Windrush scandal blows apart any delusions over UK attitude to race relations

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 actually progressed.

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, which famously led to the description of the Metropolitan Police as being “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 the issue of immigration not for the benefits that it brings, but as being something to be “controlled”, akin to a disease.

The creation of a “hostile environment” by the-then Homesecretary,theresamay, didn’t just affect the 50,000 or so Windrush generation individuals, a number of whom have been deported or threatened with deportation and “Go Home” vans demonised not just illegal immigrants.

Landlords became responsible for checking the status of renters and employers. It meant discrimination not just againstforeigners,butspecifically those of colour who were more easily identified.

Underdavidcameronimmigration was famously to be cut down to the tens of thousands, and the main political parties pandered to an anti-immigration agenda, very rarely if ever advocating the considerable positive benefits that 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 infamous “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 still alive and well, and indeed thriving, in the corridors of Whitehall.

ALEX ORR Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh It’s 50 years since Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech and 20 years since Gordon Brown parroted the BNP slogan “British jobs for British workers”. Today we run a vile immigration policy and our 3.5 million EU residents are rightly worried.

Immigration officials used to have discretion to accept common-sense evidence of UK nationality such as job record or pension.

But Theresa May’s inflexible, doctrinaire policy of intimidation requires migrants provide four pieces of documentation.

The “deport first, appeal later” Immigration Act of 2014 turned employers and landlords into an immigrant police force.

Now key workers are going home, joined by those nurses and teachers who cannot earn above deportation levels of income.

Mrs May can’t blame the officials – they were simply carrying out her orders. She bears personal responsibility for turning Britain into the “nasty country” and if we lose our nerve over Brexit one wonders if the EU will want to take us back. (REV) DR JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place, St Andrews