Trevor Phillips var tidligere en håndhæver af multikulti, som leder af Equality and Human Rights Commission. Nu har han lagt om kursen 180 grader og siger, at Storbritannien står foran en katastrofe af etnicitet og religion. Han benytter ordet race og siger, at Enoch Powell havde ret.

Stærkere kan man ikke udtrykke sig. Powell blev stødt ud af det konservative parti da han advarede mod en udvikling som ville ende med at Themsen skummet af blod ligesom Tiberen.

Den liberale elite lider af en selvforførelse som vil have samme endeligt som Romerriget, advarer Phillips.

In a startling assault on decades of official multiculturalism and diversity policy, the founding  chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission argues the UK is being allowed to “sleepwalk to catastrophe” by leaders too “touchy”, “smug”, “complacent” and “squeamish” to talk about race.

Drawing a direct parallel with Enoch Powell’s notorious “rivers of blood” speech, he likens Britain’s politicians, media and educated elite in general to the Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned, unable even to recognise the “dark side of the diverse society”.

Eliten lukker øjnene for at Stobritannien har fået store grupper som overhodet ikke er interesseret i integration. Det er ved at udløse et backlash blandt briterne:

Ominous “muttering in the pub or grumbling at the school gate” about foreigners could, he insists, be the first signs of a backlash many thought could not happen in Britain because of a history of relative success in integrating new arrivals.

Significantly, he claims the arrival of some Muslim groups in particular who are actively “resistant to the traditional process of integration” threatens to shake the foundations of “liberal democracy” itself.

Hvor hårdt må man udtale sig for at blive hørt?

In a 100-page paper, published by the think-tank Civitas set to provoke uproar, he argues that a new brand of “superdiversity” is bringing challenges to the Western way of life, far removed from those of immigration of the past.

Crucially, he says, race is no longer a “purely black and white affair” but a divide between the majority and people with different “values and behaviours”.

Høflig tavshed

Phillips siger briterne reagerer negativt på symbolske ændringer, som butikskilt på fremmedsprog, eller halalmad, men de store temaer, som ytringsfrihed, religonsfrihed, eller seksuel undertrykkelse reagerer de ikke på. Men det er måske ikke så mærkeligt, al den tid eliten ikke vil tale om “sagerne”, men gør alt for at bevare den gode tone.

Race does, he says, rear its head in rows about the use of supposedly racist language or concerns about practices such as female genital mutilation.

“But these are not the topics that generate public unease,” he says.

“Rather it is the appearance of non-English names above the shop-fronts in the high street; the odd decision to provide only halal meat in some schools; evidence of corruption in municipal politics dominated by one ethnic group or another.

“Such headlines, frequently misreported, but often grounded in some real change, provoke muttering in the pub, or grumbling at the school gate.

“They become gathering straws in a stiffening breeze of nativist, anti-immigrant sentiment.

“And still, our political and media elites appear not to have scented this new wind.

Den nye vind er altså ressentimentet der breder sig blandt vanlige mennesker. Når Phillips tager så kraftig i, må man formode at han er fortrolig med hvad der rører sig.

Eliten synes ikke at fornemme denne vind. De laller langs det samme spor om mangfold og integration. Beskrivelsen passer samtlige vesteuropæiske ledere.

“We maintain a polite silence masked by noisily debated public fictions such as ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘community cohesion’.

“Rome may not yet be in flames, but I think I can smell the smouldering whilst we hum to the music of liberal self-delusion.”

He pointedly draws comparisons between his remarks and those of Enoch Powell.

“He too summoned up echoes of Rome with his reference to Virgil’s dire premonition of the River Tiber ‘foaming with much blood’,” said Mr Phillips.

“This much-studied address is, simultaneously, lauded as an epic example of the use of political rhetoric – and also as a ghastly testament to the power of unbridled free speech. Either way, it effectively put an end to Powell’s career as an influential leader.

“Everyone in British public life learnt the lesson: adopt any strategy possible to avoid saying anything about race, ethnicity (and latterly religion and belief) that is not anodyne and platitudinous.”

David Cameron har aldrig vovet at gå udenom de optrukne sirkler, derfor virker han stadigt mere som en af T.S. Eliots hollow men – hul og tom.

Hvis man var udstyret med en normal hukommelse, ville man se sammenhængen mellem grooming-skandalerne i Rotherham og Rochdale, og begivenhederne i Køln og Stockholm. Men det sker ikke. I stedet advarer medier og politikere mod at skære alle over én kam. Det har de sagt siden 9/11.

“The typical response of Britain’s political and media elite confronted with awkward facts has been evasion, because – we say – talking about these issues won’t solve the problem; instead, it will stigmatise vulnerable minority groups,” he said.

“Any attempt to ask whether aspects of minority disadvantage may be self-inflicted is denounced as ‘blaming the victim’.

“Instead, we prefer to answer any difficult questions by focusing on the historic prejudices of the dominant majority.

“In short, it’s all about white racism.”

Når det kommer til stykket, er den hvide races racisme selve ursynden. Man går i ring.

NGO’en Hope against Hope, der flittig citeres i norske medier, viser hvor svært det er at nå frem.

A spokesman for the anti-racism campaign group Hope Not Hate said: “Attention does need to be paid to extremists on all sides, and also to the plight of the white working class in de-industrialised areas, who are often abandoned to the likes to Ukip.

Udtrykket “extremist on all sides” er afslørende, og udtrykket “abandoned to Ukip” viser hvor autoritære de er. Aligevel er det disse medierne ustandselig rådspørger.

Medierne er dét som blokker, at debatten beveger sig.

Phillips gør et modig forsøg.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/10/britain-sleepwalking-to-catastrophe-over-race-trevor-phillips/