A Multicultural Britain, 1997-2007 (AQA A Level History: Component 2: Depth study): Revision Note

Workers, women and youth

• Changes between 1997 and 2007 affected different groups at different speeds

  • Workers gained new legal rights

  • Women made gains in public life and employment

  • New Labour targeted young people through education, welfare and crime policies

Workers

• Labour's relationship with the trade unions continued to loosen after 1997

  • Union membership fell from about 31% of employees in 1997 to 28% in 2007

  • The government kept the main Conservative trade union laws of the 1980s, including restrictions on strike ballots

• Labour still introduced new rights for workers

  • The national minimum wage began on 1 April 1999 at £3.60 an hour for adults

    • The Low Pay Commission recommended the rate each year

  • Britain signed the EU Social Chapter in 1997

    • This brought rights such as unpaid parental leave, and Britain also accepted EU rules on paid holidays

    • Britain kept its opt-out from the 48-hour working week

  • The Employment Relations Act (1999) gave unions a legal right to recognition where most workers wanted it

• Welfare-to-work policies aimed to make employment more worthwhile

  • The New Deal offered training, work placements or subsidised jobs

  • Tax credits increased the incomes of low-paid working families

• Relations with the unions could still be difficult

  • In 2004, the RMT rail union was expelled from the Labour Party after some branches supported other left-wing parties

  • The Warwick Agreement of July 2004 set priorities between Labour and the unions before the 2005 election

Approach: Blair was speaking to the Trades Union Congress in September 2004, shortly before the next general election

The source is useful because he lists the employment reforms New Labour wanted trade unionists to recognise, including the minimum wage, union recognition, the Social Chapter and improved employment rights

As Blair was speaking directly to a trade union audience, he had a clear reason to stress what Labour had delivered for workers. His claims should be balanced against what the government chose not to reverse, especially the trade union laws of the 1980s

Women

• Women's representation in Parliament rose sharply in 1997

  • 120 women MPs were elected, including 101 Labour MPs

  • Labour had planned to use all-women shortlists in half of its most winnable seats

  • The press often referred to the new Labour women MPs as "Blair's Babes"

• Women also gained greater representation in senior public office

  • Margaret Beckett became the first woman Foreign Secretary in 2006

• Family and childcare policies particularly benefited women

  • By 2004, all three- and four-year-olds were entitled to 12.5 hours a week of free nursery education

  • The Pensions Act (2007) introduced credits for years spent caring, from 2010

• Progress at work was slower

  • The share of FTSE 100 companies with no women on the board fell from 36% in 1999 to 24% in 2007

  • In 2007, women working full time earned around 87% of men's hourly pay

  • Women still carried most of the burden of household and childcare

Youth

• New Labour targeted young people at risk of social exclusion

  • The Social Exclusion Unit coordinated policy from 1997

  • Sure Start centres supported families with young children in poorer areas

  • Education Maintenance Allowances helped students from low-income families stay in education after 16

    • The scheme operated nationally from 2004

  • The Connexions service gave teenagers advice about education, training and work

• Blair also pledged in 1999 to end child poverty within 20 years

  • Child poverty fell by around 17% by 2004-05

    • This was short of the interim target of a 25% reduction

• Concern about youth crime remained strong

  • ASBOs were available from 1999

    • Around 4 in 10 ASBOs went to 10-17-year-olds

  • By the end of 2007, 9.4% of 16-18-year-olds in England were not in education, employment or training (NEETs)

The growth of a multicultural society

• A multicultural society is one in which different ethnic, cultural and religious communities live alongside each other with equal rights and respect

  • Each community keeps its own identity while sharing a common citizenship

A more diverse population

• Britain was already ethnically diverse by 1997

  • The 2001 census found that 7.9% of the UK population came from a non-white ethnic group

  • Around 1.6 million people described their religion as Muslim

• Diversity increased further during the decade

  • Official estimates suggest the non-white share of England's population rose from 9.2% in 2001 to 11.8% in 2007

  • Minority ethnic communities were especially concentrated in London and cities such as Birmingham, Bradford and Leicester

New patterns of migration

• People came to Britain for a wide range of reasons

  • Skilled workers filled labour shortages

  • Overseas students came to British universities

  • Families joined relatives already living in Britain

  • Asylum seekers fled war and persecution, including conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans

• EU enlargement on the 1st May 2004 had a major impact

  • Britain, Ireland and Sweden were the only existing EU members to open their labour markets immediately to workers from the eight new A8 countries

  • The Home Office had expected migration of around 5,000 to 13,000 people a year

  • Around 715,000 people registered under the Worker Registration Scheme between May 2004 and September 2007

    • Many worked in farming, food processing, building and hospitality

    • Some settled in rural areas with little previous experience of large-scale immigration

    • Many later returned home, so registrations do not show how many stayed permanently

Government policy

• Labour tried to combine managed migration with integration and citizenship

• The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act (2002):

  • tightened parts of the asylum system

  • introduced citizenship ceremonies, first held in 2004

  • brought in English-language requirements for new citizens

• The Life in the UK test was introduced in November 2005

  • It tested knowledge of British life and institutions as part of the citizenship process

• Race equality also became a more important part of government policy

  • The Macpherson Report (1999), the inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, concluded that the Metropolitan Police were institutionally racist

  • The Race Relations (Amendment) Act (2000) required public bodies, including the police, to promote racial equality

• From 1998, Muslim and other faith schools could join the state sector on the same basis as Christian and Jewish schools

Approach: The source is useful because it shows what Labour wanted integration to involve: learning English, understanding British institutions and taking part in citizenship ceremonies

As the minister promoting the bill, Blunkett was presenting the policy in its most positive terms, so the source is strongest for showing government aims rather than outcomes

Approach: The source is useful because he accepted the broad aim of creating a fairer immigration system but criticised how badly the existing system was working

Read together, the two sources show that government and opposition agreed on some of the aims of reform, while disagreeing over whether Labour was managing immigration effectively

Social attitudes and diversity

Greater tolerance and visibility

• Diversity became more visible in public life

  • Paul Boateng became the first black Cabinet minister in 2002

  • Events such as the Notting Hill Carnival attracted very large crowds

  • TV comedy such as Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42, and music such as grime, brought minority culture into the mainstream

  • London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympics in 2005 presented the city's diversity as a strength

  • Holocaust Memorial Day was first held in January 2001

• Legal rights also widened

  • The age of consent was equalised at 16 in 2000

  • Section 28 was repealed in England and Wales in 2003

  • The Gender Recognition Act (2004) allowed transgender people to change their legal gender

  • Civil partnerships began in December 2005

  • The Equality Act (2006) created the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which replaced bodies such as the Commission for Racial Equality in 2007

Tensions and concerns

• Some institutions were criticised for failing to reflect Britain's diversity

  • In 2001, BBC director-general Greg Dyke described the corporation as "hideously white"

• Riots in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in 2001 exposed serious divisions in some northern towns

  • The Cantle Report later described communities as living "parallel lives"

    • It called for greater community cohesion

• Support for the far right also grew in some areas

  • By 2006, the British National Party (BNP) had won around 50 council seats

    • This included 12 seats in Barking and Dagenham

• The 7th July 2005 bombings raised new questions about integration

  • Three of the four bombers were British-born

  • The 2003 invasion of Iraq had alienated many British Muslims, and the ringleader, Mohammad Sidique Khan, blamed British foreign policy in a video released in September 2005

  • The Racial and Religious Hatred Act (2006) made it an offence to stir up hatred against people because of their religion

  • In September 2005, Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), warned that Britain was "sleepwalking to segregation"

Immigration and public debate

• Immigration became a much more important political issue

  • The share of voters naming race or immigration as a top issue rose from under 5% in 1999 to over 40% by late 2007

• Some newspapers and pressure groups warned that immigration was putting pressure on housing and public services

  • MigrationWatch UK was founded in 2001

• Economists often argued that migration also brought benefits

  • Migrants helped fill labour shortages

  • Many made a net contribution to the economy

Public opinion in 2005

• An Ipsos MORI poll for the BBC was carried out in August 2005, one month after the 7/7 bombings

  • It surveyed 1,004 adults in Great Britain, including 204 Muslims

• The results showed both agreement and difference

• Most people in both groups supported multiculturalism and shared pride in British sport

• The biggest difference was over whether newcomers should adopt British values and traditions

How far had Britain become a multicultural society by 2007?

• This question asks whether multiculturalism had become a settled feature of British society, or whether important divisions and limits remained

  • Some key evidence for each side is outlined below

Evidence that Britain had become a multicultural society

• Britain was more ethnically diverse than it had been in 1997

  • Migration had increased and diversity was spreading beyond the largest cities

• Equal rights had widened

  • The law offered greater protection against discrimination based on race and religion, including the Race Relations (Amendment) Act (2000) and the Racial and Religious Hatred Act (2006)

• Minority groups were more visible in politics, public life, sport and the media

• Public opinion suggested that multiculturalism had become widely accepted

  • Most people in the 2005 poll said that multiculturalism made Britain a better place to live

• Large-scale migration from Central and Eastern Europe after 2004 was absorbed into many parts of the labour market

Evidence that multiculturalism remained limited

• Some communities still lived largely separate lives

  • The 2001 riots and Cantle Report exposed serious problems of segregation

• The 7/7 bombings raised new concerns about integration and British identity

• Racism had not disappeared

  • The Macpherson Inquiry had exposed institutional racism in the police

  • Some major institutions still lacked diversity

• Immigration became a much more divisive political issue

  • Support for the BNP also increased in some areas

• Diversity was uneven across the country

  • Many rural areas and smaller towns had relatively few minority residents

Approach: The source is useful because it shows how the leader of one of Britain’s most diverse cities publicly defended multicultural London, stressing that people of different backgrounds lived and worked together

Its timing also matters. Livingstone was speaking during a national crisis and wanted to prevent division, so the speech is strongest as evidence of the message political leaders wanted to promote, rather than proof that community relations were harmonious everywhere