David Goodhart and the myth of 'post racist politics'.

(Article from OBV: Operation Black Vote - The home of black politics http://www.obv.org.uk)

David Goodhart

If David Goodhart wanted to open up a debate about 'New race politics', he certainly achieved that. Although some would argue that it is at best a distraction and worst a ploy that stops us effectively tackling race inequality.
Whatever view you take on the merits of discussing these issues, at the least it does give us a space to articulate why we do what we do.

Here the veteran campaigner Lee Jasper writes an indepth analytical piece:

Is Britain now a post racist society and as a consequence are we now seeing the emergence of a “ new black politics”? That was the question posed by a Mr David Goodhart on a recent BBC Radio 4 programme Analysis.
David Goodhart is former editor of British current affairs Prospect Magazine and now the Director of the London based think tank Demos’

Goodhart of course is no stranger to debates about race. In recent times he made it his mission to prove that Britain is a ‘post racist society” He has sought to make his name by constantly and controversially revisiting the issues of race, culture and immigration.

His main assertion in this programme in brief is that as a consequence of the British lefts shift in the 1980’s to “cultural politics” and attempts to develop a “ rainbow coalition” of the disenfranchised and discontented Blacks voted Labour en masse. Then racism was crude and violent. Political anti racist alliances were easier to make and black solidarity was high given the demographic make up of the time.

Racism has been defeated
Today that 1980/90’s crude racism, has all but been defeated and with much progress being made in terms of elected black politicians and other black faces in high places “old style racism” has been consigned to the dustbin of history leaving just the remnants of discrimination in a few remaining areas of British life.

Goodhart fails to recognise that what little progress against racism has been made has come about because of the dedicated campaigns against racism led by black radicals.

Offering “proof” of his distorted view of British society he cites the views of people like Conservatives Shaun Bailey, Tory MP Kwesi Kwartang, Sir Trevor Phillips ( my new name for his Lordship ) and others as providing evidence that when it comes to the issue of race Britain has “moved on”. Look at the response to the riots in August he argues and contrasts Bernie Grants MP’s refusal to condemn rioters in the 1980’s with that of David Lammy MP condemnation of rioters today.

Shaun Bailey with David Cameron

He speaks to Stafford Scott form the Tottenham Defence Campaign who rejects his “ post racial “ analysis and calls for the return to the tradition of “ radical black politics” illustrating his frustration by speaking about “politicians who happen to be black” as opposed to “black politicians “like Grant.
Goodharts conclusion is that the simple elevation of a few black people into the middle and upper echelons of public life is evidence of a ‘post racist politics”. He argues the rise of a new and influential black politics that is free for the deterministic chains of history and the liberated from the race identity politics of the past.

Stafford Scott speaking out after the Tottenham uprising

He argues that this new generation of black leaders are politicians who just happen to be black and in a post racist Britain that is as it should be. He reminds me of the man who saw a swallow and thought it was summer. His evidence was largely impressionistic and anecdotal.

I found the programme to be in part charmingly romantic, funny in part but nevertheless dangerously naive. One could almost hear the polite but never the less keen desperation of those who took part, who at times demonstrated an almost embarrassing eagerness in seeking to confirm Goodhearts flawed thesis. What was interesting was they did so without offering a shred of real evidence. They all offered impressionistic views with the exception of Sir Trevor Phillips who views were in stark contradiction to the hard evidence that demonstrates the huge scale and depth of racism detailed in his Equality and Human Right Commission Triennial Review.

Apologists for racism
What was clear from most of those who took part in the programme was that they were engaged in a determined political project that seeks to downplay and dismiss racism. I have great respect for David Lammy MP for example but he increasing out of step with the views of the black community in Tottenham and London.

Lammy and others like him seek to argue that their own personal successes and experiences provide objective evidence to prove that the obstacles of race are in fact more imagined than real. The danger for them is that they have allowed Goodhart to portray them as apologists for real racism and the fact is that most black people would say completely the opposite.

I contend that the majority view of black people in Britain would agree that whilst the crude violent racism of the recent past has been vastly reduced as a result of strong anti racist campaigning, the structural socioeconomic effects of structural racism have in fact become much worse.

Conceding to racism is the favourite pass time of centre left and centre right liberals, strange bedfellows herded together terrified in the aftermath of 9/11and 7/7. Together they have conspired to declare that multiculturalism leads to extremism and is inimical to core “ British values.
Immigration is seen as a threat not an opportunity and diversity is viewed as undermining social cohesion. Old style racism” of the past is dead.

Black people are the “ architects of their own misfortune”
Goodhart cites “ black street culture particularly Grime music as fostering a pervasive culture of victimhood. This of course follows David Starkey’s attempt to portray British urban culture as black culture per se. A gross and disgusting caricature if ever there was one. Both Starkey and Goodhart opinions share startling similarities with the views of the racist parliamentarian Enoch Powell. The idea that difference is a weakness not a strength, is central to their political understanding of race.

In short, both Starkey and Goodhart , like Powell before them seek to pathologise black people and our culture. For them only the full assimilation of black people into a common British culture can hope to create a new sense of “progressive British nationalism”.

Internationalism and a sense of shared citizenship
The fact that black people in the UK are intrinsically international in their outlook and concerns usually having responsibilities for family members in desperate circumstances in many countries around the world is totally lost on them. We are forced to acknowledge and confront geo political realities. These are life and death issues faced by our families and loved ones and cannot be ignored.

Goodharts sense of citizenship and nationhood is imbued with the formal history of Britain a history that is conservative, narrowly conceived and racist. Their view of British Empire is that by and large British colonialism was a benign and benevolent force for good. Sometime’s when reading or listening to British history in relation to transatlantic slavery one get the impression that Britain only joined the iniquitous and barbaric slave trade so they could then go onto abolish it.

A shared sense of citizenship cannot be based on such a partisan view of history and as such an inclusive and progressive notion British citizenship remains elusive.

Britain’s historical amnesia on slavery and colonialism
The reality is that the canon of formal British history refuses to acknowledge the scale of racism, oppression and exploitation that helped build modern Britain preferring to explain Britain’s economic ascendency in term of British ingenuity and entrepreneurship.

Developing an inclusive sense of British citizenship requires a proper acknowledgement of the historical crimes committed in the name of England and Empire.
This programme represents a new form of historical revisionism, one that seeks to airbrush racism from the face of British history. Not only do they deny the historical importance of racism and colonialism in the building of Empire, but also by extension they deny contemporary racism and its effects.

Stripped of their historical understanding they misunderstand the reality of racism today in terms of both its causes and effects. As such black disadvantage is seen as resulting from the personal moral and political failure of black people themselves. If you misunderstand the past you cant understand the present.
Another routine neoconservative political con trick central to Goodharts approach is the “ blame the victim” approach. Adopted as a favourite hobby horse by the right wing this nonsense has a long and inglorious history within black politics and denial of racism generally

In Goodhearts analysis, supported by an assorted collection of the Victorian ‘pull yourself by your bootsraps ” brigade, black people suffer huge psychological hardwired “victim chips” on their shoulders.
This means that they are the “authors of their own misfortune”. This “ culture of victimhood” explains black disadvantage not racism.
'It’s the reason they can’t get jobs.' 'Black kids are from dysfunctional families explains why they can’t get a decent education.' 'The police stop and search black youth incessantly because they are more involved in criminality.'

To add insult to injury during the course of the programme Goodheart attacks young black radicals whose primary form of articulation is music. Following in a progressive black tradition that started with enslaved Africans who sang songs of redemption in the sweltering heat of British plantations through to the civil right movements up to Bob Marley and Tupac Shakur including UK artists such as MC Lowkey all have made huge contributions to politicising and raising awareness of the reality of racism on a global scale.

What strikes me listening to some of the participants in this curiously one sided and detached programme is their almost palpable sense of embarrassment at being black.

One gets a sense listening to them that they feel ashamed of their own communities. Its as though having climbed the ladder of success, they have now pulled up that ladder behind them. They then reinterpret their personal success as down to their own genius. In doing so they are reinforcing the false notion that black disadvantage in 21st century Britain is primarily self inflicted and further, in doing so they confirm their own exceptional genius. White liberals reinforce that idea by pointing their exceptionality the thing that makes them “different” form those other blacks. It’s a cunning trap whose principle lure is the flattery of inflated ego’s.

Goodhart and this merry band wilfully confuse inner city social integration and a handful of black successes with real equality and justice for black British citizens.

The scale and long term legacy of historical racism and its consequences are summarily dismissed and rearticulated as being a consequence of cultural or personal failure. The reality that blacks have been economically excluded and deeply marginalised for the last 30 years as a result of discrimination is of no consequence.

Yes of course , I agree things have improved in terms of black representation in public life in no small part thanks to the work of Operation Black Vote.
Unfortunately whilst true this does not equate to full equality and protection form discrimination for British black citizens who in large numbers remain third class citizens in a supposedly first class democracy.
The reality is that British society still remains more of a pigmentocracy than the idealistic meritocracy envisaged by these post racist romantics.

Evidence of long term poverty and racism and its contemporary effects are conveniently dismissed and in repeat of the classic neoliberal political con trick where he consequences of long term racism and poverty, crime, family breakdown, drugs, youth violence are all now cited as evidence of the personal and cultural failures of a dysfunctional black community rather than systemic and persistent race discrimination

When Stafford Scott points out that racism on almost every level has either remained fairly constant and has in most cases actually got worse was factually correct and was unchallenged by Goodheart. Sir Trevor Phillips retorted that on every indicator its clear things have improved. The reality is Scott is right Phillips is wrong.

Racism in the UK has got worse and if one were to do a large attitudinal survey among black communities tomorrow I have no doubt that the results would confirm that the vast majority of black people would agree with the assertion that racism is in fact worse today than it was in the 1950’s. Then we had violent racism but we had the opportunity to work today we have very little violent racism and no work. The violence of long term poverty and unemployment is much more corrosive. Social mobility is at a standstill for poor communities.

The disjuncture between the mass lived experience of the mass of black people and their experience of racism and the elite advocates of the so called “new black politics as cited by Goodhart is huge.
These advocates site the fact that black crime was never dealt with by the left despite the overwhelming victims of crime being black people. That’s a lie and as one of the founders and architects of Metropolitan
Police Services Operation Trident, the fact is it was the black left not the black right that first raised these issues. In fact the black left on the issue of crime and black communities were the first to articulate the need for black individual, familial and personal responsibility. The black left argued for the reduction of stop and search not its abolishment recognising its importance. The recent huge increases in stop and search have led including me to fundamentally doubt its efficacy and question if the police can ever be trusted to get it right.

Of course the simple fact is the Goodhart project is doomed.
The economic reality is that whatever the small signs of successes for the few what we seen over the last 30 years is an increasing level structural racism that enforces economic segregation, poverty and breeds with it an insidious culture of poverty of aspiration and ambition for the many. That black reality of institutional is becoming seriously aggravated by the current economic climate.

All history teaches that when the economy is in crisis racism increases as politicians engage in the politics of mass distraction by blaming poor people for their poverty, black people for racism, black youths for crime, women in hijabs are a threat to national security, travellers are a threat to law and order and the green belt, East Europeans for unemployment.

This is another example of such a distraction. Goodheart cant be entirely blamed he is a white liberal whose exotic forays into this field are reminiscent of the ignoble tradition of the academic and media pimping of black communities. Those who give him comfort and cover who in his delusion should be held to account. At time when racism is set to get worse by virtue of our current economic crisis we need an honest debate about race and a new sense of British history that provides the foundations for a new and inclusive sense of citizenship.

Lee Jasper

Recommended - Article by Simon Wooley: David Goodhart: More dangerous than Nick Griffin?  http://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/david-goodhart-more-dangerous-nick-griffin

Launching Latin? What about the ‘Our Schools and the Black children’s Conference’? by Richard Sudan

An interesting article was published yesterday by The Daily Mail.

http://johnsblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/11/why-we-need-more-not-less-latin-in-schools.html

The author Lindsay Johns was praising the Mayor’s initiative to make Latin accessible to London school kids through a voluntary scheme engineered by the big wigs at City Hall. 

He highlights the benefits of Latin and argues that we must dispel the dry image that Latin has been tarnished with.

Fair enough you might say.

But when this is contrasted with the lack of noise made about Black history month for example, it should and will cause some to wonder about the priorities of traditional Tory mouthpieces, and equally about the agenda of our current Mayor.

Whilst the Latin initiative is said to be a voluntary scheme, why is it that City Hall didn’t push a voluntary scheme to celebrate and support Black History Month given the budget cut?

It’s fair to say there is probably a greater demand for an emphasis on Black History Month in London than there is Latin.  And furthermore for other needed provision- because there is further twist which raises even more serious questions.

The annually held forthcoming ‘London Schools and our Conference’ - Which this year has conveniently had the word ‘Black ‘omitted from it - has been for the last few years organized by Diane Abbott. The Hackney North and Stoke Newington Labour MP has been squeezed out this year with a notably unprogressive line-up assuming centre stage, including Lindsay Johns.

This hijacking of the conference, with one of the key note speakers effectively acting as an acceptable mask of respectability for The Daily Mail and the Mayor’s push to introduce Latin, seems naïve at best if well intentioned. 

The Mayor’s track record in dealing with needs sensitive to ethnic minority communities is not great. This could be an opportunity to remedy that, especially since the Mayor is scheduled to speak. 

But with angry rumblings already being heard in campaigning circles, the conference and the propaganda to boot are in danger of damaging the Mayor’s and Michael Gove’s reputation further, as the Secretary of State for Education is also scheduled as a keynote.

Such slick and well oiled propaganda is anything other than progressive and will not be viewed as such should the conference retain its current starting line up.

The conference is being held on Saturday 12^th November.

For more details click here. http://www.london.gov.uk/event-meeting/2011/nov/london-schools-and-our-children-conference

By Richard Sudan

'London Schools & the Black Child' Conference gets hijacked by Boris Johnson

Click to go to FB event page

Education is the key to success. That is the well-worn mantra promoted by parents throughout the ages. The responsibility of any parent is to secure, by any means, the future of their children.

That future for young people from black and poorer areas of London looks very grim indeed. The combined effects of long term poverty, increasing levels of black youth unemployment, inner city schools desperately underfunded, parental choice that has resulted in “white flight” of middle class families who can afford to move, has resulted in London’s majority-black schools in a state of permanent crisis.

London mayor Boris Johnson’s office is organising a “whitewashed” version of what was the London Schools and the Black Child  conference this Saturday. As part of the Mayors' ongoing campaign to “culturally cleanse” London of all major race policy specific initiatives, the title of the conference has now been changed to the London Schools and Our Children.

He has invited a range of eminent right wing keynote speakers people like Tony Sewell and Lindsay Johns, alongside the Mayor Boris Johnson and Education Secretary Michael Gove. All of these speakers are notable because they share a dangerous consensus about the reasons why the majority of London’s black children continue to fail in school.

This entire panel is of the view that institutional racism does not exist. They argue that the real explanation for the poor educational performance of black children can be found in dysfunctional black single parent families and a delinquent black youth culture that scorns education.  

This is the typical response of those on the Right who seek to dismiss the reality of racism and place the blame on the victims. Institutional racism is systemic in the British education system, wider society, and the labour market.

Racism continues to place barriers of prejudice in the path of success for many black young people. Such discrimination is both pernicious and devastating in its effects. For example Black boys continue to be disproportionately excluded from schools, attain one of the lowest levels of GSCE results of any ethnic group and there are just 30 black male head teachers in England's 21,600 state schools.

According to research commissioned in 2004 by Ken Livingstone whilst the Mayor of London, 70% of African-Caribbean boys in London left school with fewer than five or more GCSEs at the top grades of A*-C or equivalent, while African-Caribbean men are the least likely of any group to have a degree.

Boris Johnson's conference is an attempt to move the debate about race and education in London, away from notions of institutional racism and discrimination and onto to the terrain of parental failure, dysfunctional black culture and military style boot camps.

The disparity could not be greater. His children will have gone to expensive private schools and will no doubt get to go to Eton or Oxbridge. Whilst too many of London’s black children as a result of both poverty and racism, will end up in a failing school or one of those dreaded pupil referral units or even worse a quasi military boot camp or  jail .

No doubt there will be some at the conference that in response to these facts will say that white poor children fail as well, and that is undoubtably true. I just want to state here that I want a good quality education for all London's children not just the wealthy elite. However the comparator is false.

Dr. Nicola Rollock compared black pupils who are disadvantaged or from poorer backgrounds with black pupils who are not: there is not much overall difference in their results. When you do the same for white pupils, those from poorer backgrounds are four times less likely to do well at school than those from wealthier backgrounds.

This led Dr. Rollock, to conclude that racial tolerance and classlessness is a fallacy and that black pupils are still associated with low achievement and educational failure. This is what some researchers call an “ethnic penalty”, whilst other call it “racism”.   

This conference is a world away from the more balanced debates held at this once important annual event. The London Schools and the Black Child conference organised annually by Diane Abbott MP since 2002 has always had a political balance of speakers, some who agreed with the proposition that race and racism was the predominant explanation for failure and those who disagreed. Labour ministers attended and to a man and woman rejected the “institutional racism” analysis argued by some.

This year Diane Abbott was ruthlessly forced out by the Mayor Boris Johnson and his policy adviser Munira Murza. Anyone who knows Diane must know this would have been a huge political battle.

Despite creating the original concept for the conference which was hugely popular, Diane will not be attending Saturday’s conference.

On a broader point it will be interesting to see who does attend and whether the conference audience that was predominantly black in the past now changes.

The economic and political context is also important to note here. During the last year of the Tory-led Coalition Government we have seen massive cuts to local authority education budgets across London, the ending of Education Maintenance Award grants, increases in University fees and rises in youth unemployment.

The summer riots erupted and there is massive anger about the number of black deaths in custody and the shooting of Mark Duggan. Rates of stop and search have increased by a massive 300% under Boris, and the number of young black people in jail is skyrocketing.

Serious youth violence is on the increase despite Boris's manifesto pledges to tackle these issues. He has even failed to deliver his much-lauded mentoring scheme which has become massively delayed and is mired in deep controversy.

London’s black families and their children are already facing increased levels of adult unemployment as public sector cuts throw thousands of low income black parents onto the dole.  The reality of racism in education and the labour market make this one hell of a disaster.

That’s why we are calling a protest, at 9am, outside the conference centre – to show that we want a real future and a holistic approach to raising achievement of black children. We cannot afford to waste another generation.

The voice of those who believe that institutional racism in terms of policy and curriculum and that the allocation of resources and employment in education needs to be tackled, is missing from Saturday’s one sided conference, This year looks like an exclusively Right Wing affair.

We should not be surprised, however, as this is just the latest attempt by the mayor to turn back the clock: from axing the RISE anti-racist festival to slashing funding for Africa Day and Black History Month. He failed to deliver on the important sectors of both the economy and housing. He has had nothing to say about the savage decimation of front line youth services across the capital.

He has failed to invest properly in schemes to tackle gang crime, tackle black youth unemployment, failed to have a cultural programme that reflects London’s black cultural diversity and has now added insult to injury by hijacking this important conference.

We need a balanced agenda that creates opportunities, removes barriers and combats racism. The Mayor is in deep denial about race and racism - and it is our job to ensure that he understands that, in a city where the majority of school children are non-white, this state of affairs simply cannot be tolerated.

That is why we will be attending the conference and I invite you to join us in a small and peaceful demonstration.

Date: Saturday 12th November 2011

Time: 9am

Location: Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL (near Russell Square tube, Piccadilly Line)

More Info: Email lee-jasper@live.com or call Lester on 07527 216 829

Facebook event page:
 https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=257469030966877

Christopher Alder: Justice remains little more than an ideal for some - by Richard Sudan

Christopher Alder

The story broke at the weekend that Hull City Council had mixed up the body of former British paratrooper Christopher Alder 37 who was said to have been buried over a decade ago with that of Grace Kamara, a Nigerian woman in her 60’s who had died of natural causes.

Alder however had died in police custody, footage of which was captured on CCTV.  He had been arrested by police and was handcuffed face down.  The footage of Alder in the cell surrounded by officers appears to reveal the circumstances in which he had died.  Trousers around his ankles face down in a pool of blood, with officers allegedly making monkey noises, 11 minutes of footage is said to show the police standing around laughing while Christopher lays dying. Police later claimed they thought he was putting on an act.

Needless to say all of the officers involved were cleared of any wrongdoing by 2002.  The independent police complaints commission (IPCC) did however concede that the officers were guilty of “Unwitting racism” whatever that means.  I’m not sure how a person or persons can be unwittingly racist, especially when they are police officers charged with the wellbeing of an individual in their custody.  The resulting tragedy seems more like racism due to negligence, not the by product of some level of incompetence.

It must be acknowledged that this story unfolds in the backdrop of the fight for justice of countless other families who have lost a loved one in police custody.  Here is a list of the individuals who have died in police custody over the last 40 years published by United Family and Friends Campaign
No guesses for how many convictions accompany the list totaling more than 3000.

While a statement from Hull City Council chief executive Nicola Yates conceded that “At the moment, we cannot explain this” the tragedy surrounding the case of Christopher Alder is a sharp reminder of the injustices that many families continue to face and is in many ways a double edged sword.

It’s difficult to view the incompetence surrounding the mix up of his body as anything other than another symptom of a system which routinely fails to convict any police officers of any wrongdoing- especially when a Black person dies in police custody.

Christopher Alder’s sister Janet who along with her family believed she had buried her brother more than ten years ago speaking to press in Yorkshire has said that “I think when we buried Christopher they made a mistake, but because we’d had the funeral they didn’t want to release the body of that woman because it would come out.”

“This is why her family has had a hard time trying to get the release of the body.”

The campaign for justice and dignity for Christopher Alder and countless other families continues.

By Richard Sudan
(Originally published at: http://blogs.independent.co.uk)

Christopher Alder: outrage as injustice continues even in death

As black communities across the UK wake up this morning and read the news they will be shocked to discover that even in death racism and injustice continues to haunt our people. Christopher Alder a black man and former paratrooper died in a Hull police station in 1998 surrounding by mocking police officers.

Christopher tragically died in what can only be described as the most degrading and disgusting of circumstances. 

His family, who had suffered grievously during a long struggle for justice, thought they had laid Christopher to rest. On Sunday 6^th November they were faced with the terrible news that Christopher’s body has been found lying in a Hull mortuary 10 years after his family though they had buried him.



The Alder family campaigned for justice, supported by UFFC http://www.tmgn.co.uk/info1.html



One can only imagine the pain and anguish they must now be going through. To have endured a long and bitter fight for the truth to uncover exactly what happened to Christopher and believing that they had laid him to rest with dignity and compassion: something he never received from the Hull police officers that stood idly by and watched him die.

Video: Janet Alder: First ever TV broadcast of British death in custody (by blackhistorywalks)

Racism and or incompetence have conspired to deny the Alder family of that most basic of human needs when faced with tragic death: to lay our loved ones to rest. They have been robbed of that most fundamental of human decencies, a dignified funeral surrounded by the family friends and people who loved Christopher.

There will be bitter and angry words spoken in many households throughout the country this morning. In the light of a huge increase in the number of black people who have died in police custody this news will devastate all those concerned with justice.

For the Alder family to have suffered so grievously once is a tragedy. That they have now to face the painful reality that their loved one has not been laid to rest is simply beyond belief.

In the wider context of this issue, all over the country black communities are becoming increasingly angry at the huge increases in the number of black men dying in police custody. Smiley Culture, Kingsley Burrell, Demetre Fraser, Mark Duggan are all now familiar names.

The failure of the IPCC to satisfy the search for the truth in all these cases and that of Christopher Adler is perceived to be a double injustice. The recent heavy handed policing by the Metropolitan Police Service of the annual march by the families of those who have died in custody was a further calculated insult to all those families in attendance.

What this demonstrates is that racism and injustice are capable of haunting families beyond even death itself. The Alders will always have lived with the legacy of his death but now have their final dignity ripped away from them. They now have to live with the knowledge that they stood at the grave and shed their tears of grief whilst burying a complete stranger and that must be painful beyond words.  This is a tragedy for two families both of whom are now plunged into anger and despair.

To have the unique spiritual comfort of knowing that Christopher lies in peace, desecrated, to have their process of grieving violently disturbed amounts to heinous injustices of the vilest kind.

Hull City Council has launched an investigation and let’s hope that the Alder family receive some answers this time. The Council should also face legal action for costs and compensations. Let us be clear: no amount of compensation can take away the pain felt by the Adler family and no amount of apologising can numb the sense of shock and outrage.

Having been robbed of justice once, Hull City Council  have conspired to rob the family of their final moments and precious final farewells and having done so, forced them to relive once again, the awful circumstances surrounding his death and preparing to say their final farewells 10 years on.

Lee Jasper

Boris Johnson's betrayal of London - illegality, incompetence, cronyism & racism





Boris with unimpressed residents in Tottenham (Photo by Zimbio)

Boris Johnsons Mayors 2008 election manifesto was very clear and resolute in stating the Mayors determination to “work night and day” to tackle the “scourge of gun and knife” crime. Boris strode forth like a Greek God promising to provide both hope and opportunity to disaffected young people across our great city.

It was a heartfelt commitment by the Mayor and both his apparent sincerity and public commitment to get something done, moved many to vote for him believing as they did that Boris really did care.

 

Boris cannot sweep these issues under the carpet



Under his blonde haired, blue eyed watch the city would be free of gangs and violence. London he opined will be a city where young people would feel safe. A city that ensured all our young people have the opportunity to fulfil their God given potential. A city where young people committed to work hard regardless of their race or faith would be able to live their dream. This would be a city where a person’s background would be no barrier to success.

A Mayors fund would bring in millions money secured by a Boris shake down of his old Eton and Bullingdon Club connections in the Square Mile. Philanthropy and corporate social responsibility of the city of London would provide generously for such a noble cause. And with it he would build new schools, youth clubs, boxing clubs, and provide scholarships for the poor and disadvantaged. In short Boris promised to strain every sinew, working with missionary zeal to deliver this promise.



Sweet words eloquently delivered with steely determination by a benevolent celebrity millionaire Mayor. Many bought the dream.

The Bullingdon Club, Oxford University - Boris - front red arrow. Clegg at back.



To deliver his grandiose vision the Mayor announced in November 2008 a strategy to bring forward and implement his vision for the future. That ambitious plan was called Time For Action a Mayoral blue print for a safer city. Three and half years later that vision, so full of vibrant ambition and dynamic hope has become a Mayoral nightmare, a political graveyard signposted by acute failure, inaction and cronyism. 

Yesterday saw the annual appraisal of this once great Mayoral policy. The Greater London Authority members questioned the Mayor’s Office about the Mayors failure to deliver initiatives that were initially welcomed by all even his most ardent critics. Watching the web cast of this meeting now, is like watching a serious slow motion political car crash.

The GLA Time for Action Panel began to ask some excruciatingly tough the questions following an in depth investigative news piece broadcast by the BBC Politics Show.

They began by questioning City Hall officials about the Mayors mendacious use of, what we know now to be fictional reoffending figures for ex offenders. The second item on their agenda was the potentially politically catastrophic debacle that is the Mayors flagship project: 1000 black men mentoring 1000 black boys.



Appearances can be deceptive: Boris mentoring scheme seemed impressive 



 To get the correct context for this important GLA inquiry it is important that we have a summary analysis of Boris Johnson term of office as it affects London’s black communities and by extension London as a whole.

London has seen horrific levels of increasing youth violence, massive increases in contentious and suspicious deaths in police and prison custody, a 300% increase in stop and search for black youth, huge cuts to London local authorities that have resulted in the closure of frontline youth facilities, youth workers being sacked and thousands of voluntary sector projects closed down.

Disproportionate use of Stop & Search on black youths in London

 We have seen increases in University fees making higher education completely unaffordable and withdrawal of the Education award Grant that enabled some of London’s poorest families to send their sons and daughters to college.

Deaths in police custody have reignited the historic fault line of police black community relations setting relations back years.

UFFC annual march against deaths in police custody 2011 - photo: Dee Constantine-Simms

 The GLA panel explored the circumstances in which the Mayor was caught out lying to the Home Affairs Select Committee and Londoners about the reoffending figures for one of his flagship, first time in custody, rehabilitation projects: the Heron Unit at Feltham Young Offenders Unit.

The public gallery, unusual for such meetings at city hall, was packed with an audience eager to ask questions and to hear answers and explanations about the Mayors failure to tackle youth violence.

In relation to the failed mentoring project the GLA members gave no quarter and the result was that despite the deployment of Head of Paid service Jeff Jacobs, GLA Officers and a phalanx of middle and junior GLA Officers, it was clear that there were major inconsistencies in their version of events surrounding the award of a grant for £1.5 million pounds.

They confirmed that the winning bid to deliver the mentoring was the University of East London (UEL) who had won despite the fact that they have no experience in working with black boys, gangs or mentoring and bizarrely came third on the GLA panel scoring.

A total of four bids were shortlisted. The GLA panel were also able to ascertain how the bids were initially scored:  two black consortiums bids came first and second with UEL a poor third. No surprise as both consortiums are hugely experienced in working with black young people at risk.

What we now know is that the initial GLA Panel scored the black consortiums as the strongest bids. Once that initial decision was relayed to the Mayor he dispatched his Chief of Staff Edward Lister to take over what should have been an independent GLA officer process. The GLA members were told that a GLA Officer was replaced by Lister as chair of the grant award panel 2/3rds of the way the through the grant award process. This revelation was shocking as it contradicted the written report provided to GLA members that suggested he merely provided advice to the panel.

The grant award panel then remarkably changed their scores as a result of what GLA Officers say were ‘concerns’ arising from financial due diligence investigations on the black consortiums. GLA members exposed these ‘concerns’ as being of minor concerns easily addressed.

Further it was revealed that the black consortiums were subjected to additional forensic and comprehensive financial scrutiny over and above that which was the case for both University of East London and their key delivery partner London Action Trust (LAT).  After having won the bid LAT went bust whilst their other key partner Ethos Consultancy had two directors both of who were struck off according to records at Company House.

Under questioning Lizzie Noels a GLA Officer retorted that there was no way in which they could have foreseen the collapse of the LAT. I find that strange given that Paul Lawrence a member of the blackballed black consortiums pointed out in an article published on my blog site in July this year, that LAT and Ethos were in trouble after a cursory look at their records at Company House.

Worryingly there were no statutorily required declarations of interest by the Mayor or his adviser Ray Lewis. This is despite the fact that both had very close friends of theirs on the boards of LAT and UEL. This is all the more surprising given the fact that the Mayor had committed himself and his administration to the highest standards of probity and transparency.

Despite knowing Steve Norris and GLA senior officer Nick Griffin and being an LAT registered patron, Boris Johnson failed to declare his interest as required by the law. Lewis who is not a GLA employee was clearly making active budgetary decisions without any of the checks and balances that apply to GLA employees and elected members. He has no register of interest declarations on the GLA register. He knew of Steve Norris and another LAT board member who is also the Board director of Lewis’s Eastside Academy.

These relationships are not casual but are intimate long-term relationships that go back many years. Why were these interests not declared as required by the GLA Act?  What it looks like is the ‘old boys’ network’ in action.

This smacks of cronyism and political interference in a £1.5 million pound grant process to ensure that this important mentoring contract was awarded not to the best quality bid in the room, but instead to an inexperienced consortium stuffed with long time friends who were either political and/or business associates of the Mayor. No doubt the Mayor was seeking to ensure that an organisation of which he was patron and that was on the verge of financial collapse, survived.

The answers given by the GLA officers were long, complicated, unnecessarily verbose and largely contradictory to previous written answers given about the process under freedom of information requests.

Further it is my belief after hearing the evidence that Boris Johnson is potentially in serious breach of the GLA Act, the Local Government Act and the strict legal requirements relating to financial administration of public bodies required by the District Auditor, contravention of 1976 Race Relations Act and that is just for starters.

All these facts are bad enough but then consider the dashed hopes of a black community who enthusiastically embraced the Mayors vision for mentoring. The sad truth is after nearly four years we have seen very little but spin and media sound bites from Boris Johnson.

Since the policy was launched on November 2008 we have seen over 2000 people, mostly black men, sign up. Only 300 have been contacted two years later, 150 were given training and only 21 have been placed to date. The attrition rate is frightening: people who enthusiastically volunteered two years ago have become deeply disillusioned. Many have left and many more will fail the Criminal Records Bureau checks. The Mayor has in reality given the impending Mayoral elections next year effectively three months to deliver and that is impossible.

Massive delays, incompetence, illegality, cronyism and good old fashioned racism have combined to defeat the brave aspirations of a community who believed in this Mayor and this project. The damage is incalculable and every day that passes where there is no real delivery on the ground is another nail in this Mayors coffin. Johnson’s failure is on the same scale as the betrayal of election promises made to students by the Deputy PM Nick Clegg.

The scope of Johnson’s betrayal is profound because his promise sought to exploit the searing pain of a black community who believed in him. It is a betrayal of huge proportions made more explicit by the fact Johnson conspired to ensure his friends and cronies got the money.  He has cynically exploited a grieving community in the grip of a youth violence epidemic. It is a most callous betrayal and one that will not be forgotten come the next Mayoral election.

Boris with angry Londoners - (photo from SFbayview.com)

Boris Johnson – a catalogue of failure. By Lester Holloway

Last year Boris Johnson cut funding for Black History Month and gave it to “America Day” celebrations. This year, in the absence of funded BHM activities, he ran a free popularity poll of the most influential black people. An unknown pastor won, beating Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.


The poll was devalued from the start with the absence of some of the most prominent black British and international names, including Bernie Grant, CLR James, Mary Prince, Malcolm X, Toussant L’Ouverture, Lee Jasper, and Darcus Howe.

Instead, we were offered Whoopi Goldberg, Trevor McDonald, Zadie Smith, Rio Ferdinand, Naomi Campbell and Estelle. Being a celebrity or entertainer is enough to quality as an historical figure, it seems.
The runaway winner was Jesus House pastor Agu Irukwu (right), with a whopping 54 percent of the vote, ahead of Mandela on just eight percent.
The absence of great black historical figures is perhaps not surprising, given how the list was organised. As Lee Jasper notes:

“Hilariously and as a result of the acute shortage of senior black staff at City Hall his officials were reported to be ringing round black organisations asking for the telephone numbers of long deceased historical figures such as Marcus Garvey and Claudia Jones.”

At least Britain’s first black cabinet minister, Paul (now Lord) Boateng, was on the list. Unfortunately he scored nil points. The Metro newspaper, which ran the competition in partnership with City Hall, even managed to misspell his name on the online voting page.
Leona Lewis was voted the second most influential black woman, just behind Marva Rollins, a headteacher from Edmonton.

The victory for pastor Irukwu is clearly down to his congregation being urged to vote for him, no doubt to boost his already inflated ego. Not content with raking in ten percent of his flock’s hard-earned wages each week, the god-like leader got his poor churchgoers to vote him the most influential black person in history to earn their place in heaven.

It was quite clear to me that the popularity poll failed to catch the public’s imagination, not least because it lacked all credibility from the start, and could not disguise the absence of any real commitment to Black History Month.
One of Boris Johnson’s first acts as mayor was to scrap the RISE anti-racist festival, which began in honour of Stephen Lawrence. The promise of a memorial in Hyde Park to the transatlantic slave trade has quietly been shelved. The London Schools and the Black Child conference – which Diane Abbott ran when Ken Livingstone was mayor – also seems to have gone, in favour of the less political achievement awards.

Johnson has also failed black London on major fundamental issues. He fiddled on holiday while inner London burnt earlier this year, while his ‘mayors fund’ to tackle gang crime which has petted out due to lack of effort. Similarly, his wish to activate Londoners in mass volunteering has evaporated since he lost Ray Lewis as his deputy mayor.

Perhaps this is not surprising, as Johnson is effectively a part time mayor who fits his day job of running the capital city around writing books and a column for the Daily Telegraph.
But perhaps the mayor’s most serious failing so far is the awarding of a £1.3m contract to mentor 1,000 black boys to a pair of organisations with no track record of working in this field, both of whom scored lower than a black consortium in the bidding process.

So far, 1,700 volunteers have come forward as potential mentors but only 21 have been matched with black boys. The target of mentoring 1,000 boys has now been downgraded to “around 300″ by next years’ London elections, presumably because the chosen bidders cannot cope with administering the scheme.
Paul Lawrence, one of the leading figures on the black consortium that lost out, told the Dotun Adebayo show on BBC London last Sunday that they remained deeply unhappy about the situation. Lee Jasper has organised a public meeting this Thursday in City Hall to debate the way forward.
It is a scandal in the making; the mayor is a patron of one of the winning bidders, the London Action Trust, who were paired with the University of East London during the bidding process as the black consortium were squeezed out. Unable to cope with the contract, the London Action Trust have now pulled out of the scheme.

The black consortium, who have an excellent track record working with black youth in London, came out top in the bidding process and committed to deliver 1,000 mentors matched with 1,000 young men. But they were marked down for “financial diligence.” This despite the fact that Charity Commission records appear to show the London Action Trust in bad financial shape.
A network of Tory crony links between the London Action Trust and Ray Lewis’s East Side Academy raise serious questions about the whole process. I suspect this issue will rumble on until the London elections.

All of which proves that Boris Johnson is not just making a mess of symbolic matters like how we celebrate Black History Month, but has also made a complete pigs-ear of vitally important services like mentoring black boys and diverting them from gang life.

He might have come to office with pithy jokes, but the joke has worn thin. It is time for a mayor who is not just on top of his game but also understands multicultural London.

Lester Holloway