“Some years ago I opined that London was not really an English city any more,” is how John Cleese began a tweet on Wednesday. “Since then, virtually all my friends from abroad have confirmed my observation.” When eight long years ago he made a similar claim, he gave us the unabridged version. “I’m not sure what’s going on in Britain,” he said while appearing on an Australian TV programme.
All very interesting but it's a fact, not a judgement, that England has been overwhelmingly white, ethnically, for almost all its existence.
Of course he’s right.
He didn’t mention race at all?
No, it’s just you on the regressive left that think of everything in terms of race.
Let them be all white then. But please take the 'expats' back. Nobody wants them and nobody gives an eff about England anymore. A sad and self-entitled shadow of an empire sinking into oblivion.
if i moved to china it would not make me chinese if i moved to japan would not make me japenese moving to england does not make you english
All English are White. Get over it.
London is and always has been a world city from the time when the Romans founded it through the Empire phase to now, like all other cities. Perhaps Mr. Cleese is referring to bygone times which we all miss when we get old.
He also has no understanding of the history of London.
Please show me the quote where he equated English with being white...
Cleese is saying countries have est'd predominant cultures. Exs of predominant English culture: tea, castles/monarchy, Harry Potter, dry wit, football, & yes, stuffy whiteness. An influx of 'other' changes the predominant culture. Not necessarily worse or better, just different.
And he is right
John Cleese lives in the Caribbean, he is no less West Indian than Usain Bolt or the late Bob Marley
He is correct and it is more subtle. It should not be an English city. It is the Capitol of the United Kingdom and wants to play a part in Europe. It is right that it should be a European City. I suggest the disquiet is about cultural ghettos. Largely from the Indian Continent.
Devide, worst off all it all to often a white person acting offeneded. It like playground point scoring... We're going backwards.
Assumption as such only delegitimise the newspaper. The writer made it all about herself and played the race card, by the by played indiscriminately lately. Which also delegitimise the cause. Where did the logic go?
John Cleese said nothing wrong. Look at the populist & nationalist vote in England. Majority wants to leave the EU. Love of country outranks all. In the US, liberals identify as LGBTQ, African-Americans, Latinos, etc. Conservatives identify as Americans. Read Pat Buchanan today.
It used to be that a good person would minded there own business and help the people around with little fuss. Seem now people think being good is judging people and giving them labels like racsist if they don't agree with you. It getting beyond ridiculous and I think creating
He's right
One if the best tv series,if not the best.
It's a fact. Anyone who isn't a mix of Angle, Saxon, Norman and Dane cannot call themselves English. We are a pure race. Get used to it!!!
The truth is the truth
Empires have unsuspected consequences. British people from a hundred years ago would never have imagined the city of London full of people from the colonies. Cleese has almost already this age.
Ok let me ask this. If you went to the Costa del Sol and 40% of the people there were English, do you think that would make it more or less Spanish than say Granada? It's not racism to point out facts. Its kinda racist to say it's about race at all...
John Cleese, normally a man of sublime wit and wisdom, talking utter twaddle. Drunk?
Aren’t most people here Norman or Saxon anyway? Wasn’t the same said about them 1000 years ago.
As a foreigner who lived in London and voted remain, I'm supposed to be one of those offended by Cleese. He doesn't though. What bothers me is that the once respectable Guardian is inferring what's not necessarily implied by an 80 year-old, who's never been known to be a bigot.
Ethnic English ppl are white
I’m light brown - why am always compared to a piece of paper?
Where did all the Cockneys go? Essex?
And we need to fight it.
The media wants a story. I live in London. It's not a British City. It is an International city - and all the better for being just that. All great cities are international.
I'm going to move to China and then state I am as Chinese as a Chinaman.
Gee, after Great White England worked so hard on the Great British Empire; what with its slave, genocide, appropriation... Some people.
No wonder your close to liquidation!!!
I asked her if it's because my wife is darker than us and speaks another language, and the neighbour quickly shut up.
John Cleese is too smart to even be racist accidentally. Once again the Guardian sees an unorthodox but well-founded point and simply slaps a label on it.
I had this argument with an English neighbour once. She refuse to call me Irish because I was born here, even though im not classed as a British citizen. My wife however, was apparently Spanish , despite being born here and having a British passport 1/2
He didn't. You just have though.
The Guardian is also not English. It's a yellow internationalist rag.
I think there is a lot of overeaction and paranoia here about his view.
What's even better is, the mayor of London is not even English.🤔
What utter rubbish, the vast majority in the UK is still white you pathetic liberal slomos. It's gone so far that a white, male, heterosexual applicant who was refused by the police force for those reasons, sued them for discrimination and won. London looks like a migrant camp.
..... poor old bugger he is getting on.... just imagine a London full of English? .... and even then each would have descended from an immigrant at some time.... maybe I’m making too much noise now
Its like people that equate African with black.
Also what is mainstream is the fact that many that are there hate the English. Strange but true.
What would you equate ‘japanese’ with?
It's ok to be white
As there is no legal (passport) way to be English, are the English an ethnic group (made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent)? Otherwise why do some people class themselves as ‘British-asian’ etc?
He didn't equate English with being white. He said London no longer seems like an English city. 41% of children in London are born to foreign parents. You can either have the multicultural melting point city full of foreigners or an English city full of English people. Not both.
When I was a kid, America was 88% white. It was a fine place. Now, whites are the only race that can't have their own geographical area.
'but there is no such thing as one static “culture” tied to one particular nation.' Pretty sure countries like China would disagree.
'Sadly.'
He didn't make it white. You did that, it came out of your head, you are accusing yourself of racism and you are right.
Chutney Mary John
London a city where there is no longer outrage when a 46 year old man is battered to death on a Saturday afternoon...But someone makes a joke or expresses a personal opinion does...
I think it’s pretty standard to equate the majority race of the country with the nationality. India = brown, Nigeria = black, Sweden = white etc. It’s only self loathing lefty types who get in such a lather about it.
It's not a matter of color, it's a matter of culture.
Did he actually say that though? I didn't like the implication of the tweet, but he should be given a chance to elaborate before we decide what he meant.
his hypocrisy is astounding.
That would be John Cleese who lives in California. The same John Cleese who complained about too many 'half educated' Scottish people working in the media in London.
Absolutely. Just as Nigerians aren’t black and Chinese aren’t Asian...
You’ve completely misinterpreted his comments to generate readership and clicks. Go back and read them again. He said nothing about “colour”.
Did he categorically equate it with being white though or was he referencing cultural difference?
Non-whites are English until it's time to talk about bad things Englishmen did. Then suddenly English=white and non-whites have nothing to feel guilty for. WhiteGenocide
I don’t know what he’s on about, London is full of English people, it’s also full a foreign tourists spending their dosh too.
'how did Cleese’s Californian friend know none of them were English?' They probably heard them speak Spanish or French or Polish or any of the many languages spoken in London.
So, if you asked anyone in any other country to draw a picture of an English person what is the probability that the drawing would depict a white person?
He didn't mention 'white' and he didn't mention 'cockney' either. Why did you bring up colour?
He never once said anything about English meaning “white”. You’ve tied your article together with an impossibly long piece of ‘speculation string’.
What has he said that is wrong? He is spot on. London does not feel ‘English’ whatsoever
Anyone living or working in London will recognise it as an international City. That is not racist nor is it about colour.
At what point did he mention white? A pretty racist assumption isn't it?
Well historically....
stop apologizing for your existence folks
Of some racist white people, yes. But not the ‘mainstream’.
Race is irrelevant. We should only care about values. That doesn't mean being pro mass immigration though
I think Royal Family is too white as well.
He got it spot on.
If we sang about young gifted and white that would be racist to you's lot
It was pretty racist
don't think he meant any harm