Racial tension in the UK a real problem, says Commissioner for Racial Equality

By Claire Fuller

Tension between claims of identity and contract with the community is the major problem for the UK at the moment, the Commissioner for Racial Equality stated at a lecture recently. His comments came before MP Jack Straw spoke out about women how women wearing the veil are creating a social barrier, but reinforce the Commissioner's own earlier comments that the UK is ‘sleepwalking into segregation.'

Trevor Philips, who recently became head of the new Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, spoke out about how worries about EU expansion and talk of terrorism may lead to ‘policy-making by panic': “We should welcome diversity, but it presents challenges.”

One of these challenges, as Tony Blair brought up this week, is intergration. However, whilst Tony Blair's offering on the subject was ‘conform or don't come here', Trevor Philips emphasised that integration is a two-way process, stating that whilst 90% white and 90% ethnic minority schools should be forced to integrate, it would be the white parents that complained about their children having to travel further, and that ‘people will not integrate if they believe they will be 2 nd class citizens'.

He also highlighted that the current fear about immigration levels being too high is unfounded as more Britons than ever are choosing to live abroad – a statement backed up by statistics released this week which shows that 5 million Brits are now expats.

Philips was the first (and only) black NUS student president, becoming a journalist before entering the world of politics. Always outspoken, Philips was once accused of ‘pandering to the right' by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who said the Commissioner for Racial Equality ‘would soon join the BNP' for his views on multiculturalism. Philips, however, laughed off these remarks, saying it was ‘right to ask questions about multiculturalism'.

Philips recently called for calm in the wake of the Jack Straw/Muslim veil debate, concerned that it could lead to race riots.