Steven Tallamy writes on Facebook:

An Open (and Closed) Letter to Denmark (or at least the viral chunk of it with access to my FB posts).

As this is a letter to Danes, let me begin illogically with a brief breakdown of what happened yesterday for the benefit of the Brits. There was an election over here. The person who was Prime Minister yesterday [Helle Thorning Schmidt, photo, ed.] increased the number of votes and seats for her party in the election. She is no longer Prime Minister and has resigned as leader of her party. The person who will almost certainly be the new Prime Minister saw the vote for his party collapse to a point where they are now only the 3rd largest.( He had been Prime Minister once before, not through winning an election, it was passed to him Gordon Brown style. He promptly lost his first election). He will almost certainly form a government with the party that has overtaken him in votes. They are called The Danish Peoples Party. You have probably heard that type of political party name before. Take a wild guess which “people” they are a party for. Yep, bang on, white skin, blue eyed, blond haired people with a fondness for sandwiches with no bread on top. So for all of you that complained most bitterly at the inequities of the UK first-past-the-post electoral system………………….welcome to the world of PR.

Now,on to those that I share oxygen with now as opposed to then. I bloat with emotions of respect, admiration and affection for the citizens of the country that I now call my home. A more civil, civilized, kindly, thoughtful, tolerant and intellectually rigorous society would in my view be hard to find. And it is therefore with a heavy heart that I feel compelled to write that many of the qualities for which you (I cant say “we”, I don’t deserve that credit) are rightly famed across the globe, are being eroded (at least in the short term) by many of your actions. I arrived over 15 years ago having left a chorus of opinion that I would be arriving in a cradle of liberal democracy, a country rightly lauded for its social, health, education and integration policies. These extraordinary achievements are in danger of being forgotten in the wake of this undignified scramble to appear most strident in attitude to issues of race, immigration and asylum. You are busy defining yourselves in the wider world by your collective attitudes to these challenges. I am fully aware that a significant % of the population are opposed to the statements and policies being voiced, but at a time when the largest party in the administration is fundamentally an openly racist organization, the conclusions being reached by other states are inevitable.

And, speaking as an outsider looking closely in, I have a theory as to why this issue troubles this small nation so greatly. It is not to do with increases in immigration, jobs, culture clashes, alleged issues with new arrivals refusing to adapt to “Danish ways” (whatever the hell that means), crime or even problems with religious dogmas (I myself strongly support the need for liberal democracies to stand much firmer against religious pre-enlightenment – I believe the need to emancipate women, to allow children to become adult before requiring to be identified by a faith, equal rights for gay citizens etc are all far more pressing than the desire to avoid “offending strongly held religious beliefs”. I might have a strongly held faith that there is a moon monster living amongst the daffodils in my garden, but I want a society where free speech gives all citizens the absolute right to inform me that I am a f**king idiot for believing so).

But the core reason behind the frustration is this. Danes, in their own quiet, modest way, are inordinately proud of having created what has been viewed by others as a model society. Held as an example across the continents as a template for a free democratic state. And yet their performance and results in the area of multi culturalism can best be described as a catastrophic failure. This frustrates Danes of all political hues greatly. It is a Big Problem. They cant Fix It. This results in frustration, a groundswell in reactionary views (blame the victims) and ultimately the election result that we saw yesterday. Now I would not claim to know the answers to the challenges faced in these areas, but I can tell you something with utter confidence. Kristian Thulesen Dahl and his merry band of fearmongers and isolationists are not it.

As the campaigns for this election trundled forward, the level of political discourse (both from FB users and the press) really did topple into the septic tank of contempt, hate, vile personalized sexism and character assassination that is, I am sorry to say, a group of symptoms of a society moving into Dark Days. It is also a result that for me, writing as an immigrant, left me last night sleeping just that small fraction less soundly in my bed. Questions going through my mind such as “I am not a Danish citizen, am I less secure now ? I was unemployed for a time last year, what if that happens again – am I at risk ?”. There may possibly be some that have just read that and thought the following “Steve has nothing to worry about, he is not the sort of immigrant that there is a problem with”. And if anyone thought something similar to that……….then shame on you. Shame on you for believing that people from one land or culture should be any more or less welcome than another. And shame on you for not knowing that throughout human history, when power is given (or has been taken) by people that single out a particular group and blame them for societies ills, it never ends there. (And while we are on the subject of shame, why is there constant surprise that the DF vote is higher than opinion polls suggest ? It is entirely logical that a larger % of voters that support them would lie about this in public – it’s a dirty secret between them , the ballot box and their own conscience. And long may that be true, it is one of the few shards of light in this whole sorry affair).

I accept that I am looking with the eyes of a guest but I hear or read so often the vitriol of those that look around them and seem to see only bug-eyed imams demanding Islamic law, potential terrorists, schools with different first languages, ghettos, threats to “Danishness” from all sides. This is what I see, I see the people that have got up early enough that they have nearly finished cleaning the streets I am cycling to work on, the people that have cleaned the toilets and washed the floors where I work ,the people that bring my family the food we order when we are too tired to do it ourselves (if my wife reads this she will laugh at the use of the word “ourselves”), that sell us the beer at 11, the milk at midnight.

When I write these occasional rants and diatribes, I invariably tap them out as a stream of consciousness and push Send before I have a chance to convince myself to amend/adapt/tone down/duck out. Today I have read this through before sending, it felt too relevant (at least to myself) to merely put it up here as a slice of polemic or even a call to arms. I have thought about the offence I could be causing to those who were born in the country in which I am a (hopefully) permanent visitor. But I also know that there are many for whom this country is their place of birth who are treated as if that is absolutely not the case. So, after due consideration, and taking into account my criticisms of the fall in standards of political debate, my view is this – if you are offended by the words of this particular immigrant and feel that he should keep his nose away from questions of how Denmark should behave, then I have a suggestion. Get a ticket, stand in line………..and kiss my white arse.

Thank you and good morning.