The Coming of Conservatives to Power and the Future of Multiculturalism in Britain.

Abstract

The present study investigates the state of the policy of multiculturalism in Britain, which was historically promoted by the Labour Party, since the coming of the Conservative party to power in 2010. It is the general aim of this research to analyze and explore the status of ethno-cultural diversity in Britain; the concept which has been often dubbed as Multiculturalism, with an attempt to foresee its future in the light of the Conservative party and its leader David Cameron‟s political discourse. Analyzing this discourse which proclaimed openly the failure of what Britain‟s Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron called „state multiculturalism‟ and drawing on the changing social policies adopted by the new government, this study highlights the changes in social policies in Britain before and after the rise of Conservatives to power, scrutinizes the retreat in state engagement towards cultural diversity and tries to foresee the future of Multicultural Britain. The conservative government revealed its intentions regarding ethnic and religious diversity in the country since its early days in office. They argued that multiculturalism have been the origin of many evils in society including separatism, radicalization and terrorism especially among Muslim communities. The Conservative government preferred the “community cohesion” paradigm to that of the old “community of communities” one. This dissertation attempts also to reveal the fallacy of the Conservative claim about the failure of multiculturalism.