Give me a break?

"Add to that the rapid change in the composition of our communities; the faces we see in the high street are changing colour; the accents in the shops are more varied. It’s unsettling and there are people, notably the far right, ready to poison the communal well with sly attacks on anyone who can be painted as a “foreigner”. Even the “white” incomers bring their problems; the CRE is already receiving reports of eastern Europeans bringing pre-1960s attitudes from countries pervaded by deep racism, attacking black and Asian people in our streets.

The real problem that Britain faces is not Muslims’ way of life. Nor is it Islamophobia, poverty or foreign policy, although all these things are contributing to the turmoil. The real crisis is our failure to adjust to change in our society and our failure to find a civilised way of talking about our diversity...."

I'm not sure what to really make of Trevor Phillips 'swansong' at the moment. Generally his comments are a breath of fresh air and counter balance the rubbish someone like Livingstone spews so I was expecting a lot. But this article kind of sits on the fence.

Couple of points that stood out.

In one breath he condemns "White" incomers bringing in pre 1960s attitudes towards blacks and asians but then goes on to suggest we dont have a problem with the 'muslim way of life'. If eastern europeans have brought in pre 1960s style racism to Britain then surely muslims have gone one better in resurrecting their positively prehistoric rubbish.

And who is he condemning for failure? Even after 7/7 British attitudes remained calm and measured towards the islamists in their midst as so called British citizens blew up their fellow citizens. Since then we've endured open and direct incitement, threats limiting free speech, proposals for sharia, insistence at wearing full veils and suggestions of giant mosques to reward a community who have done absolutely nothing to merit it. 'We' were not 'socially polarised by race and faith' before islamists went mental and 'we've 'always been 'chilled'. 'We' were world renound for being positively cold at one point. The request for any section of society 'to chill' needs to be clearer. We all know *who* needs to chill ffs or should 'we' spell it out?

Furthermore it is not society that swings open the doors on immigration. Society finds immigration imposed on it and has to deal with the fallout whilst being lectured to by politicians on how bad they are at it and the need 'for talk'.

I appreciate he is offering up a solution to the issues we face and that he proposes a proper debate minus all the PC whining... finally. But knock it off with the accusations of society's failure to adjust.

The primary onus should quite simply be on those coming into the country to embrace the host culture, integrate and put back into society what they take out. It's that simple.