Ouch! :)

"Filth"? You're referring to other people who you don't know as filth... Charming.

I had my answer in my mind as I read this question, and I was disappointed to see it was you who had asked this Catherine, but it would not be right for me to modify my answer simply because it is you who has asked. That's bollocks. I have lived in London, worked in London, studied in London, have friends dotted all over the city - I know it and adore it - it is not becoming "slumville". That's rediculous. Colonisation is something which should be looked at with the view that we are better now, we have learned more, we have more respect for other nations and people than we did then. It's not a thing to be proud of, in my mind. Before I make assumptions, please could you clarify what you mean by filth?

I believe the English culture is becoming weaker, but I don't think it's anything to do with the rather weird sentiments you have expressed. Rather, in our eagerness to embrace American cultural values we are in danger of losing our own.

Racist cunt.

i like my country as it is and i have no idea what "identity" england was losing in the first place

What is England's identity? England (or perhaps Britain would be better) has always been a melting pot of different cultures. 'Celts', Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Scots, Norse, Normans, Germans, French, Irish... the list goes on and on. Britain is a triumph of integration really. Just look at the language for evidence. So how do we define what is "English" or "British" identity? That has changed so much throughout history it would be fairly arbitrary to just pick a date and say "that's it". Further it could be argued there is a greater divergence in identity along North/South lines than ethnic divisions. As for what kind of country we are becoming, well we are a fading world power. London becoming slumville? Errr... bits of London always have been! Furthermore they have been much worse in the past (the Victorian era for example) than now. And areas of London are still gorgeous. Take a trip to Lancaster Gate and say they are a slum. They might even take a break from polishing their DB9 to listen. As for allowing filth to come in, this is related to the above. What 'filth'? Who do you mean? The Irish? That's what people were saying around a hundred years ago when Irish workers were brought in. People never like immigrants, yet I must laugh when I see those in England with Irish ancestry complaining about "immigrants" in England. Short memories.

Can you "hear" yourself? I took a look at your profile prior to answering and simply can't reconcile your view of yourself with the hate implicit in the question and some of your comments to answers! I think that the greatest wealth the U.S. and Canada, where I was born, have is the diversety of its populations. Indeed, without immigrants, neither country would (likely) have developed at all! I am glad to say you are the first North American I have ever refer to imigrants as "filth" before. I am steamed and just itching to say more but instead will take a lesson from an Abe Lincoln quote (para). "I have never liked him very much. I must get to know him better!"

England has always has immigrants, and they have always settled preferentially in London. People were saying things exactly like this about the Hugenots, the Irish, the Jews (at several different times, back to the 13th century). England has always absorbed them over time, and the descendants of the immigrants of one century are the ones complaining about those of the next. There are always some problems over the transition, and the tend to show up most strongly in London. But this is as it always was, and probably always will be. England is not losing its identity, but identity changes: London is not the London of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Dickens, but a new London of our day.

Should have been a comment - sorry