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The formation of England’s new Restore Party under the auspices of Rupert Lowe has electrified the Right worldwide.  Naturally, the party is already polling well in England—three years away from the next expected parliamentary elections.

One Lowe’s major points is that foreign migrants who are unable to speak English—remember, this language is named for England and the English people, the descendants of the Angles—must leave England.

If it sounds extreme, it’s because we’ve been conditioned to believe that citizenship and the concept of the nation are abstract ideals with some vague, dotted-line borders attached.  There’s also this belief that, if we just get people onto our magic dirt—which, despite allegedly possessing magical properties, is simultaneously not special enough to protect with hard borders—they will shed their benighted ways and become good center-Left classical liberals with six-figure salaries running socially beneficial non-profits.

Because of such magical thinking, people will either a.) learn English or b.) not learn English; either way, everything will be fine.  Besides, expecting immigrants to learn the language of the native people is racist, probably.  We should be using our “privilege” to learn their language.

I’m not opposed to learning foreign languages—far from it.  But I’ve been thinking a great deal about language since listening to Dr. Edward Dutton—“The Jolly Heretic”—give his take on Lowe’s announcement:

 

Here’s a quick transcript of the key excerpt(s) from Dr. Dutton’s thoughts on speaking English:

“I find this extraordinary—the concept of not being able to speak English…. If you are remotely educated for a foreign country, then you will of course… speak English, and you will speak it well, because it is in the lingua franca.”

Indeed, English is the lingua franca—the universal, common language—of the twenty-first century.  Students travel to the United States and Britain to hone their English skills; I know because I teach quite a few of them (and, I’m ashamed to admit, many of them speak and write English better than native-born Americans)!  It is the language of international commerce, diplomacy, and scholarship.

It’s a beautifully adaptable language, too.  It’s flexible, bendable, changeable, while still retaining an essential grammar.  Of the many accomplishments of the English-speaking peoples of the world, our language—along with concepts like freedom of speech and religion—is one of our greatest gifts to humanity.

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