David Cameron’s Munich Speech (5th February 2011) has been frequently presented both as a major departure from New Labour’s approach to diversity management and as a serious blow to multiculturalism. The speech echoed, that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, in October 2010, had called German multikulti - a concept that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s -a ‘total failure’. The speech - Cameron’s first multiculturalism speech as Prime Minister - was delivered not as part of a European ministerial conference on integration (such summits have been held every other year since 2004 with a view to exchanging ‘good practices’) but as part of a European security conference.
The study of this speech will be an excuse for us to examine, one and a half years after the formation of the Coalition, how the new government has dealt with diversity-related issues and to what extent the hybrid nature of the new majority and the critical financial situation have impacted on the framing and reception...
