In the Telegraph, Boris Johnson, then editor of the Spectator magazine, wrote that the report represented “a war over culture, which our side could lose”.
The line was clear – a clique of leftwing academics, in cahoots with the government, wanted to make ordinary people feel ashamed of their country.
The Daily Telegraph ran a front-page article: “Straw wants to rewrite our history: ‘British’ is a racist word, says report.” The Sun and the Daily Mail joined in. It made the case for formally declaring the UK a multicultural society. It was honest about Britain’s racial inequalities and the legacy of empire, but also offered hope. The report was nuanced and scholarly, the result of two years’ deliberation. Launched by the Labour home secretary Jack Straw, it proposed ways to counter racial discrimination and rethink British identity. I n 2000, the race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust published a report about the “future of multi-ethnic Britain”.
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