Could the Windrush scandal end identity politics in Britain?

The unjust treatment of the ‘Windrush children’ is a defining moment in the history of race relations in Britain. In the past, such a grave injustice against non-whites would have been exploited by groups claiming it as proof that the white majority is racist. Instead, it is being seen by all ethnic groups as a blundering bureaucratic injustice that must be put right. There have been a few attempts to define it as a racist outrage, notably by Channel 4 News, but in the main it has united the whole country in condemnation of an obvious, unforgivable injustice that, as Fraser Nelson argues in this week’s Spectator, results from clumsy and negligent enforcement of a Tory policy that no one really believes in.

Since the 1980s there has been a struggle between two kinds of anti-racism. The first can be called sectarian anti-racism, because it exploits race-related problems to deepen grievances and enhance division.