A MULTI-CULTURAL festival is to be held in York next Easter, organised by City of York Council who are asking residents for ideas (November 24).

I would like to suggest that we follow the ideas of the new Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu, who suggests that multi-culturalism doesn't work and should instead celebrate being English.

Before the "politically correct" brigade rush to lambaste this remark as racist, please allow me to expand.

English is a nationality which belongs to the English people. If foreign people want to come to England to live and work, then I am happy to welcome them with open arms and help them to integrate into our society.

I do not care what colour their skin is, what their religion is or what their ethnic origin is. They are welcome to England.

However, I would assume that they want to come to England because they like the English way of life and as such I would expect them to live the English way of life - not to set up their own cultures and communities.

Part of being English is the right to freedom and I would defend everybody's right to freedom, including the right to worship God in their own way. However, religion is not the same as nationality and this distinction is sometimes blurred. The way forward is to allow everybody the freedom to worship God in their own way but in every other aspect of life there can only be one culture in England and that is English.

Only by integrating everybody in this way can we ever hope to have a single society where people can live side by side in peace. To have a multi-cultural festival where different cultures are celebrated can only lead to division.

Tony Taylor,

Grassholme,

Woodthorpe, York.

Updated: 09:05 Monday, November 28, 2005