AN ECHO OF CONQUESTThe
hyper-prolific Robert Conquest began speculating five years ago in his
Reflections on a Ravaged Century that shifting global conditions would stir a revival of interest in the Anglosphere as a cultural, economic and strategic entity.
John O'Sullivan, former adviser to Margaret Thatcher,
writes in the current issue of
The New Criterion:
"If the British were now to reorient their policies towards the Anglosphere, as India is doing, that in itself would signify at least the beginnings of cultural self-confidence. As they were developed, moreover, Anglospherist policies would restore some of the openness and opportunities of the former empire in a wider non-imperial setting. National narratives of different English-speaking countries, now rendered meaningless or unspeakable by multicultural attack, would be given a fresh and forward-looking aspect. The Britishness shaped by this new national orientation would be one that incorporated “minorities” not in separate cultural en-claves but as equal contributors to our common island story and culture. It would be a Britishness to which British Muslims could assimilate with pride and a genuine sense of common ownership rather than with the shameful feelings of someone entering a multicultural brothel. Would such a Britishness safeguard us against domestic religion-based terrorism. Not entirely perhaps, but it would reduce support for it among the uncertain and give the majority of all faiths greater fortitude in resisting it. "Perhaps Conquest was once again ahead of the curve ? If so, he's still quite far ahead but this is a stirring.