Guys,
I was going to feature BA's blog here today. I'm still doing that. Here is a link to his blog.
Then I saw this article in the Telegraph which I think confirms BA's thoughts on sport being ruined by woke identity politics.
Report, which follows abuse directed at black football players after Euro 2020 final, says Government risks breaking human rights laws.
Source - Daily Telegraph - 14/07/21
England is “systemically racist”, according to a report submitted to the UN by a prominent government critic and think tank chief executive who called Boris Johnson a “brat”.
The findings come in the wake of racist abuse directed at black football players following England's defeat in the Euro 2020 final against Italy.
A coalition of more than 100 civil society organisations and NGOs – coordinated by the race equality think-tank, The Runnymede Trust – have warned that the Government’s approach to tackling racism risks breaking international human rights laws.
The report, which will be submitted to the UN, found that the Government was in breach of a key treaty, known as the ICERD, aimed at eradicating racial discrimination.
As a result, it concluded that “racism is systemic in England” and also warned that upcoming pieces of legislation were cause for “particular alarm” which would "threaten the rights” of black and ethnic minority people.
The Runnymede report's authors also questioned findings from the UK's Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, published by Tony Sewell in April, which concluded that the system was no longer “deliberately rigged” against ethnic minorities in Britain.
When the controversial report was published, The Runnymede Trust dismissed it as “a script that has been written for 10 Downing Street”, with its chief executive, Dr Halima Begum, criticising the Prime Minister as an “entitled Bullingdon Club brat”.
More than a dozen Tory MPs later wrote to the Charity Commission demanding an investigation into The Runnymede Trust, claiming its criticisms of the report were made “in bad faith”.
Dr Sewell said on Tuesday night that he would “robustly defend” the Commission’s findings. “Our report says in the introduction that there is structural racism that exists in this country, but not in that systemic way,” he told The Telegraph. “My view is that our report stands as it is, and we will robustly defend its conclusions.”
The Runnymede report was paid for by the taxpayer-funded Equality and Human Rights Commission.
This week, Downing Street was forced to defend Priti Patel after Tyrone Mings, the England footballer, accused the Home Secretary of “stoking the fire” of racism. Government sources denied reports that a planned Number 10 reception had been shelved over fears players might boycott the event.
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: “We’ll be talking to the FA to identify a suitable way for the PM to thank the players and coaching staff for their efforts.”
Meanwhile, Tory MPs warned that the Conservative party must “urgently challenge” its negative attitude towards taking a knee or risk “misrepresenting our own heart for those who suffer injustice”.
MPs in the Conservatives Against Racism, For Equality group rallied colleagues to rethink their attitude ahead of an Urgent Question in the Commons on Wednesday on racist abuse on social media in the context of the Euro final.
Steve Baker told fellow MPs on WhatsApp: “This may be a decisive moment for our party. Much as we can’t be associated with calls to defund the police, we urgently need to challenge our own attitude to people taking a knee. I fear we are in danger of misrepresenting our own heart for those who suffer injustice.”
Boris Johnson also met with social media firms on Tuesday, urging them to take tougher action over racism after the abuse of England football players, which he described as being “from the dark spaces of the internet”.
On Tuesday night, West Mercia Police investigating a racist tweet aimed at Marcus Rashford arrested and released a 50-year-old man on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.
Media reports said the offensive tweet, saying the England star’s MBE “needs burning ya fake” and adding “pack them bags and get to ya own country”, appeared on the account of a youth football coach, who claims his Twitter account was hacked.
The Runnymede Trust-led report warned that the Government's new approach to tackling racism and inequalities “may in fact worsen” the situation.
It claimed that the Electoral Integrity Bill, which would require voter ID at polling stations, would “marginalise” groups who are less likely to possess voter ID – with over three-quarters of white people holding a full driving licence, compared to 38 per cent of Asian people and 48 per cent of black people.
It also said that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which contains extra stop and search powers allowing for reasonable force without suspicion for ex-offenders, “has profoundly worrying implications” for ethnic minorities because they are “more likely to be sentenced for knife or weapon offences”.
The Runnymede Trust, alongside the Good Law Project, last year launched a judicial review over a number of appointments made by the Government at the height of the pandemic, arguing the appointment of figures such as Kate Bingham to head up the UK's vaccine taskforce was unlawful.
The Government is required to submit regular reports examining the current state of race and racism in England to the ICERD. The last report was due in April 2020 but has been delayed due to the pandemic.
Civil society organisations submit their own shadow reports every four years alongside their equivalent government report, with the UN using these documents as a barometer to assess member countries’ progress on race equality.
A government spokesperson said that since its last ICERD report in 2015, it had “made significant progress”.
“The Runnymede Trust’s shadow report contains many errors and is too simplistic in saying that structural or systemic racism is driving all the disparities outlined in their report.
“We would urge them to work with the Government and carefully consider the recommendations in the [Sewell] report. The Government will be providing a response to these recommendations which will act as our action plan for tackling inequality.”
Comments
Post a Comment