Settled migrant communities now repeat the bile that was once uttered by whites

Commissioned by Channel 4, I leave on another televised journey in a few days to discover what is the state of play among ethnic groups (old and new) that have settled here over the past 50 years or so. Millions have trekked across the globe during this period, in search of work and refuge. Here, inner cities have been transformed beyond recognition, and dozens of languages added to the native tongue.

In recent times, the world has been jolted by the immense passions that flow from inter-ethnic and intertribal conflict. Yugoslavia has collapsed, the Congo has released upon our consciences a million dead bodies, tribal war in Somalia has spewed forth hundreds of thousands of refugees. Turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East has added thousands of Arabs from Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Kurdistan and Palestine. And then there is the stream of economic migrants who scheme and scam their way to the cities of the developed world in search of a wage - including "a social wage".

Meantime, the established settlers from former colonial countries - people such as myself - face their own difficulties. The major industries into which we were socialised have disappeared to faraway places, leaving areas in the north and the Midlands close to destitution. Asians have been herded into exclusive communities with little or no social contact with others.

The result is a huge disturbance of the spirit within the migrant population. Disorder threatens. With white racism on the retreat now that it has acquired pariah status, something equally sinister appears to be creeping into its place. It is rumbling beneath the surface in inner cities, between the old and settled migrants on the one hand and the new arrivals on the other.

Sadly, members of the old migrant communities repeat the bile that was once the prerogative of whites. In areas such as Plumstead in south-east London - a wasteland if ever there was one - Somalis face West Indians with weapons drawn.

So I begin my journey with trepidation, knowing that this international epidemic of interracial conflict, if allowed to flourish, will bring our inner cities to their knees. It is not a question of numbers, as our Home Secretary so often states, but whether an old civilisation with traditions of democracy and working-class solidarity can embrace these new forces without disaster.

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