Diary

26 April 2008

Trevor Phillips debates immigration and follows Chelsea in Europe

Even as the sun sets on the empire in which he grew up, the old gargoyle’s shadow has lengthened but not quite faded. His core belief — that racial integration was a ‘dangerous delusion’ — is mainly sustained in its pure form among a raucous bunch of white supremacists. They are politically unimportant, but what matters is their effect on mainstream politics — the 40-year freeze on any rational discussion of immigration and race. The Right fears being labelled racist, the Left being politically obliterated by the potency of the issue. And the public sit on the sidelines increasingly angry that no one in the political classes will address their real concern — which is not that they dislike foreigners, but that no one seems to have a plan to reap the economic windfall from migration while minimising the social costs. My job is, I guess, to try to break the ice.
We spend Friday and Saturday preparing for the big day. On Thursday, Chelsea’s mix of migrants and home-grown artists grind out a 1-0 win over Everton to close the gap on Man U, the only scorer being our Ghanaian hard man Michael Essien. It occurs to me that the Premier League is the perfect metaphor for my message of managed migration and active integration. This is the most successful sporting operation in the world outside the USA, watched in 202 countries, with revenues up tenfold since the early 1990s. It is now turning over £2 billion a year, and it couldn’t have achieved this without the 62 per cent of players who aren’t eligible to play for England.

On Sunday the hall is full and the speech goes down well with the Birmingham crowd. My good friend and former Commission for Racial Equality colleague, Digby Jones, shows up to listen, and makes the case that immigration is nothing new and that Brum is founded on migrant talent. Typically, in his call to put the ‘Great’ back in Britain he shares the opinion that we are a nation of ‘bastards’. I restrain myself from gently pointing out to the independent-minded trade minister that just because that’s the word which trade union officials and his fellow ministers usually put before his name, it doesn’t have to apply to everyone else in the country.

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David

April 24th, 2008 3:26pm Report this comment

"Other nations are cherry-picking the best while we fret over whether we can ‘afford’ more immigrants"

Er, no, other nations are also fretting whether they can afford more immigrants too. What world are you living in?

rhory fraser

April 25th, 2008 5:42pm Report this comment

Who elected Racistfinder General Trevor Phillips and what exactly is the nature of this platform from which he hectors the rest of the population with his absurd, unrepresentative opinions? Our backpockets.

And the idea that Nick Griffin doesn't recognise Trevor Phillips when he and his party have outflanked him with a clever stunt by booking the hotel room next to theirs, is pure self-delusion

David Preiser

April 26th, 2008 6:14pm Report this comment

Why do dance around the real problem with football metaphors about "integration"? Wouldn't you have more effect if you just spelled it out that people's real concern is that too many concessions granted to immigrants will result in the natives being forced to surrender all of their own values?

Cui Nono

April 27th, 2008 5:42pm Report this comment

Here is my chance to thank you and your colleagues in the race industry for your efforts over the years in making this country a paradise of racial and cultural harmony. Had we been asked, we could not have wished for better.

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