UK Equality in the Context of Brexit

You may be alarmed at the dangers that Brexit seems to be throwing up. The human brain craves safety, security and certainty.

I expect that you are worried about the socio-economic implications of Brexit. In my lifetime, I have never known the country to be so deeply divided, and uncertainty so great.

So what does it all mean for us and for our organisations?

The simple answer is that we don’t know. No-one does. It has never happened before. If anyone says that they do know, don’t believe them.

We have lost our old Prime Minister and have a new one: She is feeling her way into the new job as well as leading us into a new era.

The markets are down and then up. Nigel Farage embarrassed and humiliated himself in Brussels, then went off into the sunset claiming his job was done.

By the way, shouldn’t he be investigated for inciting racial hatred? His campaign poster was a disgrace. There has been a spike in reported race hate ever since.

I know from being a former racial harassment officer that you can multiply the number of official reported cases by 900% and you would get a more accurate figure on hate crimes, as the vast majority of people do not report these crimes.

Don’t think for a minute that these crimes will stop at race. There will be a spike in attacks on LGBTQ communities, women etc. Prejudice doesn’t make a nice neat stop at racism.

Our politics has taken a dangerous turn and its the rhetoric of our mainstream politicians that, at least in part, is responsible. There is no doubt in my mind about that.

Where is the EHRC in all this by the way? Come to think of it where have they been since 2010?

Our politics has, since the London Mayoral election, been conducted based on racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia.

David Cameron played the anti-muslim card in the Commons, and the likes of Ken Livingston should be ashamed of his references to Hitler.

The race card has been dealt from the bottom of the deck.

If we continue on this quest to populism then we will become a divided society with too high a level of hate and too low a level of hope. This will damage us as a nation: hope and optimism are amongst the key factors in the economic success of a country.

The Good News

We are far from the point of no return

Also, in terms of Equality, rest assured that Britain was at the forefront of Equality legislation in Europe. We have had well-established laws well before joining the EU. The Equality Act 2010 was a superb piece of legislation that changed the emphasis of the law from being reactive to pro-active. It improved millions of peoples lives from pregnant women to new fathers; from the devout, to those who had no religion, faith or belief; from people who are straight and cisgender to those who are LGBTQ; from able-bodied people to disabled people.

So what will not change?

1. The protections that you have (based on the 9 protected characteristics) will not change.
2. All the hard work that you have put into EDI
   (whether you are from a private sector company, a public body or a charity) will not suddenly go to waste, unless of course, you take your foot off the pedal.
3. You did it all for the good of your organisation and you did a lot of good for your colleagues. You improved people’s lives and made your organisation function better.
4. The 600 organisations that we helped achieve culture change through Investors in Diversity – that will be not go to waste.

Jo Cox ultimately gave her life to stop the hate and spread hope. We need to wake up as a nation and stand together because, as Jo said:

“there is more that unites us than divides us”

What are your biggest concerns for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion post-Brexit? Tweet us to discuss it.