In the past few months we have seen community cohesion deteriorate and I believe that the government must make community integration a priority.
Hate crimes have surged by 42 per cent in England and Wales since the Brexit result. Following the United Kingdom narrowly voting for Brexit, there have been numerous reports of ethnic minorities and immigrant families being targeted for racial abuse. This is unacceptable and it undermines the diversity and tolerance we should instead be celebrating.
Of course, it must be pointed out that many of those who voted to leave the European Union were not against immigration or hostile to multiculturalism. But tellingly, Scotland – which had a higher Remain vote than any region in the UK – was the only police force area in the UK where the number of hate crimes fell. Hate crime is unacceptable and it undermines the diversity and tolerance we should instead be celebrating.
When Theresa May became prime minister she said she wants a Britain that works for everyone. However, policies such as grammar schools and the bedroom tax reveal the truth of the matter, the Conservatives do not actually believe it. We should be reaffirming our commitment to building a fairer, progressive diverse Britain that brings all the people from the Rhondda, Glasgow, Devon, Belfast, Manchester to Dover together, and to state that we are clear that there is no excuse for hate crime and it has no place whatsoever in our diverse society.
In London, Sadiq Khan has called for Londoners to ‘stand together’ against racism as he announced a new project with the police to encourage people to come forward when they witness hate crime on public transport.
This is an essential and welcome scheme, but what we need is the government at all levels to introduce national policy and initiatives to encourage our citizens to engage and interact with one another.
Initiatives such as the following should be promoted to help with the situation:
1) Schools should provide opportunities for pupils to interact with children from different backgrounds
2) Local planning authorities should develop and preserve neighbourhoods that are not only diverse, but are organised to enable residents from different backgrounds to mix with one another
Positive interactions between Britons who are different make British people more positive and trusting of people who are also different in other ways. When negative perceptions of one group are challenged through positive interactions, our general attitudes towards other groups are also challenged. This is a challenge that we as a society must face head on.
Integration must be a priority for this government, if it is not what we will see is an ‘us and them’ society and distrust in government, society and our neighbourhoods increasing.
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Mark Lewis is a candidate in the general members’ section in the Progress strategy board elections. He tweets at @charliebach
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Good article Mark. As someone who is married to a Polish woman, hate/general hostility towards migrants is something of which I am unfortunately all too aware at the moment. I think it is indeed difficult for us British natives to appreciate how hard it is to be a migrant in the UK currently. Completely dismissing all concerns about immigration as racism is admittedly not the answer, but of course neither are the populist-authoritarian initiatives on immigration coming from the Tories at the moment. A challenge for the Labour party will be to devise an effective and sensible immigration policy that listens to concerns whilst rejecting extreme solutions. I am alas not convinced that Corbyn is up to this…
Absolutely right. The problem is that some high-profile Blair cultists have being jumping on the xenophobic bandwagon of late – Danczuk, Mann etc. The NEC should be challenging them. Why aren’t they?