'In 2002 around 103,000 came to Britain – a number that has never been surpassed. And if you didn’t know that and were under the impression that round about now was the peak time, then I’m not surprised. Who, after all, will enlighten you?' Answer: David Aaronovitch. Pity his columns aren't enough. The Govt is proposing to protect children from social media harm and misinformation, but what can be done for voting adults? Protect me from Chris Philp! Have you sent him this piece? You have identified the problem more than once in your excellent substack, can you offer some solutions. What needs to be done to curb the rentless flow of misinformation that threatens our civil liberties, social cohesion, even our democacy.
Very interesting. It’s good to see a bit of linguistic research on the emergence of the phrase “men of fighting age”. And it’s interesting to hear about his multilingualism. But it’s the norm in many parts of the world. English speakers are lucky to be able to get away with just knowing one language. It also occurs to me that men of fighting age are also men of cricket playing age, and quite a few Afghans of that age may be quite good at it. That’s a good thing in my view.
Three of the best employees in our small but growing business: an Afghan who arrived as a refugee in 2010, an Iranian with ILR, a Nigerian who's been here twenty years. Their work ethic and attitude put the rest of us to shame and they're genuinely good fun. Men and of working age, it turns out.
There's a fighting age Afghani man at our street corner - he runs the corner shop, rammed full of useful stuff (and some less useful stuff). We chat - about the weather, our shared annoyance at the daily fly tipping by the tree outside the shop, the parking that blocks the pavement and so on. (I must ask him about potholes). He loved the photo I gave him of his shop c. 100 years ago. He works all hours, with breaks for prayers. Oh, and my barber, also a man of fighting age; he carries wounds from his days in the Iraqi army, from which he fled. He works hard, phones his mum in Iraqi Kurdistan every evening and gets annoyed when bad things happen in our community. I could go on. Rephrasing your question: who's the greatest threat to our community: my friend at the street corner, my barber, or Chris Philp?
I know neither, but as Chris Philip looks like a well-dressed Englishman who probably is a delight to meet and talk to I have a problem taking him seriously for some unfathomable reason. Rustam probably is a lot more reticent as he has learned to thoroughly check out people before opening up. And I guess he’s reliable once he accepted you and reasonable as he has experienced how you have to use your reality honed instinct to give people a place in your space and life. Also, during working at the sharp end on our railways I found that the work ethic of foreign immigrants, like I am, was a lot more reliable than that of the British people I knew there. Maybe one reason to dislike immigrants?
I have recently had first hand experience of carers who came to look after my terminally ill husband. There were ten, in teams of two, and they visited us four times a day. Not a white face among them, and some were foreign nationals working I assume legitimately (a reputable firm supplied them under NHS aegis). They were wonderful - all of them. Careful, compassionate, reliable, dealing cheerfully and competently with anything that came their way. It pointed up how many lies are being told about such people - but how can we get the truth heard by those who persist in listening to siren calls from the Right? Thanks, Dave, for this story and for all your work. I’ll look forward to that historical piece in due course …
I always have to look up references when I read "Notes from the Underground" articles but this time I did not have to look up "friendly bombs and Slough" as I knew Betjeman's poem from my O-level English. However I was disappointed there was no reference in the article to Matthew Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum". I am guessing Rustum and Rastam are the same name source. I still have the Oxford University Press "A Book of Narrative Verse" which has the poem. I have always thought the poem was a very tragic story.
Wikipedia has the following reference to Matthew Arnold's death :
"Arnold died suddenly in 1888 of heart failure whilst running to meet a tram that would have taken him to the Liverpool Landing Stage to see his daughter, who was visiting from the United States where she had moved after marrying an American". That is very tragic as well !
Take 100 men, women, young people, LBGTQ people or immigrants and a few will be bad apples. That’s the truth. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Please
Just one niggle: the map of Rustam's journey is a frankly hilarious piece of (I presume) AI generated nonsense. Just check out the locations of many of the towns and cities, as well as the direction of some of the arrows!
Rustam is now approaching the average age for the Ukrainian army. Maybe they should say "the right age to play for England ". The substack reader has him living in " Sluff ", that would probably cause the headbangers ti implode.
'In 2002 around 103,000 came to Britain – a number that has never been surpassed. And if you didn’t know that and were under the impression that round about now was the peak time, then I’m not surprised. Who, after all, will enlighten you?' Answer: David Aaronovitch. Pity his columns aren't enough. The Govt is proposing to protect children from social media harm and misinformation, but what can be done for voting adults? Protect me from Chris Philp! Have you sent him this piece? You have identified the problem more than once in your excellent substack, can you offer some solutions. What needs to be done to curb the rentless flow of misinformation that threatens our civil liberties, social cohesion, even our democacy.
Very interesting. It’s good to see a bit of linguistic research on the emergence of the phrase “men of fighting age”. And it’s interesting to hear about his multilingualism. But it’s the norm in many parts of the world. English speakers are lucky to be able to get away with just knowing one language. It also occurs to me that men of fighting age are also men of cricket playing age, and quite a few Afghans of that age may be quite good at it. That’s a good thing in my view.
Three of the best employees in our small but growing business: an Afghan who arrived as a refugee in 2010, an Iranian with ILR, a Nigerian who's been here twenty years. Their work ethic and attitude put the rest of us to shame and they're genuinely good fun. Men and of working age, it turns out.
As ever, measured, factual and compassionate. Final sentence, surely rhetorical! Thank you DA
There's a fighting age Afghani man at our street corner - he runs the corner shop, rammed full of useful stuff (and some less useful stuff). We chat - about the weather, our shared annoyance at the daily fly tipping by the tree outside the shop, the parking that blocks the pavement and so on. (I must ask him about potholes). He loved the photo I gave him of his shop c. 100 years ago. He works all hours, with breaks for prayers. Oh, and my barber, also a man of fighting age; he carries wounds from his days in the Iraqi army, from which he fled. He works hard, phones his mum in Iraqi Kurdistan every evening and gets annoyed when bad things happen in our community. I could go on. Rephrasing your question: who's the greatest threat to our community: my friend at the street corner, my barber, or Chris Philp?
I know neither, but as Chris Philip looks like a well-dressed Englishman who probably is a delight to meet and talk to I have a problem taking him seriously for some unfathomable reason. Rustam probably is a lot more reticent as he has learned to thoroughly check out people before opening up. And I guess he’s reliable once he accepted you and reasonable as he has experienced how you have to use your reality honed instinct to give people a place in your space and life. Also, during working at the sharp end on our railways I found that the work ethic of foreign immigrants, like I am, was a lot more reliable than that of the British people I knew there. Maybe one reason to dislike immigrants?
I have recently had first hand experience of carers who came to look after my terminally ill husband. There were ten, in teams of two, and they visited us four times a day. Not a white face among them, and some were foreign nationals working I assume legitimately (a reputable firm supplied them under NHS aegis). They were wonderful - all of them. Careful, compassionate, reliable, dealing cheerfully and competently with anything that came their way. It pointed up how many lies are being told about such people - but how can we get the truth heard by those who persist in listening to siren calls from the Right? Thanks, Dave, for this story and for all your work. I’ll look forward to that historical piece in due course …
I always have to look up references when I read "Notes from the Underground" articles but this time I did not have to look up "friendly bombs and Slough" as I knew Betjeman's poem from my O-level English. However I was disappointed there was no reference in the article to Matthew Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum". I am guessing Rustum and Rastam are the same name source. I still have the Oxford University Press "A Book of Narrative Verse" which has the poem. I have always thought the poem was a very tragic story.
Wikipedia has the following reference to Matthew Arnold's death :
"Arnold died suddenly in 1888 of heart failure whilst running to meet a tram that would have taken him to the Liverpool Landing Stage to see his daughter, who was visiting from the United States where she had moved after marrying an American". That is very tragic as well !
Richard Evans
As a Welsh native perhaps we should send the English and Farage back to where they came from.
As an Englishman I am aware that my forefathers came to this island in “small boats”
Take 100 men, women, young people, LBGTQ people or immigrants and a few will be bad apples. That’s the truth. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Please
I'll go with Philp. Would keep him away from more harmful pursuits?
Another excellent and timely piece - thank you.
Just one niggle: the map of Rustam's journey is a frankly hilarious piece of (I presume) AI generated nonsense. Just check out the locations of many of the towns and cities, as well as the direction of some of the arrows!
true
Philp is a waste of skin and oxygen. Rustam and so many others as previous comments make a significant contribution to our way of life.
Rustam is now approaching the average age for the Ukrainian army. Maybe they should say "the right age to play for England ". The substack reader has him living in " Sluff ", that would probably cause the headbangers ti implode.
Should have been Rustam and Rustam.....