Programmes adopted by the Home Office and by the Metropolitan Police in the light of the Macpherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence could lead to a worsening of race relations in Britain, according to a new book of essays from the Institute for the Study of Civil Society. In this, David Green argues that the best hope for harmony between ethnic groups lies in the traditional liberal ideal of equality before the law, with the police and the courts paying no regard to anything except people's actual behaviour.

However, this approach is no longer deemed acceptable by the professional race-relations lobbyists who have been able to use the findings of the controversial Macpherson report to enhance their own status and influence. A booklet produced by the official agency for advising judges tells them that 'Justice in a modern and diverse society must be "colour conscious", not "colour blind... (p.3 8). This is a clear indication of the distance we have travelled from the ideal of equality.

Home Office minister Mike O'Brien takes the view that 'The Lawrence report... was a watershed for race issues in Britain' (p.25) and outlines the ways in which the Home Office has responded to its recommendations:

The Home Secretary has already set targets for the recruitment, retention and promotion of ethnic minorities within the Home Office and all its services, including the police, the fire service and the prison service... The aim is to get overall recruitment to the national average for ethnic minorities at about seven per cent... Positive progress within the Home Office should pave the way for the introduction of similar targets in all Whitehall departments and public sector organisations and we hope in due course that the private sector will decide itself to adopt them... The new duty to promote race equality will also oblige public authorities to integrate race equality into policy making, implementation and service delivery (pp.33,34,35).

Commander John Grieve, Director of the Metropolitan Police's Racial and Violent Crime Task Force, writes of the devastating impact of the Macpherson report's findings of 'institutional racism' on the police in London.

Lord Skidelsky, however, takes a less lofty view of the proceedings of the Macpherson inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, regarding it is as more of a political than a judicial process: "It was appointed to do a political job, and faithfully discharged its brief" (p.5). Lord Skidelsky argues that Macpherson only managed to pin the police failure on racism by "expanding the definition of racism so far that it is invulnerable to falsification. Politics and truth came into conflict, and politics won" (p.2).

Michael Ignatieff also believes that Macpherson missed the point, which was not racism but incompetence. "Why were we talking about "race awareness", when the issue was equal justice before the law?" (p.21). Mr Ignatieff believes that there is no such thing as a "black community", or a "white community", and that to pretend that there is is to "believe that skin trumps all other identities, and that we are only our surfaces" (p.2 1). Nor does he think that the police should be trained to respond to people as members of their gender, race or class. On the contrary, they should be made "less 'sensitive', less aware of difference, and more aware of one single identity: that the people they police are their equals, with rights and recourse. Are we so balkanised into our racial and other group identities that we cannot see this?" (pp.22-3).

In common with other publications from the Institute for the Study of Civil Society, Institutional Racism and the Police presents a range of strongly-held views in the hope of encouraging a more enlightened public debate.

Iti Saflaia

(The Institute for the Study of Civil Society website can be found at: www.civilsociety.org.uk)