Update: Derbyshire maintains his position, saying he expects Marines to stand up to torture. Here's his additional comment.
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Derbyshire writes of the British captives held by the Iranians:
How on earth can Britons behave like that? A previous generation would not have done so. I knew the women of my mother’s generation pretty well (Mum was born in 1912), and I am certain that any one of them, given that headscarf and told to put it on, would have said: “You can hang me with it if you like, but I’ll be damned if I’ll wear the filthy thing.” The men likewise. What on earth has happened to the British? Where is John Moyse?
After some paragraphs he returns to ask:
What on earth has happened to the British?
What has happened is multiculturalism. The British no longer feel that contempt for other nations that sustained them for so many centuries. Or, if they feel it, they guiltily suppress that feeling, as being flagitiously “racist.” Boswell described Johnson as “a stern TRUE-BORN ENGLISHMAN, and fully prejudiced against all other nations.” (Boswell’s capitals.) That would have the Thought Police knocking on Johnson’s door nowadays.
He goes on to quote George Orwell and make other comments. It's all quite stimulating and worth reading, even if you (and I for sure) have some reservations. What he says, though, is somewhat reminiscent of C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man, where Lewis speaks of "men without chests." There's something to contemplate here.