Rakib Ehsan

Dr Rakib Ehsan is an independent expert on community relations. His PhD thesis investigated the impact of social integration on British ethnic minorities.

How Galloway won Rochdale

Labour’s defeat in Rochdale – following the party’s string of impressive by-election victories in places such as Wellingborough, in Brexit-voting middle England – will give leader Keir Starmer an almighty headache. Despite the party’s big poll lead, it shows that nothing can be taken for granted when it comes to looking ahead to the general

Why Europe riots

36 min listen

This week: In the magazine we look at the recent protests in France. The Spectator’s Douglas Murray argues that racism is not the problem but that a significant chunk of the unintegrated immigrant population is. He is joined by Dr Rakib Ehsan, author of Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities, to investigate why Europe

Can a football regulator save the beautiful game?

English football will soon have an independent regulator, with the power to block clubs from joining breakaway leagues and also try and prevent teams from going out of business. The football watchdog is part of plans set out in the government’s white paper, published today. For a struggling Tory party, this presents a golden opportunity

The Knowsley disruption shows the UK’s incompetence on asylum

This week’s public disorder outside a hotel accommodating asylum seekers in the town of Knowsley in Merseyside was in some ways inevitable. A total of 45,756 people entered the UK on small boats via the English Channel last year – which, according to the 2021 Census, is a number larger than the entire population of

Cornered: what will Putin do now?

41 min listen

In this week’s episode: For the cover of the magazine, Paul Wood asks whether Putin could actually push the nuclear button in order to save himself? He is joined by The Spectator’s assistant online editor Lisa Haseldine, to discuss (01:03). Also this week: Why is there violence on the streets of Leicester? Douglas Murray writes about this

Britain’s problem with illegal Islamic private schools

While some in Britain are understandably anxious about the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan and the prospect of the Central Asian country becoming an international jihadist training ground, long-standing domestic problems concerning religious radicalism continue to persist. The issue of unregistered private schools in British Muslim communities is one of them. This has been thrust

Can Labour afford to continue its culture war?

After being soundly beaten by the Tories in Hartlepool and winning a paltry 1.6 per cent of the vote share in Chesham and Amersham, Labour have managed to cling on in the Batley and Spen by-election by 323 votes. While the result gives the party’s under-pressure leader Sir Keir Starmer some breathing space – and

Canada’s disturbing pattern of anti-Muslim attacks

Canada is a vibrant multicultural society. The Great White North has become a shining example of a diverse democracy. It has established itself as a modern nation-state with a relatively altruistic, happy, optimistic population. But it also has a problem. On Sunday, in the city of London in Ontario, four members of a Muslim family were killed

Britain really is a successful multi-racial democracy

A new report by the UK government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities has been published today. At over 250 pages, it is a meaty document that makes a total of 24 recommendations, based on four broad themes: ‘building trust’, ‘promoting fairness’, ‘creating agency’, and achieving inclusivity’. But one of its more eye-catching conclusions –

The Bristol riots show the danger of ignoring anti-police extremism

The ugly scenes in Bristol last night make it plain to see that Britain can no longer turn a blind eye to a particular brand of political disorder. Violent clashes during the city’s ‘Kill the Bill’ demonstration – supposedly in protest against the Conservative government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill – resulted in 20 police officers being

Is Black Lives Matter a voice for black Brits?

Does Black Lives Matter speak for black Brits? The organisation’s objectives are certainly radical: it has professed public support for direct action in the name of ‘black liberation’, along with aspirations to dismantle the capitalist economy. It has also said it wants to get rid of the police and abolish prisons. It’s safe to say those

What lessons can we learn from the case of Khairi Saadallah?

Khairi Saadallah is a name that should not be forgotten in a hurry. Found guilty of the murders of James Furlong, David Wails, and Joe Ritchie-Bennett, Saadallah was yesterday given a whole-life jail term for the June 2020 terrorist attack in Reading’s Forbury Gardens. He will never leave prison. We shouldn’t, though, remember Saadallah’s name because of