When asked on Sky News this morning if she accepts the idea that while there is some overt racism in the UK, that does not mean there is institutional racism. It’s fair to say she was unimpressed by the research…
“I just think that would be an extraordinary finding, if that is, in fact, what the report says.”
“There is an institutional problem that has been widely recognised by the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and by successive governments as well.”
“What would be a real shame and roll back progress is if today, we ended up in a situation where the government is seeking to downplay or deny the extent of the problem rather than doing what it should be doing, which is getting on the front foot and tackling it.”
So keen to say Britain is racist, Nandy is dismissing the findings of a report that stresses the complexity of the issue. Not everything is black and white…
It’s fairly certain that – bar an extraordinary event – Sadiq Khan will be re-elected on 6th May. It is also overwhelmingly likely that in a relatively distant second place will come Conservative Shaun Bailey. What is less clear, however, is who will achieve the coveted third place. Who will be the least minor minor party? Guido has compiled a list of all the declared candidates:
Minor parties:
Independents:
Each candidate is required to stump up a £10,000 deposit in order to stand – a sum that will only be returned if the candidate achieves over 5% of the vote. Last time the only parties to retain their deposits were Labour, the Tories, and the Greens. This year’s 17 minor candidates have so far contributed £170,000 to City Hall…
While Westminster waited on the government’s racial disparity audit, the trailed findings were unsurprisingly slammed by the left – furious that their belief in the UK’s institutional racism. The Runnymede Trust, despite not having read the report, was first out of the gates, with their chief executive saying she’s “deeply, massively let down” by the report, and that the government did not have the confidence of black and minority ethnic communities:
“Institutionally, we are still racist, and for a government-appointed commission to look into (institutional) racism, to deny its existence is deeply, deeply worrying.”
It looks like the Trust is less-than-confident their objections to the substance of the report will cut through, however. Guido’s seen an email sent from their Chief Executive Halima Begum, who is privately trying to undermine the commission’s author Tony Sewell:
“Tony Sewell was not considered a suitable person to chair such a commission, because of his previous damaging comments on race and other equality issues.
Those “damaging” comments being his belief that evidence of institutional racism is “flimsy”…
The email also says the Sewell report is expected to downplay the role of structural and institutional racism, and:
“repeat the myth that the ‘white’ working class are being disadvantaged because there is too much focus on the disadvantage faced by ethnic minority communities.”
Readers will be astonished to learn Halima Begum stood to be Labour’s 2019 candidate in Poplar and Limehouse…
Last night’s TV debate between the leaders of Scotland’s five largest parties predictably spiralled into a war of words over independence, with Nicola Sturgeon promising to hold a second referendum in the first half of the Holyrood term “assuming the [Covid] crisis has passed“. Again ignoring the turning tide of public opinion…
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross’s attempts to woo Labour’s Anas Sarwar with a potential pact to block the pro-independence Alba party from gaining seats set the Labour Leader on a tirade, telling Ross to “grow up” and saying “we’re not in the playground, this is not a game, this is people’s lives”. Ross’s generous offer was also turned down by the LibDems’ Willie Rennie…
51 weeks into the role and Lisa Nandy is set to finally make a major speech on foreign policy this afternoon, in which she will talk about “how patriotism will help Britain to rediscover a confident, outward-looking approach to the world”. Given the last set of headlines made by Nandy – from calling for the army to be abolished, to an old clip emerging in which she refused to say whether Churchill was a hero or a villain – Labour is clearly keen to emphasise this aspect of the speech. It’s point number one in their press release…
On Sky News this morning, Nandy turned patriotic fire on the Tories, accusing the government of not having a “patriotic vision”:
“In the end, no ammount of wrapping yourself in a flag is going to change the fact that this government does not have a patriotic vision for the people of this country and is prepared to go out and fight for it in the world.”
Admittedly it’s difficult to go out into the world and fight for things if you’ve replaced your army with a woke ‘peace force’…
A video sent to Guido via Scottish Whatsapp groups. Guido’s not sure whether it’ll quite capture the public mood given the closure of Scottish clubs…
