The Earl of St. Andrews, one of our five trustees, has asked the Secretary General of the Next Century Foundation to issue a statement in regard to the profoundly disturbing events in North London in recent days and weeks.

The Next Century Foundation is horrified to see the extremism being displayed in our society writ large by these attacks on our beloved Jewish community on the streets of North London.

There are, in practice, three strands to British Society and their echo is to be found in other societies worldwide. They are the Celts, the Anglo-Saxons and the much beloved minorities that make Britain a gem of a country.

And our minorities, particularly our Jewish and Muslim minorities, now feel vulnerable and that should not be allowed to happen. The persecution of the Jewish community is an abomination. Anti-Semitism and its bedfellow Islamophobia must be rooted out. They both have no place in the ethos of tolerance that underpins British society.

The State of Israel, our bellwether?

In some respects, the rock upon which our society is breaking is the State of Israel and its wars, primarily with Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. Are they wars of Israel’s making? Perhaps not. But they are wars Israel has pursued clumsily and with a heavy hand.

British charity law forbids charities to express a political opinion favouring one political strand in society over another. But we can say that the two major political parties have reacted clumsily to Israel’s war and in so doing have fanned the flames of extremism in Britain.

It is inevitable perhaps. They are in their death throws as will be evident by the outcome of the local elections a week from now.
And we will see new blood on the scene and it will disturb us all. And Zak Polanski of the Greens will inherit the mantle of Andy Burnham and Jeremy Corbin. Whilst Nigel Farage will inherit the cloak of Maggie Thatcher and Boris Johnson. And the liberals will inherit the centre ground. Whether their leader can become a modern Lloyd George by abandoning the kind of equivocation the liberals showed when they abstained on the Palestine Action vote is debatable. But perhaps he can. Whatever, the liberals will do well by default as the refuge, the last refuge, for the establishment vote.

So what does the NCF believe?

What does the Next Century Foundation believe in? We in recent years have supported and avowed the cosmopolitanism of perhaps one of the greatest modern philosophers, the Anglo-Ghanaian Kwame Appiah.

That is not Tony Blair’s multiculturalism nor is it French style integrationalism. Far from it. It is not a middle path. It is a different path. Cosmopolitanism means you embrace all expressions, all cultures, and weave them together in a world in which an equal value is placed on all. This is not multiculturalism where the beautiful threads of the web and weft of our society stand alongside each other, nor is it the colourless sludge that is integrationalism. It is a society in which our children are educated together and live and love together whilst retaining and celebrating their distinct cultural heritage.

Our politicians have lost touch with society. The current members of parliament, our precious Parliament, are cattle being driven, lemming like, to a slaughterhouse of their own making. We watch their demise with sadness, but we must not allow their inadequate response to Israel’s wars and to migration and to the oil crisis to break the precious values of tolerance and love upon which the best of what it is to be British is based.

The violence on the streets of North London has been and is a repulsive Anathema. It is not the way to express disquiet with Israel. It is an abomination and the Next Century Foundation declares it such.
We believe in a better tomorrow based on tolerance and love and we know that we shall see it come about.

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay