Thirty years of progress, now discussing whether to leave
The chair of Operation Black Vote marked the organisation's 30th anniversary this week. The interview was not celebratory. David Weaver reports that Black and Asian Britons are discussing leaving the country at levels unseen since the 1970s. The seventies. We are cycling back through the decades now, like a tape being rewound.
Weaver says the rhetoric in circulation makes Enoch Powell's speech 'look like a nursery rhyme'. Polling backs him: 54% of one party's members favour removing or encouraging non-white citizens born abroad to leave. These are the numbers before the mood worsens. There are always numbers after.
He still has hope — for coalition-building, big conversations, equity. Hope is what people build when the other structures are unavailable.
The new prime minister has a historic opportunity, Weaver says. Historic opportunities arrive in Britain roughly every decade. They are, historically, declined. As expected.