Gurbux Singh: People are angry and looking for scapegoats

From a talk by the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality to the Local Government Association

I hoped to stand here today talking about a bright new era for race relations in the public sector – especially for local authorities and other local agencies. I hoped to talk about the strength of our multicultural nation, and strengthening democracy through diversity.

Instead, I find myself standing in front of you with the images of Oldham and Burnley burning in my memory like the bitter aftertaste of bad medicine. The past few weeks seem like a 20-year-old echo for race relations – violence on the streets, fear and mayhem. Is this the Britain of 1981, with a long hot summer of discontent ahead? Will another Lord Scarman produce another damning report, and another set of recommendations that are swept under the carpet?

Or is this something different? I believe it is. In places such as Burnley, Bradford and Oldham, many people feel that democracy isn't working for them. It isn't government by the people. Because many people don't feel part of a democracy. Democracy doesn't listen to them; democracy doesn't seem to care. And when people get angry, they look for a scapegoat. That scapegoat is diversity – being different, being unlike each other. People believe that those who are different are doing better simply because they are different. The reality is that both sides need help and support. Both sides are as needy as each other. And, in fact, both sides need each other to prosper and survive.

In the 21st century, poverty, unemployment, segregation, deprivation and racism in Britain are still alive and well. It is a shameful indictment of us, collectively as a society, and especially of our public services, that some people feel so dispirited, so despondent, and so desperate that they resort to all out violence on our streets – fighting pitched battles with the police, firebombing each other's homes, victimising their neighbours and colleagues.

There is no excuse for criminal behaviour. Neither is there any excuse for the way these communities have been let down. What we have to do now is to look at why these events happened, and how we can stop them happening again. It is the personal responsibility of us all – people on the streets, ministers, MPs and local councillors – to act quickly.

The Commission for Racial Equality can help. We will help. But ultimately, it is up to local leaders to find local solutions to local problems. It will require political and personal leadership at all levels in central and local government. A real commitment to tackle the issues and change the entrenched ways in which people and organisations have worked for decades.

If we fail to rise to that challenge, we will have failed ourselves. The challenge for all of us is to find some answers to those problems. A few meetings, a nicely bound strategy document and some general platitudes will not do. We need new rules of engagement between local communities and the public services that are there to serve them. New rules of engagement to deliver the services that people really need. Not just what is convenient.

It should be an engagement that leads to the empowerment of local people and empathy between them – whatever their race or religion, class or socio-economic status. Local local councils need to reach out, make contact with white, Asian, black and other youngsters, find out what they think – what are their hopes and dreams, their fears and frustrations?

We must reach young people, create new initiatives to improve recreational facilities in the poorest areas; develop out-of-school activities that give our kids somewhere to go and something to do after class. We need an approach that will bring people of different races and religions together, not further apart. Yes, it will cost money. But let me ask you this... How much will it cost if we do nothing?