The New Dark Age

5 August 2021 — Institute of Race Relations

Since indicating its support for the Sewell report, a number of things have become clear about this government’s attitude to racial justice. The first is that it doesn’t accept that structural racism is an issue in the UK today, and the second is that, where evidence of disparities and disproportionalities suggests otherwise, it seeks other explanations, usually in the culture of minorities themselves. That’s why the Commons Home Affairs Committee report, The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on (see IRR statement here), with its recommendation to appoint a racial equality commissioner for policing and for the home secretary to chair a race equality steering group, seems so very out of touch with the times. One shudders to think who home secretary Priti Patel would consider a suitable appointee for such a sensitive role, given that her ministry is busy ripping up the rule book governing Section 60 ‘suspicionless’ searches. And this even though they are much more racially disproportionate than those requiring reasonable suspicion. But according to the prime minister, expanding police powers to stop and search without oversight is a ‘kind and loving’ thing to do.

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