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CRE Chair calls for 'highway code' for multi-ethnic Britain - 3rd October 2005
Trevor Phillips spoke at the Conservative Party Conference Muslim Forum held in Blackpool. This is a brief summary of what he said:
"We are facing constant challenges as we encounter new cultures and our own culture changes. We need a modern highway code, our unwritten handbook for getting on with each other, if we are to live together successfully.
Today we have millions of cars in Britain - of all kinds, shapes and colours. But they all have to share the same road space. In order for us to do that safely there are some hard rules - laws such as the need to pass a test of proficiency before we gain a licence to drive. There are also some rules of the road which express our common understanding of how to deal with our different ways of behaving, and which help us to manage awkward situations, where no-one is breaking a law but our differences could lead to conflict.
Britain has always been multi-ethnic - we have our hard laws that bind us all to parliamentary democracy, equality of men and women, the care of children, settling our disputes peacefully and so on. But we also have many unspoken rules, which are the equivalent of the highway code for our multi-ethnic society.
We respect others ways of worshipping. We compromise on dress codes - what we wear at work may not be what we wear at home. And above all we use the English language for everyday intercourse with others.
We need to find ways of reaching a national agreement on some of these issues. We need to update our highway code of conduct to meet the needs of the multi-ethnic society.
Government cannot just decree those rules. We all need to debate and agree them and they must work in our everyday lives. And, just as nothing in our highway code should undermine the fundamental laws of the road, our updated handbook must preserve our fundamental values - we all obey the same laws.
That is why we welcome the Government's proposal for a Commission on Integration which will study these issues of principle. I hope it will address some of the everyday problems.
We at the CRE have tried to start the process of avoiding the dangers of a segregated, unequal society. But in the debate we have begun there is so much more to be discussed and decided.
We first, of course, have to agree that we want to get along - such an agreement would be the greatest prize possible in a world riven with ethnic and religious strife. We can create a Greater Britain, as Britons of genius have done before. It's our generation's challenge. I think we are up to it, but only if we all work together."
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