I've just been digesting the manifesto that Sunny Hundal, Dave Hill and others have published in the Guardian. It's a dense read, long on aspiration and short on detail, admittedly. But, for me, this is the key para:
The struggle for equality and better access to public services is a struggle for all Britons not just ethnic minorities. White working-class families also face problems with deprivation, injustice and demonisation. Their concerns should not be ignored or blamed on other groups.
As just about everyone agrees now, one of the biggest mistakes of the past 30 or 40 years has been the institutional neglect of the white working class. This passage from my friend Michael Collin’s book, The Likes of Us, puts it in a nutshell. Just the other day, a report brought more data showing how wwc boys have fallen to the bottom of the pile. Since I have a foot in both camps, demographically speaking, I have all the more reason for not wanting to see the social divide grow any wider. But I don't see any sign of trend being reversed just yet.
