DISCLAIMER: where links to articles are given, they are freely available and active at the time of ERN Newsletter circulation

Deadenders
14 February 2005, The Voice

The Voice reports that the BBC has been urged to withdraw a book commemorating its soap EastEnders from print after the show's biggest black stars were omitted. BBC publishers of a book titled EastEnders: 20 Years In Albert Square, published last week, has omitted many of the casts black stars despite purporting to be the definitive history of the BBC soap. The soap celebrates 20 years on screen on Saturday 19 February.

Quote: a soap insider said: "True, black characters in EastEnders don't tend to get the massive storylines but there have been a few. … This book exposes the hidden discrimination still inherent in British television and should be withdrawn and reprinted."

Read the full article online:
www.voice-online.net/content.php?show=6052&type=1

My African heritage is proud part of Britain, insists Amos
13 February 2005, The Observer

Baroness Amos, Leader of the House of Lords and the country's most senior black politician warns that White British culture must stop seeing itself as superior to other world cultures and that Britain must move towards a 'multi-heritage', rather than multicultural, model of society.

"We need to get kids to understand that our history has come out of all kinds of different places. It all has importance, and we don't need to be ashamed of where we have come from. I want it to go beyond just being about culture."

Read the full article online:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1411793,00.html

Live & Kicking
11 February 2005, The Voice

Article advocating the support of children who do well at school.

Read the full article online:
www.voice-online.net/content.php?show=6048&type=7

White blokes rule the British film industry
10 February 2005, The Guardian

Ethnic minorities make up only 5% per cent of the workforce in the British film industry. The findings are part of a survey of 860 film professionals carried by the UK Film Council and Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries.

Read the full article online:
www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,,1409646,00.html

New commissioner considers controversial quota system for ethnic minority recruits
9 February 2005, The Independent

Scotland Yard is examining a quota system to raise the number of ethnic minority officers in the Metropolitan Police.

Filthy, racist, violent - what man in charge thinks of London jails
9 February 2005, The Times

Martin Narey, former Director-General of the Prison Service and now promoted to chief executive of the National Offender Management Service - the second most senior civil servant in the Home Office, gave evidence at a public hearing into the murder of Zahid Mubarek, who was beaten to death in his cell at Feltham Young Offender Institution by a known racist psychopath.

In his evidence, Mr Narey said that Feltham was not the only place dogged by problems and that some of the biggest jails in the country, saying that they were evil, violent and staffed by people whose culture was "utterly reprehensible".

Quote: "London was a nightmare" he said, "Wormwood Scrubs was a deeply violent and evil place. Wandsworth was not a violent place but it was one where the staff culture was utterly reprehensible. Holloway was in permanent crisis, or very nearly unmanageable. Brixton was filthy with the most outrageously appalling healthcare. I could go on."

BNP ban urged for probation officers
1 February 2005, The Guardian

In a report published, entitled I'm not a Racist but ..., Andrew Bridges, the chief inspector of probation calls for the ban on prison officers being active members of the British National party and other far-right groups to be extended to the probation service if it is to retain the confidence of minority ethnic communities.

Read the full article online:
www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1402904,00.html

Racism 'ingrained into prison culture'
30 January 2005, The Observer

The inquiry into the death of Asian teenager Zahid Mubarek was told that the Prison Service suffers from a deeply ingrained culture of prejudice. In a witness statement to the hearing into Mubarek’s death, Judy Clements, the Prison Service's first race equality adviser, claims that allegations of serious violence against black prisoners were not investigated and inmates who reported racist incidents found themselves disciplined by the authorities.

Read the full article online:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1401968,00.html

Equality in the eyes of the law
27 January 2005, The Independent

The Morris Inquiry reported that Britain's biggest police force was discriminating against ethnic minority officers and paying lip service to diversity. This comes five years after the Metropolitan Police was found to be institutionally racist. In this article Simon Marshall, director of recruitment for the Metropolitan Police, talks about the force's response to the Morris Inquiry.

Read the full article online:
http://jobs.independent.co.uk/careers/story.jsp?story=604862

Let whites decide who can live here
Comment by Joseph Harker, 26 January 2005, The Guardian

A commentary on the current immigration debate.

Read the full article online:
www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1398605,00.html

Every race, colour, nation and religion on earth
21 January 2005, The Guardian (part of a Special Report – What is Britain?)

In London 300 languages are spoken, there are 50 non-indigenous communities with populations of 10,000 or more, virtually every race, nation, culture and region able to claim at least a handful of Londoners. Almost a third (30%) of the city's residents were born outside England (2.2m) with many tens of thousands more who are second or third generation immigrants.

Read the full article online:
www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,2763,1395534,00.html

As part of the Special Report, there is a page of resouces dedicated to London's ethnic diversity, including ethnic and religious maps of London by borough. Also a number of stories from London's ethnic minority communities, such as Turkish, West African, Polish, Somalian, Congolese, Korean, Portuguese and Vietnamese.

www.guardian.co.uk/britain/london/0,15718,1394802,00.html

Islam, Race and British Identity (Special Report)
21 January 2005, The Guardian

A collection of articles are written by participants at a conference organised by the Barrow Cadbury Trust and The Guardian in January 2005.

www.guardian.co.uk/islam/identity/0,15716,1394762,00.html

Black and Asian people still live in poverty
19 January 2005, The Independent

Reports that Charles Clarke promises a fresh drive against deprivation among ethnic minorities following the Government's admission that it has failed to lift many blacks and Asians out of poverty.

Black boys do better
13 January 2005, The Independent

The Independent reveals that that schools in Hackney have improved the GCSE results of black schoolboys as a result of a drive to tackle underachievement in the borough.

Read the full article online:
http://education.independent.co.uk/schools/story.jsp?story=600136