commentators

Stephen Glover: Ghetto Britain and a brave, if surprising, voice

AlJazeera.net was just one of the many networks that reported Trevor Phillips' remarks about Britain sleep-walking into the kind of racial segregation that characterises New Orleans.

"The fact is we are a society which, almost without noticing it, is becoming more divided by race and religion... Our ordinary schools... are becoming more exclusive and our universities are starting to become colour-coded with virtual 'whites keep out' signs in some urban institutions."

Labour minister Harriet Harman MP agreed with the diagnosis.  She told The Independent that "we don't want to get into a situation like America, but if you look at the figures, we are already looking like America - in London, poor, young and black people don't register to vote."  Statistics suggest that the number of people of Pakistani heritage who are living in ghettos, defined as areas with more than two-thirds of any one ethnic group, trebled between 1991 and 2001 from 4.3% to 13.3%.

Mr Phillips may not welcome the fact that the Daily Mail has enthusiastically endorsed his analysis but that newspaper's Stephen Glover has called Mr Phillips "brave" in yesterday's morning's edition.  Noting Mr Phillips' left-wing past Mr Glover expresses surprise at the views of the current Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality.  Mr Glover thinks he is right, however, and points to the recent ICM finding that 5% of British Muslims believe that more 7/7 bombings are justifiable.

Mr Phillips believes that multiculturalism has failed.  Mr Glover thinks that it is easier for him to receive a fair hearing for this message (than people like Norman Tebbit receive for his 'cricket test' message) because "he is black and the son of immigrants".  Other "distinguished non-whites" have been delivering a similar message: Sir V S Naipaul , the Trinidadean-born, Nobel-Prize-winning novelist has called multiculturalism "absurd" and a "racket".  Sir Trevor McDonald has criticised immigrants who are unwilling to embrace British values.

What does Trevor Phillips want done about 'ghetto Britain'?  His recommendations include  better male role models, the dispersal of non-white pupils throughout the mainstream schools sector and (in something of a contradiction) special education for black schoolchildren, who tend to perform poorly in the mainstream sector.  I'd have to agree with Stephen Glover's contention that Trevor Phillips is "better at analysing the problem than at providing solutions" but at least he is analysing the very real problem.    

Stephen Glover: Tony Blair’s secret holiday

One of The Spectator’s best features used to be Stephen Glover’s weekly Media Studies column.  The column ended after Mr Glover fell out with Boris Johnson.  Mr Johnson, Editor of The Speccie, spiked an article in which Mr Glover had discussed then looming job losses at The Telegraph.  If you still want to read Mr Glover’s commentaries ‘on the press’ you have to pick up a copy of The Independent every Monday.

Fleet Street’s agreement to keep Tony Blair’s summer holiday destination a secret is Mr Glover’s topic for this week.  Last week’s Sun and Daily Mail published photos of a bare-chested Prime Minister on his holiday yacht but they did not reveal his location.  Mr Glover:

“Closing Parliament Square, and treating Mr Blair’s holiday destination as a state secret, are excessive measures.  The precaution of secrecy in respect of his holiday is in any case absurd, since if paparazzi can track him down, presumably Al Qa’ida also could.”

Mr Glover does not believe that national security considerations provide the decisive reason for the secrecy.  He believes the real reason is a Labour Party desire to hide the Blairs’ “gargantuan appetite for freebies”.  He describes Mr Blair’s passion for “free – or at any rate subsidised – holidays [as] not very admirable” and he accuses the press of docility for neglecting to hold a debate about “the rights and wrongs of not revealing the Prime Minister’s whereabouts”.