Review of crit of multiculti Patrick West: The Poverty of Multiculturalism
Dreadful Book—The Uneducated in Pursuit of the Unspeakable, 18 May 2009
Terrible, small book (70 pages; most chapters are only a few pages), published by Civitas, first in 2005; reprinted 2008. It's an excellent specimen of what you get if you set a rather uneducated hack loose on a subject outside his grasp.
[1] Let's look at the evidential basis first
About 3/4 of the references are from ordinary newspapers. Here's a typical assertion which isn't even references in that way: 'History in schools concentrates not on the UK's role as a pioneer of parliamentary democracy ... Rather, we are told to hold or heads in shame .. etc.' (p 5). This may well be true, but no evidence is cited to prove it.
As a corollary, it's clear that West has little grasp of world history. He thinks in terms of news items: Chapter 10, The End of Multiculturalism?—lists eg 'massacre of 30,000 Jews and Muslims in 1099 by Christian Crusader extremists' and the 'contribution of the Arab world in ... science and medicine'. West assumes the 'Holocaust' was fact—admittedly in the EU there may be legal problems discussing this. It's clear he knows nothing of 9/11 nor of (for example) the Vietnam War, African population figures, the Quran ('democracy is not antithetical-—p 66) and almost anything not included, presumably in his 'courses' at Manchester University.
As another corollary, we find a small chapter 'The New Irrationalism' on anti-evolutionists and examples, many of them agonisingly absurd, on various tribes are their absurd beliefs. These are no more absurd than Christian beliefs—but West doesn't know enough to say that. The chapter has nothing to do with the subject—but, hey, it's a small book, so put it in anyway.
As yet another corollary, it's no surprise that modern quotations are from political hacks and appointees—Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Trevor Phillips, and others who would never be quoted by anybody but for the subsidies they are stuffed with.
[2] Now let's look at the assumptions West makes about 'us'. 'We' figure rather prominently: '.. how can we .. call ourselves superior.. We may have had the genius to split the atom, but we used that technology only to create atom bombs. We may have etc etc .. we seem to spend our existence making money, gorging.. on fast food..' (p 6).
West has an absurd assumption that the commentariat know about the plebs: '.. this aspect of multiculturalism .. grates most upon the average Briton' (p xiii) is 'whatever in the way we live any [other] ethnic group might find offensive must be changed.' I haven't conducted immense surveys, but I'd expect the fact that immigrants, even illegals, get priority with housing, all expenses paid, and similar injustices, might just grate a little more.
Like all hacks, West falls back on generalisations which are plausible, but questionable. 'The idea that non-urban societies are peaceful semi-paradises .. has always been a myth.' (P 27). Perhaps West would explain how he knows about (as just one example) all prehistoric societies, in, for example, Europe? How can he prove they were never peaceful semi-paradises?
[3] Let's look at his grasp of the actual topic, at last! --
Chapter 7—It's My Culture So I'll Do What I Want To—makes some attempt to address such issues as halal slaughter (not of course Kosher) and 'honour killings' (not of course 'grooming'). Patrick West has no grasp of the statistics of violent crime and, as is now traditional, seems unaware of the far higher crime rates per head of immigrants.
All this is feeble, poor quality stuff. And so far it's descriptive only. The question of how the whole thing could have been started is not gone into, except in a trite sense—'our governmental octopus is, of course, a benevolent creature, full of good intentions' (p x) is West's summary of EU fraud and corruption, systematic deceit by the British parties, and devastation caused to education, health, the economy. He is not aware of the roots of the pro-immigration lobbies, which appear to have been a combination of Jewish racists, employers aware that most of the costs of imported labour could be offloaded onto the taxpayer, multiple house owners able to tap the taxpayer for guaranteed rents, and bent lawyers able to make money from the system.