Next month, Theresa May is expected to launch her long-awaited audit into racial disparities in public services. We are being prepared for the worst. Unnamed Whitehall insiders say that they have been ‘shocked’ by the picture it reveals of racial discrimination in the UK. All this suggests the scene is being set for another bout of political self-flagellation regarding the subject of race in Britain, in which half-truths are peddled by lobbyists and swallowed wholesale by officialdom.
Several studies have already shown that some ethnic groups experience different outcomes in policing, health, employment and education. There are many causes behind these disparities but the evidence will be carefully selected to suit a predetermined agenda. Everyone is gearing up for the report to be a ‘game-changer’, because ultimately that is what everyone wants. The Prime Minister is desperate for a dramatic announcement to tick her ‘burning injustices’ box and reset her administration (for ‘nasty party’ read ‘nasty country’).
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