Why does everything now have to be about Race – even the Euros?

Okay, let’s face it – choosing to hold Euro 2012 in Poland and the Ukraine wasn’t a great idea. And because this is the least interesting international football tournament for years, the media has had to look for something other than sport to talk about. But aren’t we all getting tired of having to look at the world through the prism of race?

You could very well tell me that it’s my problem – I’m the one obsessed by the subject. But I reject the charge. The main talking point about the Euros so far has been the threat of neo-Nazi thugs abusing black players, or beating up black or Asian visitors. Every time I switch on the TV, it seems, someone is replaying the scenes of Ukrainians giving Nazi salutes and attacking Asians on the terraces. Managers of teams which include black players have said they’ll march them off the pitch if there’s racist abuse from any section of the crowd.

Of course, it isn’t just a problem with the host countries. The controversy about Rio Ferdinand not being selected for England has been milked for its full potential as a story about racism. Was he dropped because he’s a tad over the hill and is always injured - or because England captain John Terry is due in court to face charges of racially abusing Ferdinand’s brother?

Just how much money, how much legislation, how much governmental and quasi-governmental time and energy and attention has been expended over the years on the issue of race? From Enoch Powell’s 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech, you’d think there had been no more urgent challenge facing this country than the need to sort out problems associated with black and Asian (mainly Pakistani) immigrants (and, more recently, thanks to the EU and Labour, Bulgarians, Albanians, Romanians and … well, hell, name ‘em and they’re here).

Why are they doing so badly in schools? 

Why are they rioting? 

Why are they killing Londoners in terrorist attacks? 

Why do they despise our culture? 

Why are they raping white teenage girls? 

Why don’t they learn English?
Why won’t they join the police?
Why don’t they give blood?
Why do they keep shooting each other?
Why are there so few of them at our top universities?
Or in our boardrooms?
Or in Parliament?
Or running the BBC?
Should we let them impose their own religious laws in those areas of our cities they have basically colonised?
Why are they responsible for such a disproportionate amount of urban crime?
Are many of them playing the race card to hold onto jobs they don’t deserve?
Why does the state broadcaster feel its role is to champion multiculturalism?
Why is it considered racist for news media to mention a criminal’s racial origins, skin colour or cultural background?
Why did the Speaker of the House feel it  appropriate to hijack the Sovereign's visit to squeal excitedly about a "kaleidoscope" nation?
Are the police institutionally racist?
Why are only white people ever accused of racism?
Why do so many of them think it’s fine to father children and then bugger off, leaving the rest of us to pick up the tab?
Why is the violence between various ethnic groupings worse than it is between whites and blacks - and why is it barely mentioned?
Why have young people adopted brutally unpleasant black street argot and accents?
Why are there so many more attacks by blacks on whites than the other way round, and why isn't this considered a problem?
Why are they allowed to jump the queue for council housing?
Why are four out of five Blue Peter presenters ethnic?
Why are a disproportionate number of blacks and Asians on benefits?
Why do they appear to be involved in so many shady business dealings?
Why does suspected voter fraud so often seem to involve them?
Why do so many of their offspring seem to end up visiting terrorist camps in Muslim countries?
If they don’t want Westernised children, why did they come here in the first place?
If they come here because their own countries are poor and dangerous and corrupt, why do they want to impose the political system they’ve just fled on their new homeland?

And, of course, the biggest question of them all - why does Lenny Henry get so much work from the BBC?

Those represent a mere fraction of the seemingly endless race-related questions – valid or invalid - that have dominated our national discourse for much of the past 44 years, despite the best efforts of the BBC and most leading politicians since (and including) Ted Heath to pretend that everything would be hunky-dory if white racists would just shut up.

Of course, the nature of the discourse, the focus of the obsession, has shifted over the decades. Back then, it used to be trade unions complaining about cheap foreign workers taking their jobs, whether they should all be sent home, should we be allowing them to bring their extended families over, how best to integrate them into an overwhelmingly white society, and what we could do to make them feel more welcome. Now it’s about crime, why don’t more of them have jobs, the disaster of allowing immigrants not to integrate into the prevailing culture, the threat of home-grown terrorism, the high immigrant birth-rate, the spread of a dangerous and self-defeating culture of victimhood, and the liberal politico-media elite’s seeming shame at this country's glorious history, and its contempt for the indigenous working classes who were once the main focus of their "mewling and puking" compassion.

But, despite the emergence of any number of impressive black role models in a host of areas of our national life, the emergence of a black middle class, the introduction of the Orwellian concept of “hate crime”, the fashion for shoe-horning increasing numbers of blacks and Asians into prominent political and media roles (in addition to the many who make it purely on merit - just look at the Premier League, where there is no such thing as tokenism), the refusal by white Britons to vote for racist politicians and the fact that the old charge that the British were somehow more racist than other Europeans has been shown to be an utter crock – we’re still bloody obsessed by the subject!

Is this what it’s going to be like from now on? Are we doomed to follow America's example and become so paralysed in the face of race that we too end up sacking academics for using the word "niggardly"? God, I hope not! We are just so much, much, much more sensible than that, surely!

I have no answers – it would just be a relief if we could keep the subject out of the headlines and off our screens for a few months in order to concentrate on the only thing that matters at the moment, which is sorting out the UK economy and establishing a new – much looser - relationship with Europe. Then, by all means, let's get back to the subject that seems in danger of defining modern Britain.