Party leaders now love the Scots. But what about the UK’s minority groups?
|
Version 0 of 1. It’s the mantra of pragmatists everywhere: never waste a good crisis. For those who fear the breakup of the United Kingdom, we are in crisis. And in reacting to crisis, people do all sorts of things they would not normally do; say all manner of things they would not normally say. No one deliberately seeks out crisis. But it does concentrate the mind. Faced with impending doom, the British political establishment has resorted to a song of love for the Scots. Perhaps it was there all along, but only with the waters rising, the plane nosediving, the precipice looming have Britain’s leaders felt the need to voice it. We love you, we need you, they say. We are you. We may have done you wrong in the past, but look at what we have built together. Our achievement is your achievement, our future is your future. Let’s go forward as equals. Good for the Scots. Whatever the outcome on 18 September, they have forced a reassessment and probably a realignment. If only the three party leaders, the political establishment and the media would sing a similar love song to Britain’s minorities. I have no illusions about this. The ties of indigenous Britain go back much further. There is shared history, comparable religion, shared culture. I’m not setting up some kind of facile competition. But just as the Scots have toiled to make this country what it is today, so have others whose ancestors journeyed here to be part of the Great British project. The Scots have won their recognition from the power structures of the country by threatening to abandon it. What would minority groups – whether classified by race, sex, gender or disability – have to do to bring about meaningful recognition of their value to our 21st-century state? Spasms of public disorder occasionally yield establishment attention for some groups – and perhaps new opportunities sufficient to calm the temperature and restore equilibrium. But that’s mollification, not love or recognition. Whatever happens on Thursday, the Scots have forced a rethink of who we are and how the pieces of our country fit together. If we could hold that thought, and maybe extend it to an appreciation of our diverse selves that goes beyond the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, that would be nice, wouldn’t it? |