Our own Obama is still just a pipe dream

First we are not "sleepwalking into segregation", as some warn. Even in cities with high Asian populations there isn't a single ward which can be described as a "ghetto", unlike the US, where de facto residential segregation persists. When I visited New Orleans, poor blacks and whites lived in separate neighbourhoods; successful African-Americans were confined to their own affluent quarters. That simply does not happen here.

Obama proves racial attitudes in the US are shifting. Here, too, according to this latest research: "People born after 1960 are permanently less prejudiced than their parents." Fewer white Britons object to mixed marriages - in fact, the opposition comes now from the "ethnic" side, as I found when writing a book on the subject of mixed- race Britons. In the rest of Europe segregation and overt discrimination remains common.

Here, a young black child can see black power. Our Attorney-General, Patricia Scotland, and peers such as Valerie Amos all exert influence, as do Trevor Phillips, David Lammy, Trevor McDonald and other names in arts, popular culture, sports and design. Tidjane Thiam is the new CEO of Prudential; Damon Buffini is a multimillionaire private equity operator.

But look closely and gloom spreads across the picture. White Britons may think it is great to love across racial boundaries yet too many still find it hard to accept that a person of colour can climb to high places or should. Twelve years ago I was the first non-white weekly newspaper columnist in this country. I still am. And I still get letters telling me Asians should be cleaning toilets.

Black men get it even worse says one, a lawyer who cannot get a parliamentary seat: "They think lurking behind the smart suit is a mugger or rapist." Does he think we can have an Obama? Maybe, but not any time soon. If this new evidence is right, such pessimism is out of date. I hope so. This is an argument I want to lose, and conclusively.