Articles | Race 'cold war' warning

Race 'cold war' warning

Published: Sunday, 20 April 2008, 1:07PM

Unchecked immigration has led to a "cold war" between communities, according to the head of Britain's race watchdog.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), highlighted the divisions between ethnic groups that still exist 40 years after Tory politician Enoch Powell made his notorious "rivers of blood" speech.

Mr Phillips delivered his speech in the same Birmingham hotel where Mr Powell delivered his warning on immigration in 1968.

He said: "Powell predicted 'hot' conflict and violence. However, we have seen the emergence of a kind of cold war in some parts of the country, where very separate communities exist side by side with poor communication across racial or religious lines.

"In essence, Powell so discredited any talk of planning or control that it gave rise to a migration policy in which government knew too little about what was going on.

"Ironically, Powell-ism and the weakening of control it engendered may have led Britain to admitting more immigrants rather than fewer."

Mr Phillips warned ministers they are playing into the hands of far right parties like the BNP by failing to respond to concerns from large sections of the community.

He said: "For every professional woman who is able to go out to work because she has a Polish nanny, there is a young mother who watches her child struggle in a classroom where a harassed teacher faces too many children with too many languages between them.

"Wanting a better deal for her child doesn't make her anti-immigrant.

"But if we can't find a better answer to her despair then she soon will be.

"For every boss whose bacon is saved by the importation of skilled IT professionals or craftspeople or health professionals, there are a thousand people who wonder every morning why they have to put up with the misery of a packed railway carriage or bus - if they can get on in the first place.

"Wanting an infrastructure that doesn't make getting to work daily hell doesn't make someone a natural voter for an anti-immigrant party. But it soon will."