What Sayeeda said

Sunday, 30th September 2007

I'd only just finished the post about my Dad when I read Matthew d'Ancona's item on Sayeeda Warsi and the BNP. Having read the IoS interview, I really don't understand why anyone is upset:

"What this country has a problem with is not people of different kinds coming into this country and making a contribution, but the problem that nobody knows who is coming in, who is going out ... As her press officer squirms in his chair, she continues: "The control of immigration impacts upon a cohesive Britain."

The press officer frets and fidgets because he's worried about how the comments will be spun. But the words themselves are surely just an honest attempt to grapple with a genuine problem. I can't believe Operation Black Vote are in a rage. Yes, there's always a risk that racist groups will try to exploit Warsi's remarks, but if we accept she's talking in good faith, there isn't a problem.

Half a dozen of us were sitting around in the garden last week end, talking about race and immigration. We didn't like the way Southall railway station displays signs in Punjabi, we complained about the way well-meaning agencies stand in the way of immigrants learning English, and we agreed that the lack of control on the numbers coming in causes disssension among people at large. It all seemed pretty obvious to us. And there wasn't a single white face around that table. Groups such as Operation Black Vote sometimes give the impression that there's as much racial prejudice in this country as in the days when my father first came here. There isn't, and it's dishonest to pretend otherwise.

I'll be interested to see how Trevor Phillips responds to this story. I don't see much difference between him and Warsi on this particular issue. Note his recent remarks in the Times :

"Once we get our brains in gear and stop being frightened about race, we are pretty good in this country at doing the immigration job. We just have to treat it positively. We have to tell immigrants the rules and what we expect.” ...He puts much of the anxiety about this down to “bad government planning which has made this all much more difficult. It’s not controlled and not managed. There are definitely issues of competence over the numbers coming here. And many of the problems we are seeing are happening because of that bad management”.

UPDATE: Sunny Hundal agrees, more or less. I've added a few points in the comments section over there.