'White enclaves' get cash to combat extremism

LONDON - Hundreds of "white enclaves" across Britain have been chosen to receive special funding from the Government in an effort to curb the spread of racist extremism among the working classes.

Ministers are to spend £12 million ($25.7 million) reassuring 130 "traditional communities" that immigrants and non-white residents are not unfairly taking their jobs and houses.

The community initiative follows growing concerns that extremist groups such as the British National Party are feeding on fears and myths that the white working classes are victims of social injustice.

Yesterday Communities Secretary John Denham named the first 27 districts that would benefit from the money.

But critics attacked the plan as pandering to the BNP at the expense of minority communities, where there is evidence of real, rather than perceived, discrimination.

The initiative received a mixed response from ethnic minority groups and taxpayer representatives.

Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesperson at the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "The Government has a duty of care to all communities so that none feels abandoned or neglected. At the same time, it should be recognised that there has been a lot of misinformation and half-truths put out by the far right, seeking to polarise communities and raise community tensions."

Julia Goldsworthy, Liberal Democrats spokeswoman on communities, said: "John Denham risks making the same mistake Gordon Brown made when he called for 'British jobs for British workers'. A lot of issues about extremism, whether Islamic or white fascist, boil down to poverty.

"The Government should have turned its attention to regenerating and developing our poorest communities over the last 12 years, rather than in its dying days."

But Denham said if nothing was done to address the concerns of white communities it would create a vacuum filled by "those who want to exploit it for destructive and divisive reasons".

He added: "This is not, then, about Government combating the BNP. That is for political parties, not the state. It is about addressing the legitimate fears and concerns which, neglected, can prove fertile territory for extremism and those who would divide our communities."

Speaking at the launch of the project in London, Denham said he had encountered one case of working class resentment over jobs given to Polish immigrants.

"A new fast food franchise on the edge of a deprived estate chose to get staff from an agency much used by Polish workers. The local resentment at a lost opportunity of work outweighed the much larger number of jobs which went to local people from a new retail store," he said.

Recent changes had led to a "sense of resentment and a rise in insecurity" and created tensions in some communities, Denham said.

"Class still matters in Britain and the politics of identity ignores it at its peril. The position and growing self-confidence of minority communities can be seen as a threat to communities under pressure."

INTO AN STATE OF ANXIETY

It is the kind of place where kids hang around on street corners, while the men not at work are in the betting shop. Red-brick terraced houses line the cracked, grey roads and cars propped up on bricks dot the driveways.

Welcome to Mottingham, a "white enclave" of southeast London. But is it the kind that suffers so badly from racial tensions that the Government needs to pump in money to keep the locals from voting British National Party?

"There are undoubtedly social problems in this area and the immigrants do get a bad name from time to time," said Sharon Thomas, 32-year-old owner of Mottingham's "Beauty By Specialists" yesterday. "But to say that people are worried by that is just not true. The problem is just not large enough to scare people."

Other residents said they were more worried about young people, who have no outlet, causing trouble.

However, more candid locals admitted to an underlying discontent that dare not speak its name. They said that hushed talk in the town's pubs and shops is of how "there never used to be this many".

- INDEPENDENT