Returning to the YooKay: A (multi)culture shock
From quiet Sussex villages to the streets of London, the England I left is rapidly becoming unrecognisable.
Englandβs recent ethnic demographic transformation, the fastest and most dramatic in our thousand-year history, has upended every corner of our home.
Returning to Britain after more than two years abroad has been a sobering experience. Spending any significant amount of time away from the country, or even part of the country, can be shocking upon your return.
For the past few weeks, while searching for a place to live in London, I stayed with my parents in Selsey, a relatively remote coastal town in West Sussex.
Selsey is a popular tourist destination for working-class Brits, though like most seaside resorts it lacks the wealth it once had. In the war it held an RAF base; in fact it was the closest Allied landing ground to the Normandy coast on D-Day.
My family have had a cottage in the town for some years, and it is near Portsmouth and Chichester, where I grew up. During my younger years these places were nearly entirely English. Selsey still pretty much is, though walking past the fish-and-chip and sweet shops you will now see the odd Burqa-clad woman and a few young African men among the tourists.
According to the 2021 census, Chichester, a beautiful Roman settlement with ancient walls and a stunning Cathedral, was 95.4% white. One suspects, wandering the cityβs Roman roads, that this number has significantly declined since the Boriswave.
