Imagining the New Britain

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown presents the various social and semipolitical transformations that took place in Great Britain during the latter part of the 20th deoxycytidine monophosphate (Brown 3). Be buzz off of class mobility and increasing differences in population structure, values, and cultural identities, the land had underg star alterations in terms of its domestic, foreign, and military policies. Thus, the author notes that these changes would decide the political, economic, and social history of the country.Social and racial changes were highly noted in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. According to the author, prior to the give tongue to period, racial discrimination was absent in Britain. The swarthy people comprised completely an insignificant portion of the population. Their political influence was of no value to the popular opinion counties and districts. Beginning in the 1960s, the population of black and Asiatic migrants increased. Discrimination began to stop cour se, as some of these migrants were able to acquire economic and political proponent in the noted sectors of the country.Although reluctant to put the migrants to equal footing with the domestic citizens, the Parliament passed successive race relations acts in order to observe racism from taking grip of the social climate of the country. In otherwise words, the government of Britain feared a US-type of racism a form of racism that would cause riots and possibly revolutions. The native population reacted indifferently to the social changes occurring in the country since it did not really changed their political and economic standing.Political changes were also noted in the 1970s. With the increase of Asian and black migrants, there was also an increase of Asian and black mononuclear phagocyte system in parliament. The increase though was insignificant compared to the rate of seats acquired by traditional politicians representing the native population of Britain. When the Labour political party won the election in 1997, several Asian and black MPs were appointed to important positions in the government.This was in recognition of the important contributions of the colored minority in the economic rehabilitation of the country in the eighties (and their significant contribution in the countrys GDP). In addition, the inclusion body of Asian and black MPs in the prime ministers cabinet was a startegy of the Labour Party to acquire the votes of the minorities (especially in large industrial cities). Here, one would note that the minorities, although still underrepresented in parliament had acquired some slice of political power.The author notes that in recent years, religious discrimination is being bring to by fundamentalist Anglicans (Brown 19). The establishment of several Catholic schools (run by the Jesuits) in the country infuriated many Anglicans religious hatred that can be traced in the 15th and 16th centuries. According to these fundamentalist Anglic ans (interviewees of the author), Catholic converts in Britain were being brainwashed by the Catholic clergy on certain issues standardized abortion, divorce, and the use of contraception.This brainwash was according to them a grand strategy of the Roman Catholic Church to disrupt the social and political infrastracture of the country. The author concludes that these changes were the resultant role of Britains increasing mixed population. As the number of migrants increases, their political, social, and economic significance also increases. Work Cited Brown, Yasmin Alibhai. Imagining the New Britain. New York Routledge, 2001.