While we walk down high streets in Britain, specifically the streets of London, we normally come across different white, black, yellow, Asian white and British white colours. Though these colours represent Britain as the most beautiful country in Europe, the failed multicultural policies of successive governments that shaped the present diverse image of British society over the last four decades left significant impacts on shifting identity definitions. The UK is becoming increasingly diverse but the recent riots across the country created a wide-ranging social gap between the government and communities. In Northern Ireland and Scotland, specifically, sectarian conflict marked out the boundaries of community through religious identities. These sectarian identities are further exploited by political groups. Sectarian and political affiliations in these two areas caused a weakening of Britishness, while some communities consider people of the opposite sect as the ‘other’. This way of religious thinking in a modern society like Britain raises many questions. Religious schools and their sectarian agenda to divide society is a problem causing instability. Minorities are faced with a fundamental dilemma and do not want to accept the norms of the dominant white culture. They do not want to mix their colours or values with the British society they live in. To mix these colours properly, the government, NGOs and councils never paid attention to the flawed process of social transformation. No proper research was carried out either by the councils or state-funded institutions. In these circumstances, while we hear the depressing statements of British parliamentarians about the failed multiculturalism, radicalisation, alienation and prevailing gang culture in the country, our dream of a strong British society is ending. The UK is not the country of the 20th century; the decline of Britishness, a trust deficit, weak state, eroded confidence in the police, councils, and the scandals of phone hacking badly damaged the reputation of the country. Last week, on the British Parliament website, I found Arabella Thorp and Steven Kennedy’s article that painted an irksome picture of British society: “Drug abuse, violent crime, teenage delinquency, family breakdown, welfare dependency, poor urban environments, educational failure, poverty, the loss of traditional values, teenage pregnancy, dysfunctional families, binge drinking, children who kill: all have been cited as proof that we have a broken society.” Governments and social organisations often tried to constitute relations with immigrants in the context of a post-colonial discourse, which resulted in a big social failure. The plans and policies of successive government to promote settlement of immigrants on the basis of ethnicity, race and religion created more problems. Prime Minister David Cameron recently warned that Britain’s longstanding policy of mixing the colours is a complete failure, and responsible for fostering extremism. The prime minister desperately said: “Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, we have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values.” He said if we look at the contents of Britain social strategy, we will find some drawbacks in the existing way of enforcing multiculturalism that are probably hindering the process of integration. All the above mentioned policies and ways of mixing different colours into British society resulted in the fragmentation of society and moreover jeopardised the future of diversity. The way of mixing colours may need some amendments. The most controversial role of the police and its inability to tackle criminal gangs further complicated social mixing programmes. Racism and discrimination in both the police department and borough councils have caused more social problems. Recently, hundreds of police officers accused of misconduct and racist behaviour escaped punishment by quietly resigning from their posts, according to the BBC Panorama investigation. More than 489 police officers from 47 forces now face misconduct action, but a majority of them were allowed to leave through the back door between 2008 and 2010. After an official inquiry, more than 382 police officers were either dismissed or forced to resign. A government-funded study recently revealed that the majority of young people who took part in the London riots were driven by a combination of excitement and the police attitude. Vice Chairman of the Police Federation Simon Reed in his statement disclosed the fact: “The police are the public face of a criminal justice system that is failing and that is why we are being blamed.” The UK Border Agency (UKBA) is doing things differently and still not providing the effective service the citizens expect. Recently, the UKBA lost the data of some 124,000 migrant applications. According to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee report, this is a big mistake, while immigration minister, Damian Green, said that he inherited a chaotic immigration system. Labour Party immigration spokesman Chris Bryant criticised the failure at the heart of government. He complained that the government is not paying proper attention to the performance of the UKBA. Following the August 2011 riots and the police’s non-professional mode of operation, Prime Minister David Cameron asked the British Home Secretary to review the situation properly. The cross-government report, published on November 1, 2011, also recommended support to the local areas to tackle the problem. The Home Office in London recently launched an organised crime strategy (August 1, 2011) to profile organised criminals, disrupt their financial networks and establish a new organised crime coordination centre. The Home Office’s plan to introduce the system of police and crime commissioner in all 42 police forces in May 2012 means the present system needs some changes after the police failure to tackle the riots professionally. To restore the confidence of the public and business community, the Home Office, Met and UKBA need to modify their strategies of policing communities. The writer is the author of Afghanistan Beyond 2014 and Punjabi Taliban. He can be reached at zai.musakhan222@gmail.com