In the Camden NRA (neighbourhood renewal area - given extra government funding to bring their living standards up to those enjoyed in the rest of the country over the next decade) in which I live the mix of the population is seriously and deeply like what Margaret Hodge talked about in Barking - heavily multi racial multi cultural and no doubt containing refugees, asylum seekers, illegals, foreigners etc., and often you can scarcely see a white face.......and so on. Plenty to worry about if that is what you want to worry about. But people don't. Over 80% of the population of the Camden NRAs agree that people of different cultures and religions live together without difficulty. So what's the difference with Barking? I suppose that it is predominantly white. But not being white doesn't mean that you will of course live happily together - remember the Somerstown gangs. But I am sure that what won't work is not taking seriously the worries of whites in Barking - or in the East End, for that matter. That is what we need to understand. And it is no contribution at all to lecture them about how few houses are now occupied by asylum seekers, or that responsibility for housing them has now moved to the NASS, or that there hasn't been the 'most rapid transformation of a community we have ever witnessed'. The problem will not be solved by getting the evidence right and getting them to accept it. But I bet that Melanie McFadyean is right about social housing. That might be to do something about their problems, not telling them they are wrong.