April 4, 2004
TONY THE TORY FILES:
Blair calls race summit amid election jitters: Multicultural policy to be reviewed (James Cusick, 4/04/04, Sunday Herald)
Tony Blair has decided to place the almost-taboo subject of race in Britain at the top of his government’s agenda and ordered a “cross-government assault to tackle abuse of the immigration system”.The Prime Minister has called a “race and immigration summit” for Tuesday, which will be attended by Home Secretary David Blunkett, senior Foreign Office ministers, ministers from the Department of Works and Pension, the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith and senior representatives from the security services and top police involved in tackling organised crime.
The summit will also mark the official start of a major policy review of Britain’s post-war approach to multiculturalism. The head of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, who is close to Blair, said yesterday that multiculturalism in Britain was “out of date” and encouraged “separateness”.
He said there was an urgent need to “assert a core of Britishness” because multiculturalism in the present political era “means the wrong thing”.
This is precisely what needs to be done--the problem is not immigrants but the failure of Britain to maintain and defend its own historic culture. It seems deuced hard to believe though--having slunk so far into the secular pit--that they'll ever take the necessary steps to revive it. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 4, 2004 11:25 AM
oj-
I guess the left has been mistaken re: cultural relativity. Imagine the implications for the U.S. Democratic Party and their minions within say, the Dept. of Education. Jesse Jackson ( "hey hey, ho ho, western civ has got to go") will be disapointed.British Labor and the American left has built quite a base on such tripe. Never mind "the present era", the classical liberalism of American conservatives have always known such an attitude to be destructive, self-defeating.
Posted by: Tom C., Stamford,Ct. at April 4, 2004 12:53 PMThe really interesting thing is how strongly Tony Blair--though perhaps not Labour generally--is diverging from the Kerry Democrat orthodoxy.
Posted by: oj at April 4, 2004 1:05 PMI'd say "hold on to their pocketbooks" but I don't think they have that much left in their pocketbooks.
Posted by: Sandy P. at April 4, 2004 1:06 PMBUT.... we can all take heart!
They are "holding a conference".
Katie, bar the door (if you will).
Posted by: Andrew X at April 4, 2004 3:12 PM