UK is a model for rest of world, says new race chief

Race equality: New chairwoman praises Britain for 'lovely synthesis' of culture, faith and colour but view is challenged by campaigners

Equality campaigners might be surprised by Beverley Bernard, the first black woman to head the Commission for Racial Equality, when she says Britain is a model for the rest of the world.

Ms Bernard told The Independent: "When I look at North America and all parts of the rest of Europe, the UK is way ahead of any society I know ... it is not just multicultural, it is multifaith, multirace and multicoloured and there is a lovely synthesis.

"When I come back to the UK, having been in France or Germany or Spain, my perception is that there's a vibrancy and colourfulness about Britain that's very attractive. I have a sense of belonging to this society, that I'm British. And I guess a whole lot of other people who aren't Anglo-Saxon feel the same way. I've no doubt about that."

Her words are in stark contrast to previous dire warnings from the commission over levels of discrimination in British society. The publicly funded body has fought a long battle to stamp out racism since it was set up by the Labour government under the 1976 Race Relations Act.

Ms Bernard's remarks also follow several high-profile race issues – not least the riots last year in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford and the apparent and disturbing rise of the British National Party.

Others reject her optimistic assessment. Sabby Dhalu, co-ordinator of the National Assembly Against Racism, said the riots were a sign of "deep institutional racism". She pointed out that right-wing extremists had been elected in Burnley and that Britain had seen "a 10 per cent increase in racist attacks in the past year or so".

Ms Dhalu said: "To top it all off, the Government is pursuing anti-immigration, anti-asylum policies, which simply fuel racism in Britain."

But Ms Bernard drew attention to the way people from different ethnic groups lived as neighbours in Britain. Comparing Britain with North America, she said: "I think we have much less de facto segregation and postcode segregation in this country. There's a community of communities in the States but they are very separate."

Britain was quite different, said Ms Bernard, who was born on the Caribbean island of Dominica and came to England at the age of nine. A mother with one daughter and two grandchildren, she believed children from ethnic minorities had a better chance of mixing successfully in Britain than they would abroad.

"We are much more fluid here. Our boundaries are much less rigid," she said. "It leads to less fear. It's when we stay locked in our own communities and don't try to reach out and understand another community that ignorance breeds fear and tensions."

Ms Bernard, formerly deputy chairwoman of the CRE, is now the acting chairwoman. She has a considerable track record in dealing with race matters, having joined the Race Relations Board, a forerunner to the commission, in 1972. By then she had already been in Britain for 14 years. She was educated at Cheam County High School in Surrey. A business career followed, first at the Confederation of British Industry where she worked as an adminstration trainee and later as a PA and assistant company secretary with a money broker in the City, Charles Fulton Holdings.

She was a co-founder of the Windsor Fellowship, a development programme for black and Asian undergraduates that helped to "link" them to leading companies and government departments at the graduate recruitment stage. Ms Bernard, 52, later acted as an adviser to the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.

She paid a warm tribute to her immediate predecessor, Gurbux Singh, for modernising the commission. Mr Singh resigned last month after being convicted of threatening behaviour during a drunken incident at Lord's cricket ground in London.

Ms Bernard has taken over at a crucial time. For decades the watchdog has been in the front line of race relations, with extensive powers to seek judicial reviews of discriminatory policies and to pursue individual cases of unfair treatment by firms at employment tribunals. But the Government is intending to merge it with the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission.