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Moral Maze

Social Integration

Moral Maze

BBC

Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.5609 Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2016

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Do we have a moral duty to make friends with people of different races, social backgrounds and sexuality? The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, is warning that a lack of social integration in the UK is costing our economy about £6bn and he says the answer lies in our own hands. Talking at an international conference on the issue he said "Promoting social integration is a matter for everyone, for every citizen of our cities. It means ensuring that people of different faiths, ethnicities, sexualities, social backgrounds and generations don't just tolerate one another or live side by side but meet, mix and forge relationships as friends and neighbours as well as citizens." London is said to be one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, with over 300 languages spoken in it and more than 50 non-indigenous communities with a population of more than 10,000. Yet even there it's clear that some groups choose to settle in areas where there are already a high proportion of people from the same background. Go outside London and that effect is even more pronounced. At a time when social polarisation is an issue in many communities, is it time to see social integration not only as a policy priority but also a personal moral imperative? Should it be as unacceptable to admit to having a mono-cultural social network as to admit being prejudiced? Or is this the kind of PC interference in our lives which fires public resentment and actually encourages division by fostering identity politics? Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Michael Portillo, Mona Siddiqui, Anne McElvoy and Matthew Taylor. Witnesses are Ludi Simpson, Jon Yates, Jemma Levene and James Delingpole.

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to a programme from BBC Radio 4.

0:04.0

Good evening. It may be human nature to prefer the company of people like ourselves,

0:08.6

but our innate cliquiness could end up costing us much more than money.

0:12.5

This week, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, deplored the lack of social integration in this country.

0:18.2

He did put a figure on it. Six billion pounds a year, he said, but talked of

0:22.3

much wider consequences for society as a whole. He said it was not enough to tolerate people of other

0:27.6

races, religion, sexuality, age, class. We must make them friends, welcome them as neighbours.

0:33.9

There are two contrasting views on this, two sides of a sharp moral divide.

0:43.1

One says this is common sense, religious precept even, an essential recognition of our common humanity.

0:44.1

It shouldn't only be public policy, but a moral imperative for each of us as individuals.

0:49.8

The other side says picking your friends is an absolutely private matter and a basic liberty.

0:54.8

Worse that trying to persuade us to be friend those who are not instinctively drawn to

0:59.1

could be counterproductive, putting our backs up and encouraging the kind of identity politics

1:04.0

that promotes the very divisions it's trying to heal.

1:06.9

It's our moral maze tonight.

1:08.5

The panel Anne McElvoy, senior editor on The Economist,

1:11.2

the former Conservative Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo,

1:13.4

the chief executive of the RSA, Matthew Taylor,

1:16.4

and Mona Siddiqui, professor of Islamic and inter-religious studies at Edinburgh University.

1:21.6

Matthew Taylor, by some coincidence here,

1:23.7

you were chairman of something called the Social Integration Commission,

1:26.8

which reported last year.

...

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