The Sun headline: ‘MPs warned not to ignore minority vote’

I never thought I’d see this headline from the Sun newspaper, but there it is for millions of its readers to see and digest.

The accompanying headline which is covered by almost every newspaper in the country is:‘The changing face of Britain’. The Policy Exchange think tank, which was set up by Conservative MPs, has launched a new department to the institution which sets out to look at the changing face of Britain and what it means for all of us. In the report it concludes that in just over 40 years time Britain will be, like London already is: one third minority communities.

Head of the new Department, Rishi Sunak said:

From education to employment, housing to trust in the police, politicians from all parties must understand the different issues affecting individual communities."

Politically, the think tank argues, the BME vote is strong now  and over years it will only get stronger.

The fact that we’ve broadly known this news for some time is not the point - OBV’s research last summer clearly highlighted the power of the Black vote. What is particularly interesting is that this is a Conservative think tank which  is urging its party and the nation to wake up to the fact that without listening to minority voters political parties will become less significant.

They are right of course and many senior politicians are already thinking about the Black vote.

If anyone was under any illusion about our political clout in the forth coming election they should ponder on the fact that in the space of four weeks the  Government have made two dramatic policy changes, which overwhelmingly affect BME communities: During last month’s Budget, the Chancellor George Osborne announced he would be scrapping the present Air Passenger Duty(APD) tax which unfairly penalised those families flying to the Caribbean, India and Pakistan. And just last week  the Home Secretary Theresa May informed Parliament that she would in effect end ‘racial profiling’ within ‘Stop and Search’ practises. The scourge of 'Stop and Search',  has in the  past angered and alienated a generation of young Black men and women.

We are a long way from any political party effectively dealing with persistent racial inequalities, for example in jobs, education, and mental health, but the changing face of Britain will encourage some and will force others to confront racism in its many guises.

But we too have to play our part. We are entitled to be impatient for effective change; we now have the political imperative as well as the moral one to make this change really happen.

Lastly we should remind both our politicians and detractors that everyone benefits by unleashing a nation's talent.

Well done Policy Exchange!

Simon Woolley