ABSTRACT
The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) would argue that the loss of freedom of association is a price worth paying, since, without it, and the bureaucratic and legalistic devices it entails, then the ethnic minorities in Britain could never make the grade and realise their full human potential. For generations, and long before the advent of the CRE and all it symbolises, access to basic liberties has produced an entirely sufficient degree of personal freedom to allow people from many and varied minority groups to make excellent progress. Regarding jobs, the CRE has relentlessly attempted to "persuade" firms, local authorities and government departments to hire blacks and Asians, in defiance of free association. The gardening club, Handsworth Horticultural Institute, followed the practice common to virtually all free associations in requiring applicants for membership to find two members to propose and accept their application.
