Immigrants to this country have a “right to be different” and a “duty to integrate”, according to Tony Blair. I think this means clear off if you don’t like it here, but one can never be entirely sure with him. For example, he also said multiculturalism had always been about a balance between conformity and difference....

Government sponsored multiculturalism for 30 years insisted there was no imperative to share the core values of society — if there were core values of society, which there probably weren’t. People who disagreed were branded “racist”. If Blair had made his speech 10 years ago he’d have branded himself “racist”, which would have been fun to watch, I suppose.

Then, when he turned to that silly non-issue — Muslim women wearing the veil — he got it all wrong again. Surely if there is one area where immigrant communities should be allowed do as they like it is in the clothes they choose to wear. Attack the ideology behind the veil, the Islamic attitude towards women — not the veil itself. But the PM can’t do that because he’s already attempted to force all of us, by law, to respect that ideology, regardless of its misogyny (and, one might add, homophobia, anti-semitism, etc). [Link]