Racial tolerance? It’ s a delusion

SIr, – The plight of the Windrush generation has put back into perspective not how far we think we have come when it comes to the issue of race relations, but how little we have progressed.

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, which famously led to the Metropolitan Police being described as “institutionally racist”. Today, that allegation can be well and truly aimed at the UK Government, with the outcome of the Windrush debacle blowing any delusions of racial equality apart.

What we have been witnessing with UK Governments, both Labour and Conservative, is deeply concerning, latching onto immigration not for the benefits it brings, but as being something to be “controlled”, akin to a disease.

The creation of a “hostile environment” by Theresa May when home secretary didn’t just affect the 50,000 or so Windrush individuals, a number of whom have been deported already or threatened with deportation.

“Go Home” vans demonised not just illegal immigrants, and landlords and employers became responsible for checking the status of tenants and employees. It meant discrimination not just against foreigners, but specifically those of colour who were more easily identified.

Under David Cameron’s premiership, immigration was to be cut to the tens of thousands, and the main parties pandered to an anti-immigration agenda, rarely if ever advocating the considerable positive benefits immigration brings to the UK.

This of course was further compounded by Brexit, where immigration was “weaponised” and deployed effectively by the Leave campaign.

We recently marked the 50th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s rivers of Blood speech. Thankfully none of his predictions of widespread civil disobedience came to pass and we live in a largely diverse and tolerant society. However, the ghost of Powell is alive and well, and thriving, in Whitehall.

Alex Orr, Leamington Terrace,

Edinburgh

Clyde shipbuilders will not be tendering for them because their slipways are already fully occupied with eight royal Navy frigates under construction which are sustaining 1,700 BAE jobs across Scotland and safeguarding a total of 4,000 jobs across the wider UK supply chain until 2035. Then again, the SNP were never ones to let facts get in the way of a whinge. Donald Lewis, Pine Cottage, Beech

Hill, Gifford, East Lothian

our area for their benefit will move to another part of the world, leaving the locals to clean up! Steve D. Mitchell, Woodside, Mount Eagle, Culbokie