Morrissey: Britain No Longer British Enough
fishmongerfunk
4,154 Posts
i never liked his music, but i always thought this dude was supposed to be sort of a humanitarian. as a foreigner living in the uk, wondering what you uk people think of these comments. to me his remarks are a horrible look but i never really experienced the "old" pre-eu england and i see it all as an outsider anways. is this racism, backlash, or is there a ring a truth to what he says?Morrissey 'refuses to live in the UK because of immigration explosion'By JAMES SLACK pop singer Morrissey claims he can no longer live in a Britain he believes lost to an "immigration explosion".The former frontman of the Smiths, who is now based in Rome, claimed England was just 'a memory now'.The 48-year-old added: "Other countries have held on to their basic identity yet it seems to me that England was thrown away.Row: Morrissey has sparked fury after saying he refuses to live in Britain because of the 'immigration explosion'"The change in England is so rapid compared to the change in any other country."If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won't hear an English accent."You'll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent."The British identity is very attractive, I grew up into it and I find it quaint and very amusing."Morrissey, who has sung of his love for English culture and can count Tory leader David Cameron as a fan, is the son of an Irish immigrant family which settled in Manchester.Controversial: Morrissey is known for making contentious commentsIn 1986, when The Smiths released their critically-acclaimed album The Queen is Dead, the UK had a population of 56million.It now stands at 60million and some predict that could almost double by 2081.Morrissey's comments were made in interviews with the music magazine NME.In the mid-1990s he was accused of racism after wearing a Union Jack on stage and releasing the songs Bengali in Platforms and the ironically-named National Front Disco.The singer's supporters insisted he had been seeking only to reclaim the flag from extremists.Tim Jonze, the reporter who conducted the interview, said: "Morrissey has had a stormy relationship with this magazine and its readers over the last three decades."He might once have been the voice of a generation but given his comments in these two interviews, he's certainly not speaking for us now."
Comments
Says it all, typical expat bollocks.
Morrisey is a douche anyway, always has been.
Indeed.
Singer Morrissey has found himself at the centre of a race row after allegedly commenting Britain had lost its identity due to immigration.
The former Smiths star reportedly told the NME that the high level of immigration was one of the reasons he no longer wished to live in England.
Morrissey has spent the last decade living in Rome and Los Angeles.
The singer's manager has accused the NME of an "attempt at character assassination" on the 48-year-old.
The magazine quoted Morrissey allegedly saying: "Although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears. So the price is enormous."
"If you travel to Germany, it's still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity. But travel to England and you have no idea where you are," the singer is reported to have said.
In a follow-up interview, the NME reported that Morrissey had retracted his earlier comments, saying: "It could be construed that the reason I wouldn't wish to live in England is the immigration explosion. And that's not true at all."
"There are other reasons why I would find England very difficult, such as the expense and the pressure," he said.
He is alleged to have added that he did not think his comments were inflammatory, but were "a statement of fact".
Morrissey's lawyers have demanded an apology from the NME for suggesting the singer is racist.
They have threatened to begin legal action against the magazine and its editor, Conor McNichols, if a retraction is not published later today.
http://true-to-you.net/morrissey_news_071127_01
The NME haven't got any credibility to lose in my eyes but......
I don't see any denial that they are direct quotes from Morrissey in the zine article or the legal letter. The man may or may not be a racist but his musings about the state of Britain are embarrassingly disconnected and insulting either way.
Apparently the Mexicans have a lot of love for Morrissey.
Another thing worth remembering about Morrissey is that, for his entire career, he's written about an imagined, highly romanticised version of England that was quite probably only ever a construct in the first place. I'm not entirely convinced that what he's said in this interview is necessarily racist in and of itself, at least not in the same way that, say, Don Imus's remarks would be. Nonetheless, it's not too far away from the kind of thing that racists might say amongst polite company. When Morrissey speaks of his 'worry' that other cultures coming into another culture will dilute the host country's 'collective identity', he has singularly failed to understand that England (like pretty much everywhere else with the possible exception of Japan) was always a hybrid/mongrel culture (Roman, Greek, Celtic, German, French, Scandinavian, and so on). Moreover, the fact that it's him saying it - because, whether or not you think he's a man out of time, there are still a lot of people who hang on his every utterance - is just further validation/endorsement of that mentality in the eyes of the far-right and their cheerleaders in the British press. For that alone, he deservedly gets the dilz.
Don't know that NME really got the gist of what Moz was sayin'...
excellent post and absolutely right. he has no idea what the UK is like to live in because if he did he'd know he is talkin bullshit.
but seriously, I dont know all the details of what the guy said and I know nothing of his politics, but from what was said here it kinda seems like he misses the english culture he remembers (typical ex pat shit? yes.). In a rapidly changing society some people are gonna miss the days when their national identity was a bit clearer or something. doesn't necessarily mean they're a xenophobe or a racist.
I wouldn't agree with what he said but I can't really see how it's offensive.
how else are you going to know who to hate? duh.
Tradition.
Seattle AP - Singer Morrissey says he may begin sleeping with women. The Smith's lead singer said that "Cock just isn't dicky enough any more. It used to be you'd find big hairy smelly cocks everywhere but now men are so metro-sexual everyone has a brazillian wax and washes 5 times a day."
I'm not saying that change isn't important; a balance of the two is important.
You were doing so well until the white middle class faggots stepped into your argument.
I guess somebody has to replace all those Brit retirees who move to Spain.