Poppy Coburn is a journalist.
Do you remember being taught about c-called British values in school? I certainly do. PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) lessons sought to mold young Britons into better citizens.
My post-Equality Act educational conditioning must have been memorable, if only for the “five fingers of British values” class. The stated values include: individual freedom, mutual respect, tolerance of different cultures – naturally, the middle finger – rule of law and democracy.
I think it is time for this Cameroonite remnant to be updated for the next Labor government, to better reflect the direction our country is heading; Perhaps it would be wise to trade freedom for ethno-narcissism.
guardian Reports that Labor hopes to “ensure black-led firms access to lucrative government contracts” as part of their wider legislative push under the Racial Equality Bill, first mentioned by then-Women-and-Equalities-Minister Marsha de Corvoda in October 2020.
The proposal, which would give more “support” to “African heritage firms” to procure government contracts, is reminiscent of a similar scheme being trialled in South Africa. Black economic empowerment Generally considered a catastrophic failure that crippled its ability to deliver effective services, but helped the ANC consolidate its power by bribing black elites.
Parsing through the drip-feed of information surrounding the Race Equality Bill is crucial for those of us who fear Labour’s return to power.
The party generally kept its cards close to its chest about the content of the legislation due to Starmer’s pragmatism; As party workers gnash their teeth at the supposed softening of Labour’s social programme, his team has turned its attention to blurring its message and quietly reassuring key stakeholders that the content will remain radical.
Jacqueline McKenzie, a prominent open-borders activist and immigration advocate, is one such stakeholder. He is a member of the Race Equality Act Consulting Board, and has started talking to favorable press outlets about what the BAME community can expect from it.
Mackenzie, generally of his art, and held quite radical opinions: he recently speech Advocated for Bail for Immigration Detention (BID) at an event titled No More Detention Centers.
The BID states in their annual return document that they worked with a 24-year-old Afghan client (they say) who was convicted of sexually abusing a child, whom they helped obtain. On bail from jail. He is brazenly protesting against the partisan, “hostile environment” perpetuated by the Conservative government and the Home Office.
McKensie is quoted extensively by a piece Voice Some goals of newspaper policy floating These include ending the deportation of illegal immigrants who have lived in Britain since childhood, tackling school dropout rates, the aforementioned BEE for Britain and mandatory racial pay gap reporting.
McKenzie, quoted in the piece, said Labor wanted to build on the legacy of the 2019 Race and Faith mini-manifesto by Dawn Butler, then shadow minister for women and equalities. The Lawrence Report, which was used as the inspiration for the promulgation of the Labor Act, is also mentioned.
Labor has always been at the forefront of anti-discrimination legislation, the party that brought us the Race Relations Act 1965 and Equality Act 2010. But it seems rather pointless to introduce more elementary legislation to push through what are rather milquetoast reforms.
Racial pay gap reporting, for example, is already supported by both the CBI and Theresa May, and could easily be facilitated within the framework of the Equality Act. We already have a degree of so-called affirmative action supported by section 159 of the Act, which allows an employer to consider a protected characteristic when deciding who to hire or promote in tie-break situations.
For example, a police service that recruits a disproportionately Fewer people from ethnic minority backgrounds are likely to give preferential treatment to a candidate from that background – a reading of the law that has provided much fodder for angry tabloids in the public sector. Inverse discrimination.
Labor may not yet run Westminster, but they do run the Sened; Mark Drakeford launched a consultation to create an “anti-apartheid Wales by 2030” following the death of George Floyd, at the same time as the British Labor Party began hinting at their Race Equality Bill.
The plan, which was worked out by dozens of ‘stakeholder’ groups such as the Runnymede Trust, includes measures that go beyond the already-controversial intervention of the Equality Act: ensuring hate crimes “don’t happen again”, ensuring “white leaders” take on BAME talent “not boring” and ensuring that BAME people no longer “bear the mental toil that triggers us every day”.
These proposals are unaffordable design. It is not so much the substance of the new Race Equality Bill that we should focus on, but the spirit in which it was adopted.
As we can see from the example above, the new law will be completely detached from reality. each And per the problem These reports suggest that Britain is a systemically racist country, championed by party-friendly journalism and charity-sector lobbyists.
The third sector is traditionally a central role to push through the Equality Act, and the Labor Party has made no secret of its intention to strengthen them bond Between charity and governance once in power.
The aim of a multicultural Britain, dominated by both major parties, has proved increasingly susceptible to the pernicious spiral of client-patronage politics. Mackenzie puts it best:
“Labour now has a unique opportunity to act on these positive ideas, to fulfill the belief among many of its loyal black voters that their support will be rewarded at the ballot box.”
The Sewell Report, and its conclusion that claims of systemic racism in Britain are without evidence, make no sense in the face of the multi-billion-pound diversity industry. Just as groups like the Runnymede Trust have rejected the results, so will Labor – it’s far more convenient for the party to ignore reality and instead pander to misconceptions held by a valuable minority voting bloc.
Post-apartheid Britain’s facade of happiness will crumble after the Conservative Party leaves office. The Race Equality Bill is predicated on the specter of institutionalized racism throughout society, whether it is true or not.
Conservative politicians will realize too late that it is utterly pointless to win the moral argument against revivalism, unless you are willing to use every possible force at your disposal to uproot these insidious anti-British values. This is not a debate, but an alarming manipulation of state power for electoral ends, cheered on by an increasingly unaccountable third sector.
The failure to dismantle the Equality Act, more than 13 years in power, has hurt the Conservatives. Labour’s new Race Equality Bill could be fatal.