Theresa May’s phoney race war is dangerous and divisive | 10 October 2017

Theresa May’s long-awaited audit into racial disparities in public services has finally launched. We were prepared for the worst. Unnamed Whitehall insiders had said that they had been ‘shocked’ by the picture it reveals of racial discrimination in the UK. The scene was 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 used by government to publicise the audit has been carefully selected and presented to suit a predetermined agenda. Everyone has been gearing up for the report to be a ‘game-changer’, because ultimately that is what everyone wants. The Prime Minister has been desperate for a dramatic announcement to tick her ‘burning injustices’ box and reset her administration (for ‘nasty party’ read ‘nasty country’).