British Future brought together friends and supporters from across civil society, media, politics, business and culture at an event to mark the organisation's 10th birthday and a decade working to help shape a more confident, inclusive and welcoming Britain.
British Future brought together friends and supporters from across civil society, media, politics, business and culture this week at an event to mark the organisation’s 10th birthday.
Director Sunder Katwala gave a speech looking back at the organisation’s work to help shape a more confident, inclusive and welcoming Britain over ten turbulent years in the UK – encompassing Brexit, Covid, the Black Lives Matter protests and three general elections. And he then looked ahead to the organisation’s vision for the future, of a country where we are no longer ‘Them and Us’ but rather a confident and welcoming Britain, inclusive and fair to all.
Sunder was then joined by The Guardian’s Gaby Hinsilff and the FT’s Sebastian Payne for a discussion of how are society has changed in the last ten years and their hopes and fears for the future.
In his speech to the event, Sunder said:
“Every institution in Britain needs to be more confident, not just talking about but acting with the growing diversity of our society. This is the British Future. We are all us now. How are we going to make that fair for everybody?
“We can only do the work thanks to the partnerships that we’ve got. So do stay in touch, do keep working with us and 10 years from now we’ll have a more confident, inclusive and welcoming Britain because of the work that we do to make it happen.”
The event was accompanied by the launch of two new British Future publications:
‘Finding common ground‘ sets out British Future’s vision and programme of work for the decade to come. It also looks back at the organisation’s achievements in its first ten years.
‘Jubilee Britain‘, analyses changes in public attitudes in the ten years since the last Jubilee, including on race and immigration, identity and the monarchy, as well as public hopes and fears for the decade to come.
As Conservatives head to the party's annual conference, @sundersays examines new findings on public attitudes showing the challenge for the party and its new leader to win back public trust on immigration.
https://www.britishfuture.org/can-the-next-tory-leader-tackle-the-partys-trust-deficit-on-immigration/
#CPC24
"The Home Office has been forced to release a suppressed report on the origins of the Windrush scandal by a tribunal judge who quoted George Orwell in a judgment criticising the department’s lack of transparency" - @guardian (report out today)
“The long-awaited publication of a report into the roots of the Windrush scandal is key to reinforcing transparency around government, a campaigner has said” - @itvnews report citing @ppvernon
Keir Starmer's conference speech drew a line between the toxic racism of rioters and the "legitimate concerns" that some people hold about immigration. Sunder Katwala examines the difference between 'legitimate concerns' – and those with no legitimacy.
https://www.britishfuture.org/understanding-legitimate-concerns-and-how-to-differentiate-them-from-those-with-no-legitimacy/
“This didn’t come out of nowhere. It came after years of vitriol towards minority communities in the uk.” Says @MrBrendanCox - We need different narratives, he says, telling the everyday stories of communities who live together and work together
.@mcintosh_kim says creating more social contact between people from different backgrounds is important, but it has to be intentional and properly resourced, so people have sustained, positive contact.