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Ban Muslim ghettos, says Cameron
Last updated at 17:52pm on 04.10.06
David Cameron: Steering Tory immigration policy in a new direction
David Cameron today vowed to break up Muslim ghettos in Britain's cities.
The Tory leader said Islamic schools should in future admit a quarter of their pupils from other faiths. And he said that housing estates should be planned to avoid creating isolated communities.
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• Cameron maps out Tories' path to power
• Cameron's speech - the highlights
• Cameron blog hit by internet video spoof
In the most frank comments on the issue by a major party leader, he used his keynote party conference speech to say Britain had made an error by allowing ghettos to develop.
"It worries me that we have allowed communities to grow up which live 'parallel lives',î he said in an extract of today's speech obtained in advance by the Evening Standard.
"Communities where people from different backgrounds never meet, never talk, never go into each others' homes,î said the Tory leader.
Mr Cameron's carefully balanced remarks were chosen to present a striking contrast with previous Tory approaches to immigration and community issues.
As he put social responsibility at the heart of his message to the party in Bournemouth, he was expected to mount a raid into Labour territory by declaring the NHS will be his top priority and will get continually rising spending if the Tories win power. Insiders said he would also declare his support for marriage while also committing himself to better child care for working single mothers.
His package was devoid of expensive policy commitments, but Mr Cameron will attempt to answer critics who accuse him of lacking substance, saying real substance "is not about a 10-point plan - it is about deeper things than this". On the controversy over schools, Mr Cameron said he backed faith schools and supported Muslim parents who wanted the same for their children as everyone else.
But he went on: "Now, a new generation of Muslim schools is emerging. If these schools are to be British state schools, they must be part of our society, not separate from it.
"So they must do more than provide a good education. They must turn out young men and women who have experience of life beyond their own community." He praised the Church of England for implementing a recommendation from the Cantle Report into the inner cities that said all faith schools should take some pupils from other backgrounds.
"This is a great example of what I mean by social responsibility," said Mr Cameron, adding: "I believe the time has come for other faith groups to show similar social responsibility."
He said migrants should learn English because contact between people would overcome differences and "the most basic contact comes from talking to each other".
Mr Cameron said that children should be taught "the core components of British identity - our history, our language, our institutions".
He went on: "We need to have contact. In many of our towns and cities, we have allowed ghettoes to develop.
"Whole neighbourhoods cut off from the rest of society. Immigrant families who only ever meet people with the same country of origin. We need to find ways to avoid this."
Mr Cameron's other main aim was to convince voters that the NHS is safe in Tory hands.
In an emotional appeal for trust, he cited his own family's reliance on the NHS for their son, Ivan, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
"When your family relies on the NHS all the time - day after day, night after night - you know how precious it is," he said.
Declaring it would be his greatest priority he added: "Tony Blair explained his priorities in three words; education, education, education. I can do it in three letters - NHS."
Reader views (11)
If the schools measure was introduced as law it would apply equally to Catholic and Jewish schools as the law would apply to all religious groups rather than one. British law has checks to stop this kind of discrimination taking place.
- Sally, Sheffield, UK
Whay was there no demand for Catholic or Jewish schools to take the same measures?
- Qamar, London
This is a bold statement, and I applaud Mr Cameron sweeping aside the curtain of political correctness and being the first politician in a long while to come out with a recommendation that offers some simple common sense!
- Alex, Edinburgh
I know a thing or two about living in the ghetto, as I am from Dagenham. Whatever you say about ghetto life, it does create great artists. Sandie Shaw, Vera Lyne, Dudley Moore and Alisha's Attic all developed in this hotbed of talent. Would you want to stop that?
- Dagenham Dave, Dagenham
Who on earth would want to send their children to such schools, just to collaborate in adressing the racial imbalance?
- Bernard, Canada
I agree with David Cameron, all communities should be mixed, and learn the language, culture and law of the country you are in.
- Kuldip, Holborn
Bringing back Government Assisted Places would be one of the most positive things any Government could do. It would have great effects socially and educationally and indirectly on the economy too by improving social mobility and maximizing the potential contribution of bright kids from less wealthy backgrounds.
- Rachel, Hong Kong
We used to have an adequately functioning Governemnt Assisted Places scheme whose purpose was to allow poorer kids the chance to go to private schools. Brought in by the Tories in 1980, it resulted in many such schools having around half the pupils on some level of bursary, and provided access to first class facilities and teaching for the brightest of those from poorer backgrounds. Sadly that was abolished in an act of class warfare by the incoming Labour governemnt in 1997. Despite calls from the likes of the Sutton Trust for its re-introduction, it remains off the agenda. This leaves many parents who desire to see their children receive more than a bog-standard comprehensive education with little option but to profess a strong faith and demonstrate church attendance to get their kids into decent state-funded but religious-run schools.
- G, London
Dhanraj, I agree with you. The Torys and their voters are the ones who need to get out and mix more with other cultures and classes. And I can just see little Jocosta from High Street Kensington being allowed to mix with little Kylie from the local council estate - NOT!
- Kim, London
Hmmm, a bit brave, or stupid, politically. This might have a the nasty effect of the Press mocking the old Etonion about the middle class ghetto that he lives in and questioning him about how many muslim homes he has visited.
- Paul Ebhart, Guildford
I quite agree with him on breaking up the ghettos and 'planning for living' on our housing estates; and Muslim schools being forced to take in children of other faiths, but lets also have 50% of all public school intake from deprived backgrounds. But the Tories cannot deliver on any of this, their policies on tax and spend simply do not add up. Interested in his comment that people from different backgrounds should vist each others homes. Well I doubt if the Tory grandees, who send their kids off to Eton and Harrow, would be comfortable with that.
- Dhanraj, Basildon, Essex
