to have enjoyed and agreed with a Daily Mail article today? AND it's on race.

[DaddyJ]

I am still in shock.

Trevor Phillips has summed it up perfectly and points out the way forward.
Very very impressed.

Interesting article, shame some of the comments below completely undermine what he's saying...

YABU - it's the DM!

Seriously though, possibly we are the least racist country in Europe, and probably I'm institutionally cynical about anything in the Daily Mail, but this para troubles me in particular:

'Is calling someone a 'little Paki', as Prince Harry did, even in jest, OK nowadays? I don't think it is. It's not that his comments on 'Pakis', 'ragheads' and 'queers' reveal the third-in-line to be a racist or a homophobe - I don't believe he is either. It's about respect, it's about sending a message. And, for goodness sake, it's about basic politeness.'

I think if you say something as insensitive and stupid as that, it is a form of racism.

whenever I've peeked inside a daily mail it has lots of interesting animal stories and funny articles about the aristocracy and interesting stuff about women's health

so YANB at all U

(see that's another way in which MN has changed me, it makes me want to buy the daily mail)

Message withdrawn

Ah yes, the DM comments..my favourite bit
That's why I won't buy the paper but I am bloody hooked on the site.

I thought the way he dealt with Harry and Charles was perfect.

'Sooty' and 'little Paki' are offensive, unneccessary, not particularly witty
and highly inappropriate coming from people in the public eye -
but accusing H&C of racism is an overreaction.

PMSL at this comment:

"The least racist country in Europe? That's not much of an achievement when you're competing against France, Spain, Italy and Portugal."

That's not a double standard, no.

I don't know.

In the last few months I have witnessed:

A woman screaming racist abuse at a Romany gypsy who sells the Big issue outside our local supermarket. calling her 'filthy fucking paki gypo' of all things and telling her to 'go home'.

A man calling Ashley Cole 'a stupid fucking wog' at a football match.

My DH (respectable middle aged business man who happens to be black) was the ONLY man stopped on a random 'knife search' on the tube the other week

I think the UK (particularly London and the other major cities) probably is less racist than other European countries, but there is still a LOT of prejudice. Perhaps it is shifting away from black people, so Phillips isn't feeling it in his life so much...? But I think the amount of vitriol spouted at Eastern Europeans at the moment is quite shocking. I hear people moaning about Poles, Albanians etc everywhere I go these days.

I think the bit 'about the football players being brothers' is a wonderful sign.

Though there are same who claim if you don't notice the color you can't be sure to treat them equally. A strange notion, but I've had it said to me.

I know what that person means, though@bandandthedirtisgone. I have certainly found Italy and Spain to be much more overtly racist societies than the UK. Have you ever been to a football match in either country? Jesus, it's worse than 1970s England ever was. Ditto eastern European / former USSR states. They think NOTHING of monkey chanting.

Hmmmmm. I think crude, overt racism isn't that common these days. But that doesn't mean that the 'Little Englander' mentality doesn't exist any more. Trevor Phillips lives in a bubble of privilege, surrounded by some of the most liberal people on the planet. I'm sure there is plenty of covert discrimination going on out there, and feel that as a family we've experienced it ourselves.

5 years ago dh (who is black), was made redundant when the small IT consultancy he worked for went tits up.

There were 5 people from his company looking for work. DH was 35, and had more experience/qualifications than the others. All his white colleagues found jobs almost straight away. It took DH 6 months to find another job.

He got the interviews, no problem. He'd perform really well and get very positive feedback, but for some reason it would always be the other person who got the job, and never for any reason which seemed related to the original job description or person specification.

I read somewhere that interviewers make up their mind about someone within 5 minutes of meeting them, and that often they go on a 'gut feeling' that someone is right for the company. I feel that my DH's face just didn't 'fit' and that's why it took him 3 times as long to find another job than all his white colleagues.

It all turned out ok in the end - he got a great job with a high profile organisation with a reputation for progressive HR policies. But I felt angry at the time that he had to go through all that worry.

Despite all the caveats I think it does not hurt to acknowledge
that the UK is relatively speaking
the most racially tolerant country in Europe.

It's certainly something to be proud of
but, I agree, no reason for complacency.