Cricket Test - Decline in Importance

Decline in Importance

Much of the intended bite of the phrase, that is, accusing immigrants and their (often British-born) descendants of disloyalty to Britain has since been lost, for several inter-related reasons:

England is a largely urban, cosmopolitan society, with many inhabitants insistently proud of their links to Wales, Scotland and Ireland, as well as those more recently from Europe, across the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and beyond. It is difficult to discriminate between these sources of pride.

For historical reasons, English nationalism is often regarded as being connected with ultra-right-wing and fascist political sympathies. It is only during sports events that English flags are very widely displayed, and supporters of other countries that may have a lot of English-born fans (e.g. India, Pakistan, Jamaica) like to display support in similar ways.

Some Asian and Black British citizens in particular often feel that they are differentiated by their skin colour from and by other citizens, and that even in the 21st century, they are sometimes not accepted as citizens of equal standing with native English. Many believe that as their overseas origin is obvious, they might as well celebrate it and take pride in it. These attitudes, resulting from personal experience, are unlikely to be overcome by mere criticism with no accompanying social or political plans to change the situations that give rise to them.

Academics studying issues around cultural assimilation have shown that it is a very complex phenomenon, not well suited to a single or simple 'test'. A British-born child of immigrant parents can often be very assimilated and culturally aligned with his ethnically native UK peers in his public life, while following his parents' cultural practices at home. A person of Pakistani descent may well support Pakistan in preference to England during an England vs Pakistan sports event, but could at the same time support England in a match against any other country.

The perpetrators of the Glasgow International Airport attack and the 2007 London bombs were found to be reasonably assimilated into English society and no assessment of them similar to the 'cricket test' would have identified them as likely perpetrators. Instead, it is now widely accepted that disengagement from the democratic process, religious and political radicalisation are much clearer indicators. In spite of the above evidence, however, Lord Tebbit has continued to insist that his test could have prevented the attacks.

The original premise of Norman Tebbit's 1990 statement 'A large proportion of Britain's Asian population fail to pass...' has never been proved. Since then, Tebbit has made a number of other controversial public statements that seem to leave no doubt on his overall uncompromising attitude to those of differing ethnic and religious backgrounds.