Hands up – who want British society to be as white as Narvik in January?

David Aaronovitch:

To judge by the Stiklestad festival most Norwegians live very comfortably and are almost absurdly law-abiding. They are also all white. Over the four days there and in Trondheim I saw thousands and thousands of Norwegians and liked them immensely as a group. But in all that time I only saw one dark face — one little boy as he tried his hand at archery — and the only immigrant I met was a German silversmith now living in Tromso. Nothing could be more different from the Babel of London than this homogeneous society where someone from Oslo stands out, let alone someone from Cairo.

Such a prospect pleases some people now. A homogeneity like this means not worrying about the sons of Somali refugees, the descendants of Mirpuri peasants, about the occasional madrassa-educated malcontent or the prison convert. This complete Norwegianness could suggest a possible future Britishness, insulated against outside shocks by closed borders and an insistence on cultural conformity.

Human beings show greater persistence of learned fear toward members of another race than those of their own race

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