Trevor Phillips Says Multiculturalism Is ‘A Racket’ Ahead Of Channel 4 Race Documentary

Trevor Phillips on the dangers of excessive political correctness and the need for more open and frank discussion:

The perverse and unintended consequences of our drive to instil respect for diversity is that our political and media classes have become terrified of discussing racial or religious differences.

“Our desperation to avoid offence is itself beginning to stand in the way of progress. And all too often the losers are minority Britons.

“Preventing anyone from saying what’s on their minds won’t ever remove it from their hearts. People need to feel free to say what they want to without the fear of being accused of racism or bigotry.”

He listed ’10 true things’ it is taboo to say, including “Romanians are far more likely to be pickpockets” and “Jewish households are twice as wealthy as the rest”.

He cited the child sex abuse scandals in towns including Oxford, Rotherham and Rochdale and the murder in 2000 of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie as examples of institutions failing to act for fear of offending minority groups.

Phillips, a Labour London Assembly Member, also admitted he felt he bore some responsibility for the July 7 bombings in 2005 because, as then head of the CRE, he failed “to see what was coming”.

He said: “Because I had made it my business to spend part of each week in a community outside London, I already knew some groups were becoming so isolated that values and ideas which most people would find alien were tolerated and even encouraged.

“But we had said little about it and done even less. After 12 months at the CRE I had come to the conclusion that, while beautiful in theory, multiculturalism had become a racket in which self-style community leaders bargained for control over local authority funds that would prop up their own status and authority.

“Far from encouraging integration it had become in their interest to preserve the isolation of their ethnic groups. In some, practices such as female genital mutilation — a topic I’d made films about as a TV journalist — were regarded as the private domain of the community.

“In others, local politicians and community bosses had clearly struck a Faustian bargain: grants for votes.

“And I saw a looming danger that these communities were steadily shrinking in on themselves, trapping young people behind walls of tradition and deference to elders.

“Of course none of this was secret. But anyone who pointed the finger could expect to be denounced for not respecting diversity.”

Phillips criticised the public reaction to “pefectly reasonable” comments by Benedict Cumberbatch about the lack of roles for black actors in the UK.

He said Cumberbatch was making the “much-needed case for the employment of black actors in greater numbers”.

Trevor Phillips Says Multiculturalism Is ‘A Racket’ Ahead Of Channel 4 Race Documentary.