Demos

Theme : cohesion

A new race Cold War? You would be forgiven for thinking that I'm talking about the fallout from the Beijing Olympics torch relay, but in fact I am referring to a speech being delivered today by Trevor Philips to mark the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech. Philips argues that Powell was wrong to predict a 'hot war' between races, but that the UK instead now faces the emergence of a 'cold war', with relations between different races and ethnic groups at a low.Two points come to mind:First,... from : rachelbriggs 20th April 2008
Who's afraid of the Respect Party? I've got an article in this month's Renewal arguing that the government's approach to Britishness (broadly characterised as an attempt to agree upon what we agree upon) needs to focus more on the areas where we disagree. Attempts to 'construct' Britishness in a top down, stage-managed way is producing a vision so content-lite that it is emotionally unengaging. We need to acknowledge the problems and conflicts created by diversity and then work through them together. It's only by embracing the... from : rachelbriggs 21st September 2007