Is British Multiculturalism a Failed Experiment? - Konstantin Kisin

Duration: 8:40 1648 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

The podcast features a discussion on whether British multiculturalism has been a failed experiment, citing polling data from News Night that suggests significant public skepticism toward current immigration levels and integration models. While 22% of Brits believe immigration should remain unchanged, nearly 70% feel illegal immigrants do not share core values, with older surveys indicating even higher percentages believing the concept itself had already failed by five years ago. The speaker argues that there is a fundamental misunderstanding between having a multi-ethnic society and practicing true multiculturalism; while diversity of skin color can work in a unified nation, genuine multiculturalism implies an ideology where no single British culture or identity exists. This perspective suggests that when communities live separately without integrating into a shared national framework, it creates divisions rather than the celebrated utopia often promoted by politicians who prioritize specific ethnic concerns over collective national interests. A central argument presented is that diversity only becomes a strength when individuals from around the world adopt common values and work toward a single purpose, much like a cohesive team in sports or entertainment production. The speaker illustrates this point with an analogy to *Game of Thrones*, where having five kingdoms versus one highlights how unity provides greater power than mere numerical superiority. Conversely, bringing people who do not align with societal norms without encouraging integration is described as a weakness rather than a strength. This lack of cohesion exacerbates serious economic challenges facing the UK today, including lower GDP per capita since 2008, an eroding standard of living for citizens, and structural issues like a bloated welfare sector where too many people are not working. These difficulties become insurmountable when society fractures along communal lines rather than uniting as British people to solve shared problems. The conversation further explores the definition of "British values," which the speaker claims have become difficult to articulate in public discourse, leading to a crisis of national identity. One core value identified is fairness and orderliness, exemplified by the cultural obsession with queuing. The act of waiting in line is described not merely as a habit but as a manifestation of civilization that moves society away from the "law of the jungle" toward mutual respect and tolerance. Illegal immigration is framed as antithetical to these values because it involves bypassing legal systems, effectively jumping queues which undermines fairness for those who follow rules. The speaker provides a personal anecdote about their mother's visa application being denied despite her history with the UK and lack of intent to work illegally in the gig economy, contrasting this bureaucratic hurdle with thousands of people arriving via boats from France without questions asked. Throughout the discussion, there is an underlying tension between celebrating diversity as a strength versus viewing it as a source of division when values are not aligned. The speaker emphasizes that while having varied opinions within limits is healthy for any organization or society, Britain has arguably exceeded these boundaries regarding ideological alignment and worldviews. True multiculturalism requires people to buy into the host country's ethos rather than maintaining separate ghettos where different religions and cultures operate in isolation from one another. Ultimately, the argument posits that addressing economic stagnation and national debt is easier when citizens feel a unified sense of ownership over their country, whereas an ideology based on divisiveness prevents collective action. The transcript concludes by reinforcing that respecting laws and maintaining order are essential components of what it means to be British, suggesting that current immigration policies fail because they prioritize quantity or specific community concerns over the foundational principles of fairness and unity.

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22% of Brits think immigration levels should remain where they are. 69% think that most illegal immigrants do not share the same values. So yeah, I mean when was that was it News Night? This was forever ago that News Night did a a phone in survey, a text in survey or something and it was um uh how many people uh think that multiculturalism has failed >> and it was this must have been at least 5 years ago. It was like 89% of respondents thought that multiculturalism had failed. And I have to assume that if you did the same thing again, that did seem kind of high to me at the time. >> Okay. >> Might seem kind of low nowadays. >> Yeah. And look, again, I think it's important to delve into the nuance of it because a lot of people who haven't looked into this properly, they sort of they what they think multiculturalism means is like black people and brown people being in the country. >> Correct. That's not multiculturalism. That's a multi-thnic society which can work. Absolutely can work. Multiculturalism is the idea that actually there's no there's no such thing as British culture. There's no such thing as British identity. There's no such thing as British values. And what we really need to do is just bring people from all over the world and said, "Oh, you know, you want to practice your religion, your culture, your this." That's great. Everybody live in their own ghetto and we're all living this beautiful multicultural utopia. And diversity is our greatest strength. Diversity is not a strength. >> Why? >> Because I I I remember this great scene from Game of Thrones. Have you have you seen Game of Thrones? Do you remember when uh Cersei and King Robert, they're discussing the potential Dorothraki invasion? >> Mhm. >> And she goes, "Yeah, but we've got five times as many. We've got five kingdoms. They've got just the one." And he goes, "What's a bigger number, five or one?" And she goes, "Five." and he goes five one right unity is a strength when you're attempting to do things common purpose common values a sense of shared identity these are things that allow you to overcome difficulties one of the reasons the concern about immigration is as high as it is is not just the levels of immigration it's also the fact that Britain has become poorer >> our GDP per capita is lower today than it was in 2008 in other words people's living standards are being eroded for reasons we can get into. So addressing that requires quite a lot of difficult challenges. We've got, you know, a bloated welfare sector. So you're going to have to deal with the fact that far too many people are not working and being paid not to work. You're going to have to deal with the national debt which is way too high, the deficit. You've got like big big challenges, right? And those challenges are quite easy to overcome comparatively speaking when we all feel like we are ultimately at the end of the day this is our country and we're going to sort it out. But if we have become multicultural in that everyone really only cares, you know, we keep hearing from politicians, we need to look at the concerns of the British XY Z community, you know, British Jewish community, British Muslim community, British Pakistani community, British H all of this stuff, right? Then we're no longer British people trying to sort the same thing out. We're people who are looking out for our own community. Our own community is Britain. That's what we should be looking out for. So diversity can be a strength in one sense which is when you bring in people of talent and drive and ambition from around the world and they all buy into the values of that place and then pull together in one direction that's a strength. Just bringing lots of people from around the world and then not integrating them and not encouraging them to become British and also bringing people who are probably not easily integratable into our society. That's not a strength, that's a weakness. Um, so that's a big part of the problem that we have is multiculturalism is essentially a an ideology of divisiveness and disparity instead of an ideology of cohesion and unity. And if you want to solve problems like you've got a big team working on your show, we've got a team working our show. Imagine you just had 15 people working for you who all had the exact opposite ideas to each other of what's right and wrong, what you direction the show should be moving in, you know, who should be presenting the show, etc., etc. That would never work. So, diversity is a strength in that you've got some, you know, some variance of opinion. You don't have only one opinion about things, but there's a limit to everything. And we've gone way, way past that limit. So, multi-thnic society is fine. No one's got a problem with people with different skin colors, per se. The problem is ideology and world view and those have to be aligned for people to be able to work together. Well, >> are Britain's core values at risk of disappearing? Is that a a real concern? >> Well, what I would say is Britain's core values are actually kind of become quite impossible to define in public. So, that to me seems like a problem. I keep every guess we have on trigonometry I'm like you know what are British values you know and and I don't blame them because I'm not sitting here with like a coherent vision of what it means to be British but one of those things and it's interesting because this is what you asked about is you talk about people's concern about illegal immigration 69% whatever and they're not compatible with British values well as you well know one of the I would say probably the core British value is a sense of fairness and orderliness and which has manifest itself in the idea of queuing properly. >> Mhm. Love a queue. >> Love a queue. And Britain and you know this is it's like a hack joke that everybody does about Britain. British people love queuing. Blah blah blah blah blah. But if you think about what queuing is fundamentally queuing is civilization. Queuing is civilization. It's a process by which we go from the law of the jungle. Who's got the sharpest elbows? who is going to get to the front of that line by being the biggest, strongest, roughest, most violent, etc. And it's a way of saying we're actually going to have a civilized society. We're going to do things in order. We're going to respect each other. We're going to be tolerant of each other. And by the way, in that process of spending time together, waiting collectively of something. We can all talk about how terrible it is. And through that, we actually bond and connect and we kind of connect them with the people around us. So illegal immigration is fundamentally antithetical to what it means to be British because it's about respecting the law and it's about fairness and >> as opposed to jumping the queue >> as opposed to jumping queue. And I'll give you an example. My mother applied for a visa to come here two or three years ago to spend time with me and my family, right? And despite I don't I don't know, maybe there was something imperfect about her application. My mother's been to the UK dozens of times. She's got plenty of things to do back home. She no intention of staying and working in the Uber Eats economy, I assure you. Right. Her application was denied and I'm having to spend quite a lot of time and money to to get that sorted so that she can come while at the same time tens of thousands of people are getting on a boat in France and coming here illegally. I just don't think that's where the British people think the system should be at. You've probably heard me talk about element before. Come on. Frankly, that's because I'm dependent on it and it's how I've started every morning for the last 3 years. Element is a tasty electrolyte drink mixed with everything that you need and nothing that you don't. 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