Britons Revisit Immigrants' Debate

Streets in London since summer saw regular protest rallies that wanted a severe check on immigration. British police have had a hard time in taking things under control. Such demonstrations against immigrants by “patriots” would have been dismissed as highly improbable, if not impossible at the start of the year. Latest surveys show that half of Britons continue to consider their nation’s imperial rule as a matter of pride. They are nostalgic about centuries the British rule covered a quarter of the world until the end of World War II. At a time of increasing economic hardships, they fear that the future holds them dim prospects that might swamp their identity by foreign culture, unfamiliar languages and practices they earlier never heard of.