Seven out of ten of every black person living in Britain believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, but their views, captured in a poll commissioned by The Voice , were canvassed before Tony Blair made way for Gordon Brown as prime minister.

But even as black people worry about the future, expressing concern particularly over racism, crime and the perceived poor performance by the government, two-thirds of them say they are glad either they, their parents or foreparents emigrated to Britain.

Ironically, though, over a quarter of blacks feel that the wave of immigration into the UK from new European Union members states is bad for Britain, while about a third is lukewarm to the influx. Only 31 per cent is unequivocal that the immigration is a good thing.

 

600 black people

The poll, perhaps the most comprehensive testing black views in nearly two decades, was conducted in late March, by US-born, Caribbean-based pollster Bill Johnson. He used a sample of 600 black people for the survey that has a margin of error of plus or minus four per cent.

In among perhaps the most startling findings of the survey, a mere 17 per cent of black said the country is heading in the right direction, a little over four times less than those who think otherwise.

Black people of Caribbean descent are substantially more likely than their African and black British counterparts to be concerned about the direction of the country. Seventy-four per cent of West Indians say things are awry, against two-thirds (66 per cent) of UK blacks and 63 per cent of Africans.

Racism (28 per cent), crime and violence (26 per cent) and disenchantment with government policies (14 per cent) accounted for the top-three lots in the scale of why black people feel the country is heading in the wrong direction. However, when people were asked separately about the most pressing problem facing the country, the plurality (47 per cent) said crime, far outstripping the 12 per cent who put racism at the top of the list.