Social Cohesion and Community during Periods of Change

Lord Sandhurst Excerpts

Friday 6th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sandhurst (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the most reverend Primate for initiating this debate. I pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Sharma. He has delivered an important maiden speech. I look forward to hearing much more from him. Indeed, we have heard many fine speeches today.

My theme is the misuse of the term “community”. It can be the enemy of social cohesion. Let me explain. Smaller and close-knit communities can be exclusive of others. Overstrong religious and cultural beliefs too often lead to bigotry and dangerous intolerance. If we are to be serious about wider cohesion and the people of this country living in harmony, we must face up to the misuse of the word “community” as code by some who seek special treatment to the exclusion of others.

It is not surprising that immigrants of whatever race, colour or belief find initial integration not easy. The Jews who came here in the second half of the 19th century faced discrimination and hostility, so this is not a new problem, and nor is it unique to these islands. But if we look at the last 175 years, we see what those Jews have contributed. Here I echo my noble friend Lord Leigh of Hurley.

Of course immigrants look for support on arrival, and they find it, naturally, among others of similar background who are already established here. In this way, communities of such immigrants grow in size. Since the last war, Britain has had immigration on a large scale: incomers with very different religious and cultural beliefs from around the world. They have tended, for understandable reasons, to stick together at first, but those with education, confidence and encouragement have blossomed and engaged with wider society and moved outwards. They have become British, in the true sense. People come here to live because they believe that the British way of life has something of value for them.

Strong belief in a particular religion or culture is, by definition, exclusive. If we are not careful, this can be an aggravating factor. It is the enemy of toleration. Informed observers have made the point that religious beliefs and customs have heightened differences in our big cities. People of one kind group together for support, and then one community feels threatened by another which has grown or is perceived to have intruded. Each community looks inward and becomes defensive, intolerant and possibly aggressive. This is not the social cohesion, or the strong community of people, that we want in this country.

Moreover, to stick to one’s own group or community is, economically, a form of social protectionism. Ultimately, it limits not just personal growth but economic growth for those who adopt this approach.

Where do we go from here? We have to broaden outlooks. We have to stop favouring so-called communities, in the wrong sense, when we mean, at worst, informal ghettos. We have to encourage the people of this country to think of themselves as British first. Our political leaders must not pander to interest groups based on such criteria as race and religion. We are all subject to the same laws; we are all equal before the law. Let us hear no more pleas for the interests of particular communities where this is simply shorthand for “me first” or “our group first”. We are the citizens of one nation, with the same rights and obligations.

In this respect, like my noble friend Lord Jackson of Peterborough, I commend a recent paper by Policy Exchange, A Portrait of Modern Britain: Ethnicity and Religion. Given the short time available, I plucked just two of many good points. The first is that:

“The children of Britain should be taught to be proud of their national heritage in an inclusive manner that reflects Britain’s history and traditions”.


The second point is that government and public bodies should address equality and social mobility primarily

“through a class and poverty lens, not a racial one”.

Political leaders must not look for votes on the basis of ethnic or religious interests.

I will give two examples of the dangers that we face if we do not do something. First, in the summer of 2022, Leicester saw a period of religious and ethnic tension, predominantly between British Hindus and British Muslims of South Asian origin. The causes were multifactorial. Religious beliefs and customs are said by informed observers to have heightened differences. Each community felt threatened by the other. Secondly, as we have heard from others, at the end of July and in early August of this year, far-right, anti-immigration protests and riots occurred in England, within the United Kingdom. This followed the mass stabbing in Southport on 29 July, and those riots were fuelled by false claims circulated by far-right groups that the perpetrator of the attack was a Muslim and an asylum seeker. That added to broader Islamophobic, racist and anti-immigrant sentiments that had grown up leading to the protests. We have to put a stop to those beliefs of false anti-immigrant sentiments.

At the heart of this lies the wrong sort of separateness: people sticking together for understandable reasons but leading to long-term disharmony and danger for us all. Let all of us who are in positions of influence, especially the media, stop this talk of the “such and such” community. The term “community” has become dangerous code for “my group” to the exclusion of others—it can encourage sectarian divide. To cohere, we must all be British and nothing else. We must learn to love our neighbours; to be exemplars of tolerance and to welcome outsiders and strangers—as I always read “xenia”—or foreigners. In turn, those outsiders who come to live in this country must learn what it means to be British and embrace what is best: tolerance and respect for the rule of law. Then we shall all be proper members of our communities in their true and best sense.