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Parts of region 'left polarised by arrogant approach to cohesion'
Exclusive THE Government has taken a "patronising and arrogant" approach to community cohesion that is leaving parts of Yorkshire polarised and marginalised, a leading peer said yesterday.
Baroness Warsi, Dewsbury peer and Tory Shadow Cabinet member for community cohesion, told the Yorkshire Post in a wide-ranging interview that she feared her daughter would grow up in a divided region split into white-only and Asian-only areas.
"The state has decided to interpret its own form of multiculturalism," she said. "Labour has interpreted it in a very straightforward way, focusing on the things that divide us rather than those which unite us.
"There's been a feeling that they had to over-appreciate the cultures coming into the country at the expense of understanding that we have to have strong roots as well and value and strengthen the culture that we already have here."
Yesterday a senior Church of England bishop also sparked a row after criticising multiculturalism for creating separate communities which fail to integrate into the mainstream of society.
Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali warned communities that "no-go areas" for non-Muslims were being created in Britain by Islamic extremism. Non-Muslims faced a hostile reception in places dominated by the ideology of Islamic radicals, he said.
A poll of the General Synod, the Church's Parliament, is also said to show that many senior leaders believe Britain is being damaged by mass immigration.
Baroness Warsi, who was elevated to the Lords last summer after failing to win her home town seat of Dewsbury in the 2005 General Election, said her experiences of living in one of Yorkshire's most divided communities made it all too obvious where the Government was getting it wrong.
"We need to have an honest debate about the failings we have in the country at the moment. Let's look at what makes us a non-cohesive society," she said. "Let's take on board the concerns of people who express anger at the pace of change and the resourcing of local hospitals and schools. Let's look at the way antisocial behaviour is dealt with.
"We need sensible, grown-up debate about these issues, not Labour's ill-thought out soundbites and headline-grabbing reactions.
"The Government realises it has to do something different but the way it's dealing with it is being gimmicky, like 'let's put flags on our lawns'.
"Now they're consulting on having a motto for Britain. They think that if you're a white working class young man in an estate in a northern town and you've got six words that encapsulate a nation, that's going to make it better is it? They don't seem to have a grip."
Baroness Warsi also blasted the Government's proposals to extend the limits of detention without charge, which she saidwas making the country appear anti-Muslim on the wider world stage.
She said it had made it much harder for her mission, along with Rotherham's Labour peer Lord Ahmed, to secure the release of teacher Gillian Gibbons from a Sudanese prison after she named a teddy bear Mohammed.
She said: "When I was in Sudan trying to get Mrs Gibbons released, I said, 'You've tried her for something you shouldn't have done.'
One of the president's advisers turned round and said, 'At least we charged her and tried her – you just keep them in detention without charge'.
"At that point, I thought, 'This is where we need to have the moral high ground, not be talking about 90-day detention, because we can't be telling people their way of conducting business is wrong if we haven't ensured our way of doing things is absolutely right'.
"We can't be seen to be engaging in principles which are wrong, like 90 days detention without charge, which can easily be skewed as an attack against Muslim communities."
But a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government defended their actions.
He said yesterday: "In October last year we announced a 10-point action plan to promote cohesion and tackle community tensions including 50m investment.
"The plan includes a comprehensive set of measures to tackle the new issues we face and promote integration and develop strong, resilient communities. It will promote our shared British values like respect for the rule of law, tolerance and fairness.
"New investment will help spread a stronger sense of civic pride and shared heritage. It also raises to a new level our work direct with local authorities and communities, ensuring they have greater support at a local level in building united communities."
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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