I hate to be a party-pooper but, outside London, racism is still rife

Every time I opened a paper or switched on the news, there was the prime minister on a mission to advance democracy, both global and local, while social commentators obsessed about diversity.

But there have been few questions about the nature of democracy and its ability to deliver diversity. We all know, don’t we, that civilisation began with democracy and civilised societies embrace diversity? Likewise, those who spend much time developing social policy know all good people would celebrate diversity if only they understood what the party was about. But isn’t this a bit simplistic? After all, a Mori survey last year found most people outside London were happiest living in ethnically homogeneous communities. So, exactly who are the party poopers, us or them?

I missed most of the festive events over the Christmas holiday and didn’t even think about making a new year’s resolution. I was far too busy relocating from the capital back to the North. The three things that struck me within the first few days of returning were the cleaner air, the greener landscape and the noticeable lack of other people of my pigmentation. Ethnic diversity is not a feature of my new neighbourhood.

Having lived in Brent for the past four years it was a shock to come back to Yorkshire and find myself in a minority of one on my street. A short drive south to the town centre or north into inner-city Bradford, the ethnic diversity does increase, albeit without much celebration.

Despite attempts to generate community cohesion up here, there’s little evidence of progress on a scale that could effect a general change in attitudes. Neighbourhoods in the North remain stubbornly segregated, with trends suggesting things aren’t getting better. But will implementing policies of community cohesion and making people live next door to each other change attitudes or just suppress them for a while?

Between my leaving Bradford four years ago and returning, communities have become frighteningly polarised. For the first time in my life I now have to travel through one of four wards represented by British National Party councillors on my way to visit friends and family in Bradford. I have to think carefully about which petrol stations or shops to stop at and which ones to avoid.

Neighbourhoods in the North remain stubbornly segregated. But will making people live next door to each other change attitudes or just suppress them for a while?

It’s a harsh reminder of the depressing state of community relations in the district. Equally alarming is that this development is fuelled by local people in socially excluded neighbourhoods doing what community development professionals like me have always encouraged them to do: exercising their democratic franchise.

Naively, many like me thought that empowering local people within a democratic framework could only bear good fruit. And more naive still, that democracy and diversity were soulmates. Recently the two seem to have become uneasy bedfellows. And it can no longer be taken as a given that democracy will embrace diversity or diversity strengthen democracy. Increasingly, the trend in deprived neighbourhoods is for votes cast based on ethnicity, not working-class solidarity – a phenomenon by no means exclusive to large, white council estates.

New hard-to-reach white communities are emerging in ethnic majority areas and are increasingly under-represented in decision-making at neighbourhood level. One example of this is Bradford Trident. Despite scooping a well-deserved award for top performance in the New Deal for Communities, the partnership continues to struggle with a perfectly democratic electoral system that is failing to reflect the neighbourhood’s diversity at board level.

So, from the tenants’ association office to the town hall chamber, democracy refuses to celebrate diversity. The table may be laid but there’s no one at the party.