An English gentleman's perspective on "our ethnic minorities"? Author's name (parents' draft). Terence Rajivan Edward (now Doctor) Dialogue on names (fictional): "Now why do you want a name?" So that my works can be identified - that is one reason. "You need a number really." Author's name (my first draft). 0161__Rajivan Abstract. This paper imagines an English gentleman gazing upon the ethnic minority populations of England, at least metaphorically, and assessing them in terms of a flowchart of options. "Here is a problem 1: which option will these people take?... Here is a problem 2…" He develops an assessment of them based on the options they take in response to the problems faced. He even thinks of whole countries as little more than combinations of options. "If you take this set of options in response to this set of problems, you are basically Polish whatever your colour." I suspect that the gentleman is disappointed by his black and brown minorities, who came from his empire, and probably the yellow ones too. Draft version: version 2 (3 September 2026; version 1, 12th September 2025) "A lot of minorities I have seen But a minority myself: I have never been" What does an English gentleman gazing upon the ethnic minorities of England think? I don't know what he thinks, but I have a guess. ("You should not be writing an essay based on a guess," you say. It's amusing, and maybe useful to someone too: one of my favourites!) Ethnic minorities face problems but how will they solve them? He has a list of main problems, our gentleman, four main problems let us say, and a list of options in response to each problem: three options for each one let us say. And he observes which options are generally taken by this ethnic minority community and by that one. And he then comes to conclusions. For example, "Option 2 with problem A, option 3 with problem B, option 1 with problem C, and option 2 with problem D: oh dear, drive these people out to Canada and bring in new people." I imagine he associates certain combinations with certain countries or else minorities he has already seen: these are Polish people really, these are the Irish, and these are Jews again, etc. You may not be actually Jewish but faced with the problems, you are taking the Jewish combination. It will be useful to give an example of a problem. It is based quite closely on something I heard, though I might have faintly misremembered aspects of the story. At the University of Manchester, there is a law society and this law society has a president's role and each year some members compete, postgraduates, people studying for advanced qualifications. Now what you might imagine is this: an individual postgraduate thinks, "I want to compete for the role; I am interested in being president," and then campaigns to members in general, hoping for their vote; so too does another postgraduate, etc. This is not what happens, I am told. The law department attracts minorities from many countries, including a significant number of overseas Chinese. The overseas Chinese have a vote amongst themselves. Each overseas Chinese member interested in becoming law society president campaigns quietly to overseas Chinese only and then they vote amongst themselves on who they think is best. Then the winner is the only overseas Chinese candidate who campaigns to the entire law society members - to Nigerians, to English, etc. - with all overseas Chinese members already committed to voting for this particular candidate. The English are renowned for their individualism but it seems one stands a better chance of getting various results one desires by working as a large team, as these overseas Chinese do: they want an overseas Chinese postgraduate as president of the law society and their internal voting before the official vote seems a rational approach to achieve that end. But should they not adopt the legendary individualism of the country and make it a matter of each overseas Chinese for themselves or should they use the large team approach, or perhaps something in between? That is a problem. (Do even white English students pursue the individualistic approach or do they actually do what the Chinese do? See the Instagram video reference.) There are so many contexts in which this problem of individualism versus large team pursuit of a goal arise. What will be the dominant option within a certain ethnic minority community? During the years of the government led by Tony Blair ("Who?"), many European Union citizens came to live in the United Kingdom, including in England. Many Poles famously migrated (from Poland I presume). I guess the English gentleman had grown disappointed with the minorities who had come to his country through links from the empire. "Look at the options they are taking given the problems every ethnic group face: they might as well be Poles. Let's just bring in some actual Poles." REACTION 1: "An English gentleman is not a mad person, like you!" Surely this was the thinking of Tony Blair or David Blunkett or whoever!!! REACTION 2: "How do we avoid just being regarded as failed minority project number 111, or whatever?" No idea. Probably give up on all economic good sense. The gentleman probably feels that despite taking in people from such different societies to European ones, they have generally turned out to be common as muck. References N.a. n.d. The Controversial Decision: Blair's Struggle with EU Worker Influx in 2004. Trailblazer. Available at: https://www.thetrailblazer.co.uk/politics/the-controversial-decision-blairs-struggle-with-eu-worker-influx-in-2004 (Says that there were concerns about strain on housing and overcrowding, from Jack Straw and John Prescott, but Blair was keen and David Blunkett emphasized the economic benefits. 13000 were estimated but by 2004 registered workers from EU states had reached about 24000.) Abiclarkecomedy. 2023. https://www.instagram.com/p/C0ewewPLlpI/ Amy-Clare Martin and Gavin Cordon. 2024. Blair opened UK borders to east European migrants despite misgivings. The Independent 31st December 2024. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/blair-immigration-eu-migrants-b2671604.html (Says both foreign secretary Jack Straw and deputy prime minister John Prescott urged delay, "warning of a surge in immigration unless some controls were put in place." David Blunkett argued that the economy needs the flexibility and productivity of migrant workers if it is to continue to flourish. The Home Office predicted a net increase of no more than 13000 workers a year - a massive underestimate. "Mr Straw later admitted that the failure to put in place transitional controls – like most other EU nations – had been a "spectacular mistake" which had far-reaching consequences.")