The race card, again

Parliamentary Affairs

Volumn 54, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 759-774

  Saggar, Shamit ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0035486556     PISSN: 00312290     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/parlij/54.4.759     Document Type: Article

References (16)

1. See for instance: I. Crewe, 'Representation and Ethnic Minorities in Britain' in N. Glazer and K. Young (eds), Ethnic Pluralism and Public Policy, Heinemann; S. Saggar, 'Smoking Guns and Magic Bullets: The "Race Card" Debate Revisited in 1997', Immigrants and Minorities, 17, 1998, 1-21: Y. Alibhai-Brown, True Colours: Public Attitudes to Multiculturalism and the Role of Government, London: Institute for Public Policy Research, 1999.
2. See for instance: I. Crewe, 'Representation and Ethnic Minorities in Britain' in N. Glazer and K. Young (eds), Ethnic Pluralism and Public Policy, Heinemann; S. Saggar, 'Smoking Guns and Magic Bullets: The "Race Card" Debate Revisited in 1997', Immigrants and Minorities, 17, 1998, 1-21: Y. Alibhai-Brown, True Colours: Public Attitudes to Multiculturalism and the Role of Government, London: Institute for Public Policy Research, 1999.
3. See for instance: I. Crewe, 'Representation and Ethnic Minorities in Britain' in N. Glazer and K. Young (eds), Ethnic Pluralism and Public Policy, Heinemann; S. Saggar, 'Smoking Guns and Magic Bullets: The "Race Card" Debate Revisited in 1997', Immigrants and Minorities, 17, 1998, 1-21: Y. Alibhai-Brown, True Colours: Public Attitudes to Multiculturalism and the Role of Government, London: Institute for Public Policy Research, 1999.
4. The shift in the policy mood running up the 2001 general election is a point also pursued in the introductoty chapter. It is worth stressing the point that the Conservative's overarching strategy appeared to engage a public opinion structure that was insufficiently tuned to 2001, despite several obvious advantages in terms of the saliency of the asylum issue. See also: J. Stimson, Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles and Swings, Westview, 1991.
5. A. Heath and J. Curtice, 'New Labour, New Voters?', paper presented to 1998 PSA annual conference, Nottingham University.
6. Quoted in K. Amin and R. Richardson, 'Campaigning and Politics for a Multi-Ethnic Good Society' in S. Saggar (ed.), Race and British Electoral Politics, UCL Press, 1998.
7. 7ngwSu.
8. Migration: An Economic and Social Analysis, PIU/Home Office RDS Occasional Paper 67, 2001.
9. At the time of publication the results of the 2001 General Census were not available. Using 1991 Census data, the UK's population drawn from a black or Asian ethnic origin totalled a little under 2.4 million persons. Estimates based on Labour Force Survey data from the mid-and late 1990s suggest that the black and Asian population may have risen by between 20 and 25% from the official 1991 count. Estimates of voter numbers depend in turn on differential age structures, registration and turnout rates, and these are not as a whole markedly out of line with whites. Ethnic minority electors constituted 5.5% of the population, and the proportion within the electorate would have been a little less than this figure. The 2001 Census figures are likely to update these existing proportions quite considerably. See: S. Saggar, Race and Representation, Manchester University Press, 2000, p. 94.
10. P. Whiteley et al., True Blues: The Politics of Consecutive Party Membership, Clarendon Press, 1994, p. 253.
11. A recent poll of 500 Conservative Party members (including a handful of local chairmen) revealed that grassroots attitudes on issues of multiculturalism have probably hardened, rather than softened. This evidence further extends the picture sketched several years previously by Whiteley et al., (op. cit.) and demonstrates how far the party remains unreconstructed on this and other core attitudinal concerns. See: http://www.YouGov.com.
12. Amanda Platell's notorious campaign video diary claims that Portillo intervened during the campaign to advise that Hague publicly reject Lady Thatcher's sceptical remarks about multiculturalism. Platell reports that the party leader failed to take this advice, at least partly because of the existing tough line on the asylum issue.
13. A. Geddes, 'Race Related Politics and its Representational Consequences' in S. Saggar, K. Thomson and A. Heath (eds), Social Change and Minority Ethnic Groups in Britain, British Academy/Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
14. Dianne Abbott (elected June 1987), Paul Boateng (elected June 1987), Piara Khabra (elected April 1992), Oona King (elected May 1997). Ashok Kumar (elected May 1997; first elected in a by-election in November 1991; defended unsuccessfully in April 1992 and re-election in May 1997), David Lammy (elected July 2000 by-election), Mark Hendrick (elected 2000 by-election), Mohammed Sarwar (elected May 1997), Marsha Singh (elected May 1997), Keith Vaz (elected June 1987); Parmjit Dhanda (elected June 2001); and Khalid Mahmood (elected June 2001).
15. M. Le Lohé, 'Ethnic Minority Participation and Representation in the British Electoral System' in S. Saggar (ed.). Race and British Electoral Politics, UCL Press, 1988, p. 94. Both Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz had served in ministerial positions during the 1997 Parliament. The former had occupied junior and middle ranking ministerial roles at Treasury, Health and Home Affairs (returning to Treasury after the 2001 election); the latter had been a DETR minister followed by a spell as the high-profile Minister for Europe at the FCO (he was dropped from the front bench after the election).
16. The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain ('The Parekh Report'), Profile Books/Runnymede Trust, 2000, p. 231.