Ethnic minorities Essay Example for Free

Ethnic minorities Essay The ethnic minorities in Britain are composed of many different people of different ethnic origins. Stereotypically, most people consider the ethnic minorities to either be Black or Asian and alienating these two groups from the rest of the society that makes up the ethnic minorities. The many other people, who could fall into this category, are people such as the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Jewish, Gypsies, Asylum Seekers and also those who are part of the European Union Enlargement and are legally entitled to work in the UK. In the Asian Community, there are many sub-divisions as there are with the Black community. For example the Asian community is made up of Muslims, Hindus, Bengalis etc, yet on the table shown in the question paper there seems to be no notification of this. In the 1950s, there was a mass of ethnic minorities, mainly the Irish (due to the famine) who entered Britain due to the mere fact that there was better housing and more jobs, and to this day, the ethnic minorities are still increasing. Ethnic minorities make up about 7 per cent of the population of Great Britain, but generally their representation in politics and government is lower than this. This note sets out the latest figures for the Government and elected bodies. In 1997, the former president of the UK, John Major was overthrown by the new candidate Tony Blair. His success was easily gained as he had persuaded the population that he would serve them well, and that the public could trust him. Also, during this year, there was evidence of high volatility. The official party in power pre-1997 where the Conservatives, and they were not in the good books of the public as they had introduced the Poll Tax, which was found to be very unpopular. Due to this reason and many others, Blair managed to secure two terms for himself. However, in the recent by election in Hodge Hill, which took place on July 15th showed that 36. 5% of the voters voted for Labour which was extremely close to the Liberal Democrats who managed to secure 34. 2% of the votes. These results compared to the results in 2001 are extremely unexpected because in 2001 Labour won 63. 9% of the votes, and the Liberal Democrats managed only 8. 1% of the votes. Also, in Leicester South, the by election results for Labour were 29. 3% and the Liberal Democrats were ahead by 34. 9%. This was more of an unpredictable result because in 2004 Labour won 54. 5% of the votes and the Liberal Democrats managed 17. 2%.