Home page The individual, integration & assimilation Recently there have been discussions concerning issues of attire such as the veil, which is worn by some women. The way in which people dress is no business of politicians and indeed, the way in which some people in the government have recently entered this futile discussion is unacceptable. Rather than dwell on the issue of the veil, it is as well to focus on the more fundamental issues being raised. One of the more shocking phenomena of this episode is that leading politicians have demonstrated themselves to be both culturally and linguistically illiterate in their public proclamations and comments on this issue. Most have started out using the wrong terminology by saying that they want people to be more integrated. Everyone within this society is already integrated in one way or another; this is not the issue. What the politicians mean to say, and this is the problem, is that they want people to be assimilated into the mainstream culture. The main problem with this state of mind is that it assumes that there is some mainstream culture to which all should aspire and into which all should desire to assimilate as a basis for achieving greater social harmony. It is worth noting that the very politicians who make such statements are people who have no proclaimed concept of what the mainstream culture is and they certainly do not represent it. Indeed they are from small private political parties who have a specific set of fixed ideas as to how society should be managed. These factions have a membership of less than 1% of the electorate, are elected with less than 25% of the electorate's support and then impose their will on the majority or shall we say mainstream. The alarming issue is that such people convey a false message about the whole of British society. Because they happen to be the current occupants of seats of power in what passes for government, they seem to be oblivious of the fact that, when they speak as ministers, the public, and indeed people in other countries, assume they are speaking for the majority. But none of them represents the majority nor can they legitimately speak on its behalf. Such politicians are only revealing their personal thoughts and those of the party they work for. This is a reason the Labour party is losing credibility at an amazing speed. In a similar fashion this faction advocated warfare on the basis of lies or total incompetence and exacerbated the security of the people of Britain, that is the mainstream. They exacerbated the security of the people of Britain by masquerading as representatives of majority democratic opinion and in the event supporting a process which has resulted in the murder of over 400,000 people. It is, of course, difficult for people living in other countries to comprehend that the government of the country which sets itself up as a model of participatory democracy as the proud beneficiaries of the mother of parliaments, should in fact be reduced to being represented by a rabble of irresponsible imposters who have no basis to speak for the majority, and yet insist on doing so. This is the current shameful state of affairs of British democracy, so-called, and it is a measure of the weakness and yet utter disregard all British political parties have of the urgent need to bring about the organization of a representative assembly of the free will of the people. In the meantime it might be a good idea for the fashion houses to introduce the veil in their Spring collections.