Britain is the least racist country in Europe, the chief of the country's equal-rights commission said today.
Britain is the least racist country in Europe, the chief of the country's equal-rights commission said today.
Trevor Phillips, who chairs the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said racial attitudes in the UK have improved dramatically in recent years.
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"If we are considering the attitudes of the majority to the minority, today Britain is by far--and I mean by far--the best place in Europe to live if you are not white,'' he said.
Phillips acknowledged that some might take exception to the statement, but he cited a poll published by the commission in 2006 showing that a quarter of Brits said they would prefer to live in an ''all-white'' area.
"Too many,'' Phillips said, "but compare that to the 44 per cent in Greece, 42 per cent in Belgium, 39 per cent in Portugal and the 37 per cent in Denmark.'' Phillips said the commission's research showed that Britain was becoming increasingly multiethnic.
Growing proportions of Britons are in interracial or interethnic relationships, including nearly half of all males of black Caribbean origin and 40 per cent of females of Chinese origin, according to a publication released today by the government funded, independent commission.
The findings were heavily previewed in the weekend papers and the Observer newspaper gave its coverage of the report the title: "The Rise of Mixed-Race Britain.'' Phillips said the findings were reason to celebrate.
"People are more comfortable with racial diversity than their parents and probably their grandparents, or any generation in living memory,'' he said.
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