This article examines the prevalence of racial violence in the UK’s night-time economy. Fifty-five racial attacks are documented over a six-month period, showing the risks faced by members of the public and workers at taxi firms, takeaways, convenience stores and service stations. It argues that flexible and highly casualised labour conditions, combined with increasing numbers of immigration raids, exacerbate the risk of racial violence.
Harmit Athwal , Jenny Bourne and Rebecca Wood, Racial Violence: the buried issue, IRR Briefing Paper No. 6 (London, Institute of Race Relations , 2010).
2.
Alan McEwen, ‘Racist thugs attack as man goes to girl’s aid’ , Edinburgh Evening News (13 October 2010).
3.
Jon Burnett, ‘Racial violence and the night-time economy’, Institute of Race Relations News (10 February 2011), available at: http://www.irr.org.uk/2011/february/ha000011.html .
4.
Arun Kundnani , ‘The violence of the violated’ , Race & Class (Vol. 43, no. 2, 2001), p. 106.
5.
Adam Crawford, ‘Tensions of the two-faced city’, University of Leeds News(9 November 2009), available at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/195/tensions_of_the_two-faced_city ; also Dick Hobbs, Philip Hadfield, Stuart Lister and Simon Winlow, Bouncers: violence and governance in the night-time economy(Oxford , Oxford University Press, 2003).
6.
Ibid.
7.
Sean Poulter, ‘Many high streets are "doomed to die"’, This Is Money(15 February 2011), available at: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=522902&in_page_id=2&ito=1565.
8.
Terry Bevan and Alistair Turnham, ‘Night mix news’ , Night Mix Newsletter No. 1 ( Newcastle, Trends Business Research , 2010).
9.
Nina Morgan, ‘Brutal attack in town centre’, Halstead Gazette (9 August 2010).
10.
‘Man suffers broken ankle and cheekbone in unprovoked attack’, Bedfordshire on Sunday (2 November 2010).
11.
‘"I’m afraid to go out", says victim of one of 14 hate crimes committed over weekend’, Herald (28 October 2010).
12.
Victoria Raimes , ‘Racist gang’s glass attack raises fears of pub owners’, Edinburgh Evening News (9 November 2010).
13.
Rosalind Sharpe , An Inconvenient Sandwich: the throwaway economics of takeaway food (London, New Economics Foundation, 2010).
14.
‘Customer appeal in racist assault probe’, Derby Evening Telegraph (29 January 2011).
15.
Tyrone Marshall , ‘Rossendale festival organiser savagely beaten’, Lancashire Telegraph (16 September 2010).
16.
Kundnani, op. cit.
17.
‘Appeal after racist assault on taxi driver in centre of Plymouth’, Herald(28 January 2011).
18.
‘Police release image of teen after man is racially abused’ , Asian Image (1 December 2010).
19.
Luke Sellers, ‘Police search for gang after racist attack’, This Is Gloucestershire (11 January 2011), available at: http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/news/Police-search-gang-racistattack/article-3082757-detail/article.html .
Joanne Douglas , ‘Taxi driver Mohammed Parvaiz killer loses appeal to cut sentence’, Huddersfield Daily Examiner (16 October 2009).
22.
‘Delivery driver Simon San killed in Edinburgh attack’ , BBC News (12 August 2010), available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-10950997 . For an investigation into racial violence and racially motivated murders in the UK, see Athwal et al., op. cit.
23.
Guy Standing , The Precariat: the new dangerous class ( London, Bloomsbury, 2011).
24.
Hard Work, Hidden Lives: the short report of the Commission on Vulnerable Employment (London, TUC, 2008), p. 13.
25.
Cited in John Harris, ‘A rotten sort of recovery’, Guardian (17 February 2011).
26.
Invitation to Join the Government of Britain: the Conservative manifesto 2010 (London, Conservative Party , 2010), p. 19.
27.
Ibid., pp. 55-6.
28.
‘Preventing illegal working’, UK Border Agency , available at: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/preventingillegalworking/# (visited 22 February 2011).
29.
Frances Webber, ‘Crusade against the undocumented’, Institute of Race Relations News (5 February 2009), available at: http://www.irr.org.uk/2009/february/ha000011.html .
30.
Jon Burnett and David Whyte, The Wages of Fear: risk, safety and undocumented work ( Liverpool and Leeds, University of Liverpool/ PAFRAS, 2010).
31.
Webber, op. cit.; also Melanie Singhji, ‘Alone and unprotected, taxi drivers fear for their safety’, Institute of Race Relations News (14 October 2010), available at: http://www.irr.org.uk/2010/october/ms000023.html .
