In “Defence of British Values" And On "National Culture"

I think British Prime Minister David Cameron and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer could be great friends-in-the-making.

In a major speech tackling the threat posed by Islamic extremists, the Prime Minister warned that "hands-off tolerance" of unacceptable practices by minority communities had only served to encourage extremism.

He called for a "muscular" defence of British values.

Speaking to a conference in Munich, Mr Cameron said that the threat of terrorism must be confronted not only though intelligence and surveillance, but by taking on the ideology of Islamist extremism at home.

"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," the Prime Minister said.

While a "passively tolerant" society allows its citizens to do what they like, so long as they do not break the law, a genuinely liberal country "believes in certain values and actively promotes them", Mr Cameron said.

And maybe they can sit around together and watch the popular BBC show “Top Gear” together.

LONDON (Reuters) – The BBC apologized to Mexico's London ambassador on Friday after presenters on the popular motoring show "Top Gear" said he would be too sleepy to protest as they described Mexicans as lazy and feckless.

But it defended the original remarks, saying jokes centered on national stereotypes were part of the humor both of the show and of Britain in general.

The publicly funded broadcaster said the show's executive producer had written to Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora and apologized for the comments made about him.

The diplomat had said he was infuriated by "offensive and xenophobic" remarks made by hosts Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May during Sunday's edition of the cult show, which has been sold to television channels around the world.

The BBC said it was sorry if the presenters' comments had offended some people, but defended the comic use of a stereotype as a "robust part" of British humor.

Gov. Brewer may also be able to provide Prime Minister Cameron with some advice on how to deal with the results of a recent poll on immigration. She is after all, a master at the art of re-election.

Britons are much more hostile towards immigration than other developed nations, according to a poll of people in the US, Canada and across western Europe.

This was in stark contrast to the response from the other countries, including the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Among those, only one in 10 Italians thought it was the biggest issue and only 3 per cent of Spanish people, even though both of those countries have experienced large influxes of foreigners.

The other western nations tended to be more concerned about unemployment, although Germany’s main worry was education.

The Transatlantic Trends survey was carried out on behalf of international bodies including the German Marshall Fund of the US, a think-tank, and the UK’s Barrow Cadbury Trust. It also showed that almost half of British people thought there were too many foreign-born people in the country. This compared with an average of three out of 10 people in the other European countries and just a quarter in the US, despite recent controversies about immigration policy there. Britons were also more likely to think foreign arrivals damaged “national culture”.

Sorry for the snark, but reading the British papers this weekend really brought tears to my eyes. And sarcasm was all I could muster.