Culture vs. Commerce

The British Tory government has some specific focuses. One is immigration. Any party that wants to gain power in the next election has to take the British public’s xenophobia into account. Another focus is economics. The Conservatives judge everything according to its economic impact. The only culture that they understand is the type that is derived from the old English meaning of the word, which relates to the agricultural labour involved in cultivating crops or animals. They have little time for culture as ‘the best that has been thought or said’ or for culture as ‘a whole way of life’.

            The Tory’s problem is that their two objectives don’t always add up. The government has suppressed the publication of a report which reveals that immigration has not had a significant effect on the job prospects of British workers. The party had claimed that for every 100 immigrants, 23 workers would not be employed, but there is no evidence to back this up.

            This story was uncovered by Newsnight. The programme’s policy editor Chris Cook has argued that ‘culture is really the thing that drives most positions on immigration’. The Tory government would not dare to admit this because it would indicate that culture is of prime importance in people’s lives. Many members of the British public would not dare to admit this for fear of revealing who they really are.