It’s an election year. Which means it’s time for the Conservatives to attack their favourite victimised minority. For such a tiny minority in British society, Travellers certainly attract a disproportionate amount of Middle England’s ire. Not content with passing the Criminal Justice Act in 1994, which removed the requirement for local authorities to provide sites [...]
The proposed equality bill has generated much debate – in particular the question of whether churches should be banned from discriminating on grounds of sexual orientation. Yet what strikes me is the sheer hypocrisy of these measures, from a government which has actively institutionalised such discrimination.
Under laws that went into force last year, the new [...]
Guest post by Carl Packman
“You know, you already sent 21,000 troops. You might send 65,000 troops. That’s not a Peace Prize-acting activity.”
That’s what the lifelong civil rights activist and cautious Obama supporter, Dr Cornel West, had to say about the president’s surprise reception of the Nobel Peace Prize whilst promoting his new memoir this week.
Cornel [...]
It never fails to annoy me when it’s claimed that some group or other is the ‘last’ group that it’s acceptable to be prejudiced about. Sure, there’s no denying we live in relatively enlightened times, but there are any number of marginalised sections of society that you can get away with offending without any fear [...]
The rabbi of Britain’s oldest synagogue, Bevis Marks in the East End of London, has been suspended over his participation in a protest against banks charging high interest rates.
As you may or may not have noticed, there’s recently been a series of ads in various places urging us all to give blood. This is because the National Blood Service (NBS) wants us all to donate now so it can boost its stocks before the winter when we’re all going to have swine flu [...]
Somehow a punnet of mushrooms appeared in my house today. They bore the name “Mini Portabella mushrooms”. I should admit now that I’m not an expert on mushrooms, but the name struck me as rather odd. On closer examination the pack made very clear that these were just normal chestnut mushrooms.
So I thought to myself, [...]
There was an interesting judgment relating to faith schools today. The Jewish Free School was told by three senior judges that its admissions procedures were illegal, as the test of ethnicity amounted to racial discrimination. Now, I’ll start by saying that I think all state-funded faith schools are a fucking terrible idea. There’s absolutely no [...]
Friends, lefty bloggers, socialists, I’ve got a guilty secret. I’ve been actively campaigning for the Green Party in the upcoming European Elections on June 4th. It’s been a difficult time for me politically. With the split in Respect, the failure of John McDonnell and the Labour left to leave a scratch on the New Labour [...]
In yesterday’s London paper the guest columnist, Mike Barnard, publicised the launch of a campaign to reinstate London’s rise festival. The background, for those who don’t know, is this: for about a decade, London – with financial support from trade unions – hosted a massive annual anti-racist music festival. When Boris came in he decided [...]
