LONDON IS NO LONGER AN ENGLISH CITY
FAWLTY Towers legend John Cleese has come under fire after declaring: “London is no longer an English city.”
The comic, 71, said that the mix of cultures had helped the capital win the 2012 Olympics.
But he added that it can be hard to find an English person and that the “parent culture has dissipated”.
Cleese, who is performing in Sydney, was asked on Australian TV what he thought of last month’s riots around the UK.
He replied: “I’m not sure what’s going on in Britain. Let me say this, I don’t know what’s going on in London because London is no longer an English city.”
“That’s how they got the Olympics. They said, ‘We’re the most cosmopolitan city on Earth’, but it doesn’t feel English.
“I had a Californian friend come over two months ago, walk down the King’s Road and say to me, ‘Well, where are all the English people?’
“I love having different cultures around but when the parent culture kind of dissipates, you’re left thinking, ‘What’s going on?’ “
The Monty Python star’s remarks prompted criticism from Mayor Boris Johnson, who said London’s diversity should be “celebrated”.
Labour’s Ken Livingstone added: “To stay competitive London must be a global centre of business, culture and innovation, none of which can be achieved without people of all nations working and living here.”
More than a quarter of London’s population is from an ethnic minority, and there are 300 languages spoken.
Dr. Pinna says:
I haven’t been to the U.K. in over a decade, except to stop at Heathrow. As I have stated, over and over, this is a period of migration.
People are going everywhere in search of food. (That means: “A job.”) In Toronto, where I was for a week at a meeting of the Board of Directors of my son’s company, someone told me that over 350 different languages were spoken in Toronto.
I do not care what the public speaks nor what culture they like. This is a new era. Everyone must manage to survive as they are best able. Within a few hundred years everyone will speak a form of English not identifiable with today’s English…. Or perhaps they will speak Chinese???
people are so out of touch there are plenty of londoners in london, probably not in the upper pay scale brackets but certainly among the working populace etc., the present govt; is trying to take its uniqueness away one way or another but born a west londoner 60 plus years ago and still keeping my eyes ears and mind open i see that up to noow the true london still exists cleese should not diss what he doesn’t live in ok?
Jean,
London IS still London, but it has changed.
When I was there in 1980 it looked very British
and the cabbies knew every nook and cranny.
Today, it looks almost Indian and the cabbies use
GPS devices in their cars.
And, they generally speak Arabic and not Cockney.
Everything changes.
More’s the pity.
Dr. Pinna