 Parts of British history need to be rewritten to emphasise the roles played by other races and religions like Muslims, ...
who else?
... a prominent race relations campaigner has said. Trevor Philips, the village idiot chairman of the new Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, said the history of Britain did not properly reflect the contribution of other cultures.
| Yet another PC/pomo 'human rights' commission that managed to focus on one thing and one thing only. |
Rewriting the countryÂ’s history would demonstrate to Britons in the 21st century how other groups apart from Anglo Saxons shaped the nation.
| The Roman, Celts, Normans, Vikings, ... oh, not them. |
He told a fringe meeting at the Labour conference: "We may need to revisit our national story – we want to rewrite that story to tell the whole story."
| I'll bet it was a 'fringe' meeting. |
The rewriting should start with the story of how the English fleet led by Sir Francis Drake fought off the Spanish Armada in 1588, he said. The important role played by the Muslim Turks, who delayed the sailing of the Spanish fleet so that the English ships were better prepared, had been airbrushed out of the story however.
| Pro'ly because it was less important than Sir Francis Drake putting steel into English spines when it was needed. |
Mr Phillips said: "When we talk about the Armada, it was the Turks who saved us because they held up the Armada after a request from Elizabeth I.
"LetÂ’s rewrite that, so we have an ideal that brings us together so that it can bind us together in stormy times ahead in the next century."
Mr Phillips, the former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, declined to offer any other examples of parts of British history that should be rewritten.
| So as not to make himself a bigger fool in public. |
He also said that he supported a campaign by the musician Billy Bragg for a new written constitution to define what it means to be British in the 21st century.
| Who needs a parliament anyways? |
"We have to have an expression that is native and right for us," he said. "We have to have a more explicit set of understandings under which we can all live together."
Mr Phillips, who was educated at QueenÂ’s College Boys School in Guyana, also suggested that there should be a set celebration for when people were given British nationality. Nationality lessons were necessary because people were moving around the country more than ever before, providing less opportunities to integrate. Last year 6.5 million people moved house, he said.
| And some of them never seem to integrate even when they stay in one place. |
Earlier this week Mr Phillips said that economic migrants could be forced to make a bigger contribution to the cost of public services. Mr Phillips said that some migrants who stay in the UK only for a short time should pay more for the use of schools and hospitals. |
