Last night I watched Panorama ‘Undercover: Hate on the doorstep’ which was looking into the abuse that ethnic minorities encounter in some areas of Britain and the hook / contrast was with the Equality Commission having said that Britain was pretty good in terms of tolerance and issues of race. The program set out to disprove that statement – pretty successfully.

Two undercover reporters, one male and one female and both Muslim, moved into a house on an estate near Bristol. For the eight weeks they were there they were abused, both verbally and physically, by local youths and children. Things were thrown at them, they were threatened and beaten on one occasion – just for existing.

This morning I was listening to Nick Ferrari on LBC talking about how London is not friendly to fat people. A woman came on – afraid have forgotten her name – who had been beaten up and abused on the tube because she was fat. She said, and other callers to the program said, that they faced verbal abuse every single day of their lives because they were overweight.

So what is this all about? In the end it has to be about people feeling they have nothing and are nothing and the only thing that makes them feel better is abusing someone else. But how do you change a culture? Punishment is fine and necessary – as are laws – but that doesn’t mean that things will be different in future. So how do you change behaviour?

Funnily enough, today one of my meetings was with the Prince’s Trust who came to brief me on their work. One of their programs – called Team Project – is about getting the long-term unemployed aged 16 to 25 back into work, education or training. It is a twelve week program which kicks off with a residential week which is pretty physical, outward bound kind of stuff. The kids then do voluntary work with the community and also learn skills and experience work environments etc.

I asked what the number of young people in any one cohort year was – 44,000. The Prince’s Trust put through about 12,000 of the most challenged and marginalised youngsters through the Team Project each year. They then do an assessment on the success of those who have gone through the scheme which is rigorous and tough. About 70% of the young people after the project – go into work, education or training. That is a pretty stunning result.

We had a bit of a meander through the philosophical issues around how you get the have-not kids to mix with the haves (how to heal a divided society) and whether a national, civil youth service would be an answer. If it was – should it be compulsory? But the real answer – whatever the programs and projects – is that there are no quick, cheap fixes. Any work undertaken amongst the challenged groups they work with – like the long-term unemployed, the socially excluded, ex-offenders and so on – needs to be sustained and relatively long term. The Team Project is twelve weeks so not cheap – but in the end – if that investment works then it has to be worthwhile.

It was a bit of a meetings day really – with Shadow Cabinet/Home Affairs team/briefing by Prince’s Trust/lobbying by Relate / meeting with Martha Lane Fox and Nick Clegg about the digital divide and then to top it off – the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, Second Reading.

This Bill was meant to be a Bill that would start rolling the great reform agenda for decades to come. Sadly – it has turned out to be a wet squib. Where is the abolition of the hereditary peers? Where is the end of the male line of accession kicking females out of the way? Where is anything worth having a constitutional bill for – all gone, all watered down. Alack and alas.