybe the view from the rest of the country is utter horror that the capital seems to be becoming increasingly disconnected from the country. Both economically and culturally. Hence the Brexit vote - Remain in a sea of Leave.

What's the view from others?

What’s this white English about? You can be non white & English

Wonder if he’d say New York was no longer an American city, or Sydney was no longer an Australian city?

Of course you can @nancy75

I think PP was just quoting the census finding for 2011 that 45% of residents of Greater London are "White British".

It's a census category (self declared).

Less than half the London population is white British (45%) so he’s right.

What the fuck does being white have to do with being English?

Says John Cleese, a man who is an immigrant in the place he chooses to live.

I think the difference is that JC has a deep respect for the Carribbean culture and has fully assimilated. He speaks in Bajan, is a practicing Rastafarian and cooks pudding and souse for the neighbours.

Dear God, there's some thinly veiled racism on this thread.

I have lived in all 4 corners of the country and don't see London as all that different to any big city. Easy to be scared of the unknown though, isn't it?

London is a world city. I grew up in London, and I feel like a Londoner more than I feel English tbh.

I miss London.

I'm grateful to be living in a diverse, open city like London when I see some of the insidious posts on this thread...

I think PP was just quoting the census finding for 2011 that 45% of residents of Greater London are "White British".

...and then using the percentage of ‘White British’ Londoners to declare whether London was English or not.

I have lived in all 4 corners of the country and don't see London as all that different to any big city. Easy to be scared of the unknown though, isn't it?

Really?

I'd say London is MUCH more global, connected, diverse etc than Manchester, Glasgow or Cardiff.

But I'm a Londoner so possibly biased.

Aren’t Black British & Asian British also on the form?

I think PP was just quoting the census finding for 2011 that 45% of residents of Greater London are "White British".

...and then using the percentage of ‘White British’ Londoners to declare whether London was English or not.

Oh ISWYM. It's just one measure by which London clearly isn't "pale and stale" though, isn't it?

Call bullshit all you like. Every person who served us in a shop, restaurant or the hotel where we were staying did not have English as their first language. It was like going abroad. She was 4.

I don't understand why it has to be "white" to be English? I know plenty of people including DH who are non white but very English in their thinking, manners, tolerance and lifestyle. All though most have not been born in the UK they consider it home and love it.

I hate this constant London bashing with racist undertones. I don’t give a toss what colour my neighbours are or what language they speak.

FFS! Some people read far to much into things. Okay then over 42% of those living in inner London we’re not born in the UK. That better? I’ve made no comment about wether it’s a good or bad thing but when at half a population isn’t ‘indigenous’ to that country is going to be changed.

As for Cleese, was he just making an observation is he known to be a bit of a kipper?

Every person who served us in a shop, restaurant or the hotel where we were staying did not have English as their first language.

So they served you using their first language?

Or did they in fact serve you in English, in which case they spoke fucking english in London!

UrsulaPandress I’ll call bullshit again, I’ve worked in shops in central London, I regularly eat in London restaurants, there are plenty of English people doing those jobs.

It is definitely a mix of nationalities and different to the rest of the UK. If you go to Edinburgh for expanse you can’t escape the fact you are in Scotland. That doesn’t make London a bad place. I have lived there in the past but found it was too expensive. Plenty of people love it though and embrace the multicultural aspect to it so that’s all that matters.

Perhaps you didn't serve me?

And where have I said that any of this was a problem? It was simply an observation, of a child, who lived in a rural backwater.

Nearly 40% of people living in London weren’t born in the UK. That inevitably gives it a different feel to the rest of the Uk. Again, that doesn’t make it a bad place. Just different.

I live in London. He's right but there still plenty of British people here. Plenty of working class and poor people here too despite the constant assertions that everyone is being priced out and it's impossible to live here unless wealthy. I love it and would find it hard to live anywhere else.

My Dad on the other hand used to work himself up into a red faced spitting frenzy at all the "forriners!" he heard speaking Not English when he came to visit. We've fallen out now - not just about that - so he doesn't come anymore.

It was simply an observation, of a child

No it wasn’t. You said she asked if they spoke English in London. She didn’t say “no one speaks English here”. You said no one speaks English in London.

And so what? Rich English people don't want to live there, poor English people can't afford to and have not been able to for a long time. Therefore they need immigrants. Not that John Cleese has much to do with this but if the powers that be had not spent so much time knocking us off in one war after another, there would possibly be a lot more people they feel comfortable seeing.