Poirot wrote: "The hilarious thing is, if the DNA of most of the posters here was analysed, it would reveal that they had mostly Slavic or Middle-Eastern roots in their biological origins."

And what is your point?

Whatever it is, you are incorrect in claiming that British-descended people are of recent Slavic or Middle-Eastern genetic origin.

Consider:

"In the words of Oxford University geneticist Bryan Sykes in his new book Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland [published in the United Kingdom under the title Blood of the Isles]:

"We are an ancient people …"

The family trees of the English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish are overwhelmingly indigenous to the British Isles since far back into prehistoric times. The title of Sykes' first chapter, "Twelve Thousand Years of Solitude," summarizes this finding. The "average settlement dates" in the Isles for the ancestors of modern British and Irish people, he estimates, were around 8,000 years ago.

...

Sykes' team obtained DNA samples from 10,000 individuals in the United Kingdom and Ireland and reviewed genetic records for 40,000 more. They looked at functionally trivial mutations in the Y-chromosome to group each man into clans based on patrilineal lines of descent (e.g., Abraham begat Isaac who begat Jacob who begat …). And they examined mitochondrial DNA to group individuals into matrilineal descent clans.

From his database, Sykes concludes that the majority of the genes of the peoples of the British Isles are descended from the oldest of the modern inhabitants: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, who began arriving 10,000 years ago from Continental Europe after the end of the last Ice Age, as soon as the islands became habitable again."

http://www.vdare.com/articles/its-official-british-aka-americas-founders-not-diverse-at-all

http://www.amazon.com/Saxons-Vikings-Celts-Genetic-Britain/dp/0393330753/ref=la_B001H6J09S_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1347312075&sr=1-3

If you did, drab, then they are practically invisible.

>>Pericles, Let's get real - your main objection here is not my use (or misuse) of quotes but the fact that I have raised some critical questions about immigration-induced diversity that you clearly do not feel comfortable with.<<

You instead posed a highly loaded question.

>>Is too much ethnic diversity a dangerous thing, or should we welcome into our country with open arms a never-ending flow of peoples from all nations across the planet?<<

The nature of your question is precisely the same as those phrased in the vein "is population growth a dangerous thing, or should we continue to countenance exponential growth until the planet is destroyed?"

In doing so, you made your position - an "opponent of immigration" - crystal clear.

So there is no point backpeddalling, pretending that you had merely opened a debate in a spirit of purest enquiry. It simply does not wash.

I did read up on the man, by the way. My "pin-up-boy" comment was deliberate.

He is being used, not only by you, but by a variety of organs slightly more open in their hostility towards immigrants. Here's one I prepared earlier.

"...we seem to completely ignore the large scale effects of public policies on our greater “extended family”–the racial and ethnic groups to which we belong. Concerned individuals have awaited a comprehensive and honest study of these issues. The wait is over. Dr. Frank Salter has published just such an analysis..."

http://www.toqonline.com/blog/ethnic-genetic-interests/

And the part they had been waiting for?

"In the long run, territory is crucial for survival, and human history is largely a record of groups expanding and contracting, conquering or being conquered, migrating or being displaced by migrants. The loss of territory, whether by military defeat or displacement by migrants, brings ethnic diminishment or destruction–precisely what is happening in the “multicultural” West today."

But you do make an interesting observation...

>>we could point out that it was the ancestors of those very "laid-back loafing" locals who built this country<<

But they stopped, didn't they. Meanwhile, out in the Pilbara...

This discussion is getting into dangerous waters.
You need to be careful here as you are moving from political discussion
to racial discussion and the law can be fired up by anyone who decides
they have been offended.

At the risk of being caught in a very wide net I also am opposed to the
very high immigrant intake. For instance there seems to be a builtin
Arab tendancy to settle things such as religious differences with bombs.
The antagonism between Shia & Sunni goes all the way back to the death
of Mohammad. It is like the Roman Church/Protestant wars in Europe
except that was settled after a hundred years or so.

I suspect their attitude to these things is genetic due to their very
long practice of marrying their cousins.
Generally, they do seem to have very different attitudes to
Celtic/Scandinavian/German practices.
No, we have to accept that there are differences and they are fundamental.
The question you need to ask yourselves is;
"Do you want to live in a transported Arab or Chinese Society ?".

Pericles says

"And the part they had been waiting for?

'In the long run, territory is crucial for survival, and human history is largely a record of groups expanding and contracting, conquering or being conquered, migrating or being displaced by migrants. The loss of territory, whether by military defeat or displacement by migrants, brings ethnic diminishment or destruction–precisely what is happening in the 'multicultural' West today.' "

Now apparently Pericles sees some fault with that, though he has not shared it with us.It is not PC I will grant him that but its pretty close to the mark.

Then Pericles has this to say

"But you do make an interesting observation...

>>we could point out that it was the ancestors of those very "laid-back loafing" locals who built this country<<

But they stopped, didn't they."

"They stopped?"

Where do you live Pericles -- cloud nine?

Where I live I see the descendants go out to work in hard yakka positions every day and often every night too.

Bazz,

I find it somewhat disturbing - the asumptions
that you're making about certain groups of
people. Not all Arabs or Chinese are wanting to
convert this country into something from which
they ran in the first place. You're referring to
fundamentalists - and fundamentalists exist in
all sorts of groups.

From your posts it seems that your notions of
nationhood are incompatible with diversity.

Your beliefs echo various stereotypical views of
who the "real" Australians are. But you're not
alone in this form of thinking. This form of
thinking is very common in this country. It's
based on an ideology of national culture in
which minority cultures are regarded as alien and
a threat to social cohesion.

It consists of
pervasive cultural assumptions where the customs and
beliefs of the dominant group in society is presented
as the norm. As a result, the status and behaviour of
minority groups, particularly those who are visibly
different, is defined and judged with respect to the
dominant group of largely British and Celtic backgrounds.

These attitudes are widely discussed in the media where
they are presented as reasonable and commonsense and reflected
through media images that don't accurately portray Australia's
cultural diversity.

In this way, these ideologies are expressed and reinforced
through a process of group interaction and thereby absorbed into
popular culture.

We're living in the 21st century - and you'd think that
much would have changed over the decades. And much has.

Today, the nature of being Australian, is to be part of
the diversity of this country. It's in keeping with the
sense of potential and openess so many people enjoyed on
coming here. My family feels privileged not only to have
been able to make a home here, but also to have found our own
sense of belonging.

Henry Lawson wrote:

"Our fathers toiled for better bread
While idlers thrived beside them
But food to eat and clothes to wear
Their native land denied them.
They left their native land in spite
Of royalties' regalia,
And as they came, or if they stole
Were sent out to Australia."

All very well Lexi, but there is a choice to be made.
Some Australians have already had to migrate or live in Arabia.
The transition has started, where do you want to live ?