Deputy PM Nick Clegg has set out his vision of what multiculturalism means in a speech in Luton.
He backed David Cameron over the need to end “segregation” of communities. But, in contrast to the prime minister, Mr Clegg stressed in his speech the importance of multiculturalism to “an open, confident, society”.
Mr Cameron grabbed headlines around the world with his call last month for an end to “state multiculturalism”. In a speech in Luton, Mr Clegg said the prime minister was “absolutely right to make his argument for ‘muscular liberalism'”, and “to assert confidently our liberal values”. But he also attempted to strike a different tone to the prime minister on the issue of multiculturalism.
He said: “Where multiculturalism is held to mean more segregation, other communities leading parallel lives, it is clearly wrong. For me, multiculturalism has to seen as a process by which people respect and communicate with each other, rather than build walls between each other. Welcoming diversity but resisting division: that’s the kind of multiculturalism of an open, confident society.”
See also the Economist, which points to Clegg’s defence of participation by Lib Dem MPs Simon Hughes and Andrew Stunell at last year’s Global Peace and Unity event. Cameron, it will be recalled, banned Sayeeda Warsi from speaking at the GPU.