An event with English, British, Scousers of Bangladeshi origin

Multiculturalism is not only possible but exists in our city where people of Bangladeshi origin could happily sing both the Bangladesh and British national anthems.

Whilst Sunak was consorting in Italy with Meloni, who can only be described as a fascist, I launched an event in Liverpool yesterday which proved their fiery racist rhetoric to be wrong. Some say that you have to give up an old identity and develop a new one if you move to another country. I disagree. My city is the great city it is because of the diversity of those that live here and have brought their own national identity, cultures, and customs to create a new society which can outlast the vicissitudes of the future

I said that I was proud, as Deputy Lord Mayor of our culturally diverse city, to launch the local celebrations of Bangladesh’s Independence Day when they separated from India after the whole of the Indian sub-continent had become independent from the British Empire. The event took place underneath a statue of Gladston who, as Liverpool’s four times Prime Minister, did so much to help with the abolition of slavery.

He would have been pleased with the way his statue was adorned with the national flags of three countries, Bangladesh, England, and the United Kingdom. After my speech of welcome in which I welcomed people not only to the event but also to the long-term future they and their forbears, have chosen by coming to our city we sang two National Anthems. We started with the Bangladesh anthem (which was very long) and then went on to that of the UK. Amusingly, they proceeded to play the second verse which most people do not know even exists. In fact, there are five verses in all although it is unusual to go beyond two.

Both the Leader of the Council and I made clear our pleasure at being at the event and talked of the contributions the Bangladeshi community make to our city. As I talked to members of the audience, some of whom I had known for many years I became even more aware of the diversity of the jobs they do. Many are still in catering and hospitality but second and third generation Bangladeshis are accountants, Doctors, engineers, and lawyers. A good cross section of the working community of Liverpool.

They spoke to me about how they view themselves as Scousers. This was vividly shown to me by the expression of whether they were a Blue or a Red. I am pleased to say that they inclined more to cricket than football as I do myself. They saw no contradiction in being a Scouser but still holding true to a ‘foreign’ past, neither do I. Being British is not just an accident of birth but is more about an adherence to a common set of shard values around fairness, decency, and probity which everyone at that event shared.

 I know what it is like to live in foreign culture and a foreign country when I lived for three years in Türkiye. For the first two years of which I was based in a remote city called Usak I was the only English first language person for more than 150 miles and the ways of the people needed adjusting to. I was fortunate that so many people spoke English and that I was relatively wealthy. I still pined for home sometimes and had a particular desire to get Marmite sent over to me!

This event with the Bangladeshi community just reinforced what I had seen at my visits to the Ukraine and Polish communities earlier in the week. I’ve already spoken of how the Ukrainian community are a mix of permanent residents with a Ukrainian background and temporary UK residents from the Ukraine who are here as they escape from Russian despotism. In some ways they were indistinguishable. They too had a common set of values and cultures. The difference was between those who had already absorbed much of our culture and those who were absorbing it.

They are somewhat behind the Polish community who I met on Friday at their children’s Christmas event. Perhaps the key difference was language. Recent immigrants were learning English party because it would help them live here but partly because English is a major international language and is a useful tool to have wherever they might end up living. There was a fear though that the longer the women and children who had fled the war stayed here the more difficult it would be for some of them to return home. They, and more importantly their children were making friends and relationships for personal lives, work and education which will tie some of them here although there is, at present, a fierce determination to return home.

For the Polish community, a considerable number of young people speak English as their first language and were learning Polish to maintain their heritage and, perhaps, to mix with family still in Poland. They will always be British citizens first and foremost but want to retain those links with their parents’ homeland. More than two hundred young people are enrolled for the Polish Saturday school, and they cannot keep up with demand.

I believe that this diversity with substantial numbers of people living here within the Liverpool City Region from more 110 countries presents short term difficulties, but huge long-term opportunities should we decide to see that the glass is half full and not half empty.

Of course, in the short-term newly arrived immigrants need support with education, bureaucracy, and employment. Although many have skills and qualifications, they all need adapting to their new country’s requirements. Above all they need to gain proficiency in English without which they cannot further themselves and their families.

In the medium and long terms why are we not using those diaspora communities to create cultural, political, and diplomatic links with their home countries. 10 years ago, I was the founder chair of the Liverpool Commonwealth Association with just those aims. Perhaps now is the time to create a Liverpool Federation of European communities to start to rebuild the links that Brexit so stupidly cast asunder.