TONY PERRY remembers the first time he saw a black child. So exotic did the baby seem in mid-1950s Dagenham that locals flocked to see what they described, without malice, as a “piccaninny”. These days, strangers of all hues are moving to the working-class neighbourhood in east London. The white natives, who blame everything from stabbings to the difficulty of obtaining public housing on immigrants, are not pleased. Many of Mr Perry’s friends talk about leaving. What is worse, the new arrivals are more qualified and have better prospects than the people among whom they have settled.

Apart from election campaigns, when rising support for far-right political parties in areas such as Dagenham causes alarm, the traditional working class is largely overlooked. When politicians say that some communities are failing to integrate with mainstream society, they mean Muslims from the Indian subcontinent. When campaigners complain that schools are failing some children, they often cite black boys. Yet the nation’s most troubled group, in both absolute and relative terms, is poor, white and British-born.

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