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"Multiculturalism was good for the UK" says key race report author
24 November 2010
Renowned author Lord Parekh defended multiculturalism against recent criticism and called on the Coalition Government not to abandon it as a policy, particularly as the spending cuts are acutely felt in ethnic minority communities.
An video recording of the full lecture he delivered, entitled Revisiting the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, is available to watch
Lord Professor Bhikhu Parekh chaired the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, which released a pioneering report that helped to shape New Labour’s policies on multiculturalism.
In a speech delivered to a packed LSE lecture theatre on Tuesday 23 November 2010, Lord Parekh, a leading political philosopher and Labour peer, revisited the report and its recommendations for the first time in 10 years.
He addressed the charge that ‘multiculturalism has failed’ and outlined why race still matters. He also warned against the dangers of a move towards a less secular state with too heavy a focus on religion as a moral frame of reference.
As the Guardian reported ahead of the speech, Lord Parekh is also concerned that the Coalition Government is “in danger of dismantling the advances we have worked so hard to achieve over the last decade by their determination to implement cuts that will disproportionately impact disadvantaged, black and ethnic minority communities."
With the cuts announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review likely to impact disproportionately on ethnic minority people, Lord Parekh argued that multiculturalism is more important now than ever.
The commission’s final report had an unrivalled impact on race relation policy in the UK and caused a press furore when it was launched in 2000 by then home secretary Jack Straw MP.
Two thirds of the commission’s recommendations were later taken up by the then Labour government, proving the impact and significance the report had in fashioning policy and defining multiculturalism in the decade since its launch.
Among Lord Parekh's fellow commissioners involved in the influencial report 10 years ago were journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, professor Stuart Hall and Lib Dem peer Lord Dholakia, among others
You can also listen to an audio recording of the lecture on the LSE website
