Jamie Bartlett on how we achieve integration on the internet.
On multiculturalism, both the Labour and Conservative parties are edging towards a similar position: we welcome and want people to celebrate their own cultures, background, religions, but not at the cost of weakening a common British identity. We need to integrate, together. What about the internet? We spend a lot of time there of course (on average 4 hours a day), and it is where we get a lot of our information about other religions and people. It is increasingly where movements and identit...
Max Wind-Cowie on Baroness Warsi's speech on Islamophobia.
Sayeeda Warsi is not a woman known for pulling her punches. And, in giving her a new role at DCLG – with responsibility for faith and religious communities – the Prime Minister presumably hoped that she would channel her passion into fighting for groups with whom conservatives have much in common but often little in the way of mutual trust. So did I – in fact, I wanted him to go one step further and make her the Chair of the EHRC. But today, in a speech about Islamoph...
Jonathan Birdwell asks: why are local authorities so squeamish about commissioning faith groups?
This week we launched the second report in Demos’ Inquiry into Faith and Society, called Faithful Providers, which explores the vexed question of faith-based organisations delivering public services. The findings were clear. Qualitative interviews with 20 faith groups showed they can be highly effective providers, offer value for money, and added ‘social value’ to communities. So why are Government and local authorities so squeamish about commissioning them to deliver ...
Duncan O’Leary argues that businesses increasingly realise they should be worried about more than the bottom line.
In politics you know you have won when you don’t just beat your opponents, you convert them to your cause. Mrs Thatcher apparently used to say that her biggest political achievement was the creation of New Labour – such was the scale of her dominance that even one-time opponents came to embrace not just capitalism over socialism, but also privatised utilities, flexible labour markets, permanently lower tax rates, the right to buy, competition in public services and so on. The liv...
Max Wind-Cowie argues that the Government must provide consumers with clear advice on healthy eating.
This morning consumers were told that consuming mackerel might mean jeopardising the sustainability of fish stock. This comes on the back of a campaign, two years ago, in which celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver encouraged those same consumers to eat more... mackerel - in part by persuading folk to put down their bacon butties and replace them instead with the healthy 'mackerel bap' option. On top of this, leading sustainability campaigners have not even agreed ...
David Goodhart on how Labour should step to the plate on immigration and integration policy.
Last week saw two notable interventions in Britain's rolling debate about immigration and integration. Both of them felt rather anachronistic, almost historical commentaries on a debate that has since moved on. First was another speech from Eric Pickles, the secretary of state for communities and local government, which had nothing new to say by way of analysis or proposals - beyond the usual plea for newcomers to learn English. This is despite the fact that he was speaking just a few wee...
Those proposing Living Wage Zones are on to a winner, says Claudia Wood.
The Observer on Sunday covered a report from the Resolution Foundation and the IPPR on the living wage, with a headline 'Living Wage Zones could become key Labour pledge'. This comes off the back of the Resolution Foundation's sterling work, with economic modelling and thorough analysis, of the costs of the living wage to business. This latest report has culminated in workable policies to incentivise (rather than impose) wage rises by sharing the gains to the Treasury of public se...
The Government must win people's trust on immigration, argues Max Wind-Cowie.
The Government’s target for net migration (the total number of people added to the UK’s population) is to bring it down to less than 100,000 a year by the election. There is a psychological and rhetorical element to this ambition – highlighted by the Prime Minister’s and the Home Secretary’s repeated use of the line that we will have ‘tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands’ of immigrants. It is about demonstrating political will to succeed in ...
Why are people so keen to identify as English, and not British, asks Eric Kaufmann.
Romanians and Bulgarians will gain the right to migrate anywhere in Europe in 2014. The prospect of new waves of immigration to Britain may increase the pressure David Cameron faces from backbench MPs to call a referendum on Europe in his speech this Friday. The immigration and Europe questions both reflect a renewed English nationalism, which the 2011 Census shows is opening up a rift between cosmopolitan London and the rest of England. Recently released census results show over 60 per cent...
Ralph Scott on HMV, online retail, and the hollowing out of the British high street.
This morning brought fresh news of yet another British high street retailer going into administration. HMV – founded in 1921 – is seemingly no longer commercially viable, putting at risk 4,350 jobs. HMV is the last high-street music chain standing following the advent of the internet, after the collapse of Our Price and Virgin Megastore (latterly Zavvi). This latest blow is part of a broader trend on our high streets since the financial crisis – a humbling of the form...