Speaking in Westminster, Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable confronted a range of issues from “Punish a Muslim Day”, the increase in gun and knife crime as well as the diversity of his Party and of Parliament.
Vince Cable said: “It is almost 50 years to the day since Enoch Powell’s ‘River of Blood’ speech. At the time immigration and a multi-cultural society was portrayed as a horror story, yet the benefits to this country economically and socially have been enormous.
“Yet recent years have seen Enoch Powell’s kind of politics – the “politics of identity – resurface. The issues of race and religion are now dominating politics. Brexit, too, has played its part in making Britain more inward looking. It has helped unleash prejudice and hate crimes.
“As a society we must stand our ground and defend an open, inclusive and outward-looking Britain, but the fight to remain in the EU is not the only mechanism to do so.
“The governments counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent, has promoted a culture of suspicion and mistrust of Muslim individuals and communities. The Liberal Democrats are fully committed to scrapping Prevent and removing absolute control of the programme from the Home Office and putting it within the remit of the Department for Communities and Local Government.
“This will mean that action against threats is more likely to be community-led, and Liberal Democrats elected in the local elections next month can play a greater role in shaping this at council level.”
Vince Cable also called on the government to change the law so that all-BAME shortlists are allowed for selecting Parliamentary election candidates.
Under the 2010 Equality Act, political parties may field all-women or all-disabled shortlists, but the law does not allow for all-BAME shortlists.
On BAME shortlists:
“There remains a serious lack of diversity in Parliament.
“There are just 51 BAME MPs. Despite being a record total, they represent only 7.9% of all MPs, against 14% of the British population. There are still too few opportunities for BAME people to enter British politics at all levels.
“Parliament is supposed to set an example to the rest of society. We should be showing that we are willing to tackle issues of lack of diversity head on.
“Although advances in gender balance have been made partly through all-women shortlists, we still have this loophole that all-BAME shortlists are not allowed.
“I have written to Cabinet members calling on them to close this loophole through legislation.”
On London overtaking New York City’s murder rate:
“As well as extra police funding, the Liberal Democrats believe that we need to address the socioeconomic factors that lead people to commit violent crime. A return to overly-broad stop and search techniques risks damaging community relations and threatens the likelihood of successful intelligence-led interventions.”
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