Remembering Dr King is not enough

Today is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom when Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I have a dream” speech. 

It is one of the finest pieces of rhetoric in modern times. Not surprising since Dr King was a preacher who understood the power of words. He moved the 250,000 people who stood before him in front of the Lincoln Memorial and countless others across the US and the rest of the world. I know my parents and their contemporaries struggling for freedom in South Africa felt he was speaking to them when he envisaged a future in which his “ four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”. 

It was a powerful speech and one that we should all read again today.  We can reflect that much has changed since that August day half a century ago. We have seen African American men and women achieve amazing things. They have become mayors and Supreme Court judges, generals and admirals, Congress men and women and Secretaries of State. We have seen the election not once but twice of Barack Obama as President of the United States. 

But before we get all dewy-eyed about it, let us also remember that there is still so much more to do.  Let us remember that the racial disparities within the US remain stark. The life chances of both Hispanic and African-Americans are worse than that of their white counterparts. This is perhaps seen most vividly when it comes to the criminal justice system.  For example although Hispanic and African-American make up under 30 per cent of the US population, they make up around 60 per cent of the US prison population. A staggering 1 in every 15 African American men and 1 in every 36 Hispanic men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men. And if you are an African American man who didn’t finish high school you have a one in three chance of being incarcerated.  

One consequence of these dramatic ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system is that state laws which remove the right to vote from people with felony convictions (5.3 million Americans denied the vote so far and counting) has a greater impact on Hispanic and African-American men. As a result 13 per cent of all African American men have been disenfranchised, in 11 states this amounts to more than 10 per cent of their African American population.

I don’t think Dr King would have been proud today. I think he would be standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial demanding that we do more.

Let's have an honest debate

If I hear one more person declare that we need to have a debate (often prefaced with the words "honest" and/or "open") on immigration, I will scream. The reality is immigration is constantly being debated. I have lost count of the number of immigration bills over the since 1997 and it has featured in every election since I can remember (and I am pretty old). The very people who demand the right to have the debate, have in fact been debating it all the time. And most of the time they have been debating using bogus fact and figures and plain old prejudice. 

I made the mistake yesterday of listening to Any Questions. I should have known better, even at the best of times it makes my blood boil but yesterday was particularly fury-inducing. One of the panellists, a supporter of UKIP made up a host of "facts" about the impact of recent immigration. None of them stood up to any scrutiny. But they will be repeated by her and others, quoted by the media and before you know they will become gospel. I am happy to debate the issue, I just want to have a debate on the facts. So just to be clear:

• illegal immigrants can't claim benefits in this country because they are illegal - you have to have a right to live and work here to claim any kind of benefit

• Council houses are not being given over to "foreigners" - there is no automatic right to social housing just because you are an immigrant. A survey by the Equality and Human Rights Commission showed that only 1.8% of those living in UK social housing were recent immigrants (ie had come to the UK in the previous five years) and most of these were people who had come to here as refugees. 

• there is no evidence to indicate that immigrants are less law-abiding than anyone else. 

I can understand the concern that recent immigrants are accepting low paid jobs and so distorting the local wage economy but it there is evidence that anyone is being paid below the national minimum wage there is a very easy answer: prosecute the employers who are breaking the law plain and simple. 


I should declare an interest, I am an immigrant, actually my family and I were asylum seekers. I grew up in this country with racism pretty much a constant feature of my life - some was unconscious and easily overlooked but lots was overt and scary. It has got better but it still exists and I really do worry that trying to pin our current economic woes on immigrants - for that is what is happening - will encourage racists.  We cannot let that happen. 

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Thank god for the Generals

On the day that the Generals have taken on the BNP, I find myself wondering where all the politicians are. They were queuing up last week to comment on Sir Thomas Legg's intervention on their expenses but I have heard not a peep from a senior Labour, Conservative or Lib Dem MP, or even a not so senior one. They appear to be adhering to the view that it is best not to engage in debate with, or indeed on, the BNP. And they are wrong. Very wrong. This is why the BNP has been able to gain ground. They have been allowed to get away with spreading vicious lies by politicians not prepared to tackle them for fear of getting into difficult territory. So we are left with Lord Guthrie and Generals Cordingley, Jackson and Dannatt to make stand against racism and extremism. And never have I been so pleased to see men in uniform getting stuck in - those of you who know me will know how uncharacteristic this is, believe me I would be the first on the streets in the event of a military coup - good on them. And let me add special mention of and indeed thanks to Simon Weston who has been on the airwaves all day filling the vacuum left by the mainstream politicians and calling Nick Griffin and his hateful party what they are - racist liars.

Griffin on QT

So the BBC is considering inviting Nick Griffin on to Question Time - cue much handwringing and angsting about whether it is appropriate to give the leader of the ugly BNP a platform. Well, I say bring it on. As I have said before, the "not giving them the oxygen of publicity" strategy has never worked. Right thinking people should be prepared to tackle BNP lies everywhere and anywhere. I personally can't wait to see what contribution the unpleasant Mr Griffin makes to thoughtful political debate. However polished he starts out, he will soon reveal his and his party's true colours. The veneer of respectability is very thin and he willl soon start ranting about the need to keep England English, railing against the BBC for including black characters in Robin Hood or other such nonsense. He can't help himself, the hate just pours out of him. My only plea to the QT production team is that it ensures that the other panellists won't be cowed in the presence of a racist, are prepared to have the debate and aren't handwringers themselves. May I suggest a few potential candidates? Archbishop John Sentamu, Stephen Fry, Val Amos, William Hague, Gary Younge, Tony Benn, Malorie Blackman. As for me, I would love to be in the audience, watching his thinking being taken apart piece by piece.

Say no to hate

I am depressed and I am angry. The BNP has won two seats in the European Parliament. I am furious that this vile, racist party will represent the people of Britain. But of course it does not purport to represent the people of Britain. In this, at least, it is honest. It represents "the indigenous British" whoever they are - I doubt there one family in the whole of the UK whose blood has not mingled over the generations with that of Angles, Vikings, Normans, Huegenouts, Irish, Caribbean or any of the successive waves of immigrants who have come to this country in search of the better life. The party's whole rationale is based on a lie. So how did it manage to win two seats? Well, like other parties of hate, it has exploited fear and ignorance to win votes. It has also taken great advantage out of the expenses scandal and of the turmoil in the Labour Party. Finally the three main parties failed to respond effectively enough to the threat posed by the BNP. They have persistently adopted the "let's not give them the oxygen of publicity" (or "ignore them and they will go away") approach which plainly hasn't worked. They should be out there, rebutting the lies, condemning the policies and shining a light on the truth of this ugly party - we all should.