News

Sunder Katwala thinks FIFA’s decision to ban the England football team from wearing the poppy is shameful and calls for it to be reversed.

England in effect is insular, she is maritime, she is linked through her exchanges, her markets, her supply lines to the most diverse and often the most distant countries; she pursues essentially industrial and commercial activities, and only slight agricultural ones. She has in all her doings very marked and very original habits and traditions.

In short, the nature, the structure, the very conjuncture that are Englands differ profoundly from those of the continentals. What is to be done in order that England, as she lives, produces and trades, can be incorporated into the Common Market, as it has been conceived and as it functions?

Some years ago a Council of Europe expert visiting Belfast as part of a study on cultural diversity was struck by a meeting with representatives of the small Chinese, Indian and Pakistani communities. Not only did his interlocutors feel that the overwhelming focus in Northern Ireland on the divide between the two main cultural ‘traditions’ left their identities marginalised, but also those in attendance who were drawn from the Protestant and Catholic communities felt that a broader approach to cultural diversity would be welcome for its own sake and in helping to lower the political intensity of sectarian debates.

Playwright Tim Price was born in the South Wales valleys, and has a strong sense of being Welsh as well as being a big fan of London, he tells Rachael Jolley.

Sunder Katwala looks back at how the Labour conference dealt (or didn’t deal) with the immigration issue.

Sunder Katwala responds to Maurice Glasman’s interview for the next Fabian Review in which he called for more restrictive immigration policies.