Race chief warns of ‘cold war’
Phillips criticises uncontrolled immigration
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UNCONTROLLED immigration has led to a “cold war” between ethnic communities, according to the head of Britain’s race watchdog.
Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, believes the policy failures risk fostering racism among millions of educated professionals.
He set out his concerns yesterday in an address to mark the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s notorious “rivers of blood” speech – in which the Tory frontbencher warned of disastrous social consequences if immigration levels were not reduced.
While Mr Phillips stressed the dire predictions have not come true and immigration is not too high, he said the influx has worrying effects.
“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,” he said.
“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, Powellism and the weakening of control it engendered may have led Britain to admitting more immigrants rather than fewer.”
Mr Phillips warned ministers they are boosting anti-immigration parties such as the British National Party by failing to respond to concerns from large sections of the “settled” population.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Mr Phillips was speaking in the same Birmingham hotel where Mr Powell inflamed the public debate in 1968.
Shadow home secretary David Davis said: “Mr Phillips points out the consequences of a disastrous loss of immigration controls. It has had adverse consequences for public services, housing and community relations.
“Whilst managed immigration is for the benefit of the country, uncontrolled immigration can lead to serious problems for the whole nation.”
The MacDonald Burlington Hotel was also the venue for a meeting of the far-right BNP hours later, where 30 people gathered for a re-enactment of Mr Powell’s infamous address.
