Minorities safe with Brown, say analysts
http://www.gbmnews.com/articles/935/1/Minorities-safe-with-Brown-say-analysts/Page1.html
News Hound
Your servent relentlessly hunting for interesting news stories around the world. By News Hound
Published on 07/13/2007
By Dominic Bascombe
Although Gordon Brown is yet speak specifically to policies affecting Britain's ethnic minorities and maintained only a single black face in the cabinet, political analysts close to Labour insist that his premiership will be good for the BME community.
"Gordon will be extremely good for the black community for two reasons," said Professor Chris Mullard, who formerly taught education and ethics at the University of Amsterdam in Holland and the University of Durham in England.
"Firstly, he has at all times been wedded to struggles for equality and justice and against all forms of discrimination. He represents more directly the social heart of labour ideology and labour policy than many of the contenders for the leadership."
Also upper-most in Brown's mind, according to Mullard, will be the fact that Labour must face an election within the next two years and its need to pull together all its constituencies to ensure an unprecedented fourth term in office.
Although Gordon Brown is yet speak specifically to policies affecting Britain's ethnic minorities and maintained only a single black face in the cabinet, political analysts close to Labour insist that his premiership will be good for the BME community. "Gordon will be extremely good for the black community for two reasons," said Professor Chris Mullard, who formerly taught education and ethics at the University of Amsterdam in Holland and the University of Durham in England.
"Firstly, he has at all times been wedded to struggles for equality and justice and against all forms of discrimination. He represents more directly the social heart of labour ideology and labour policy than many of the contenders for the leadership."
Also upper-most in Brown's mind, according to Mullard, will be the fact that Labour must face an election within the next two years and its need to pull together all its constituencies to ensure an unprecedented fourth term in office.
Minorities safe with Brown, say analysts
By Dominic Bascombe
Although Gordon Brown is yet speak specifically to policies affecting Britain's ethnic minorities and maintained only a single black face in the cabinet, political analysts close to Labour insist that his premiership will be good for the BME community.
"Gordon will be extremely good for the black community for two reasons," said Professor Chris Mullard, who formerly taught education and ethics at the University of Amsterdam in Holland and the University of Durham in England.
"Firstly, he has at all times been wedded to struggles for equality and justice and against all forms of discrimination. He represents more directly the social heart of labour ideology and labour policy than many of the contenders for the leadership."
Also upper-most in Brown's mind, according to Mullard, will be the fact that Labour must face an election within the next two years and its need to pull together all its constituencies to ensure an unprecedented fourth term in office.
"So he (Brown) needs to reach out and put into place what he said he's going to do, which is connect with all parts of society," said Mullard. "He has to reassert the fundamental social justice base of the labour government."
Working class
He added: "That is the way he is going to get votes - by winning over the unions, the white working class, BME groups, disability groups, and all other groups that have suffered traditionally in a society that has been WASP (White, Anglo Saxon, Protestant) based."
Mullard's analysis comes against the background that in the cabinet he announced on Thursday, a day after succeeding Tony Blair as prime minister, Brown swapped the one black figure rather than adding to the number of ethnic minorities at the top level of government.
Brown dropped Baroness Amos, who Tony Blair had made the leader of the House of Lords and packed her off to a job as the European Union's envoy to Africa. Another black woman, Baroness Scotland, was named the Attorney-General.
On the face of it, therefore, at least at this level, Gordon Brown, was making no concession to the findings of the recent Voice opinion poll which show only 24 per cent of black people in Britain had a favourable opinion of the new Labour leader and prime minister. By contrast, half of black people liked his predecessor, Blair, even as he was being pilloried by the rest of the society for taking Britain into an unpopular war in Iraq.
Additionally, while 86 per cent of the black people who vote cast their ballots for Labour, two-thirds of them say they believe that the party takes them for granted. Such statistics are likely to be replicated across the BME community, some analysts believe.
Nonetheless, Mullard and others argue that the new PM would not be unaware of the concerns and is unlikely to lose the plot.
In fact, says Tooting MP Sadiq Khan, Brown understood the importance of being representative.
"He's spent the last period engaging and listening to all section of society," said Khan. "I'm sure he understands the difference having ethnic minority people in positions of power and influence will make to minority communities in terms of being symbolic and setting the agenda for the whole country."
Strategic
It is a position echoed by Dawn Butler, the representative in the Commons for Brent South, who suggested the new PM would be thoughtful and strategic in his decision making.
"Gordon is going to be an extremely strong and powerful leader, and because he's so particular about how he operates, he would have thought things through very carefully," Butler said.
She added: "All his policy decisions will be decisions that will be particularly beneficial for the black community. We already have tax credits, the new deal, minimum wage and so on. The black community has been disproportionately in the lower end of the job market. When Brown said everyone should be able to achieve their full potential, that will benefit us greatly."
In this regard, Mullard expected that Brown is, or has been, looking carefully across the BME community for the people to place in positions of trust and influence.
"I'm sure he's looking for the best talent," Mullard said. "That's the only way to run a business and a government."
He added: "Amongst the best people there are some very capable black MPs and black ministers. People like Dianne Abbott right to David Lammy, and into the House of Lords, particularly Baroness Patricia Scotland, who has always been a very justice oriented and socially conscious person."
http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=11564
Dominican-born Baroness Scotland is Britain's first black Attorney General
A trained barrister and former Home Office minister, Baroness Scotland was the first black woman to receive silk as a Queen's Counsel.
Born Patricia Janet Scotland on August 19 1955, she entered the Lords as Baroness Scotland of Asthal in 1997.
The peer has worked in several high profile posts including as spokeswoman on women and equality issues and for the Department of Trade and Industry in the Lords and most recently as crime reduction officer at the Home Office.
After a two year stint as parliamentary undersecretary of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, she worked as parliamentary secretary at the lord chancellor's office from 2001 to 2003.
From 2002 to 2003 she was an alternate UK government representative of the European Convention, becoming Home Office minister for the criminal justice system and law reform in June 2003.
Her ministerial responsibilities have included antisocial behaviour policy, youth crime, domestic violence, criminal law issues and international affairs.
As a junior minister at the Foreign Office in 2000, she announced the launch of government unit aimed at tackling the problem of forced marriages.
She aligned herself with the ID card scheme, insisting in 2005 that the government would not be "wavering" on controversial plans to introduce biometric data as a means of identification.
After graduating from London University with an LLB honours degree, she was called to the bar in 1977, receiving silk in 1991 and becoming a bencher in 1997.
A former commissioner for racial equality, she has received recognition for her work with several prestigious awards including the House Magazine peer of the year award, Channel 4 peer of the year award and Political Studies Association Parliamentarian of the year award in 2004.
She married Richard Mawhinney in 1985. The couple have two sons.
http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200706/14d166a3-fd97-44c4-b1ba-dd679ece401c.htm
First black woman cabinet minister and joint first black woman peer and recently appointed Leader of the House of Lords, the third woman in history to lead the upper house of Parliament
Baroness Amos is one of three black peers that sit in the House of Lords. She was created a life peer in 1997. She is what is referred as 'a working peer', and is currently the Secretary of State for International Development
Prior to her appointment as Secretary of State for International Development, Baroness Amos was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs in June 2001 with responsibility for Africa, the Commonwealth, the Caribbean, Overseas Territories, Consular Issues and FCO Personnel.
Previously she was the Government Whip from 1998 to 2001 and a co-opted member, European Union Sub-committee F (Social Affairs, Education and Home Affairs) from 1997-98.
She was spokesperson for social security 1998-2001, international development since 1998, women's issues 1998-2001, and foreign and commonwealth office 2001
Born in March 1954 in Guyana, Valerie Ann Amos began her career in local government, working in various London boroughs from 1981 to 1989. She was educated at Townley Grammar School for Girls before completing a degree in sociology at Warwick University in 1976, a master's degree in cultural studies from Birmingham University in 1977 and doctoral research at University of East Anglia.
She was chief executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission from 1989 to 1994, and then director of Amos Fraser Bernard from 1995 to 1998.
She was deputy chair of the Runnymede Trust, a trustee of Institute of Public Policy Research and involved in Project Hope, an NGO which promotes healthcare.
Her charity works involved being the chair of the board of governors at Royal College of Nursing Institute from 1994 to 1998 and one of the directors of Hampstead Theatre
http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/baroness_valerie_amos.html
Although Gordon Brown is yet speak specifically to policies affecting Britain's ethnic minorities and maintained only a single black face in the cabinet, political analysts close to Labour insist that his premiership will be good for the BME community.
"Gordon will be extremely good for the black community for two reasons," said Professor Chris Mullard, who formerly taught education and ethics at the University of Amsterdam in Holland and the University of Durham in England.
"Firstly, he has at all times been wedded to struggles for equality and justice and against all forms of discrimination. He represents more directly the social heart of labour ideology and labour policy than many of the contenders for the leadership."
Also upper-most in Brown's mind, according to Mullard, will be the fact that Labour must face an election within the next two years and its need to pull together all its constituencies to ensure an unprecedented fourth term in office.
"So he (Brown) needs to reach out and put into place what he said he's going to do, which is connect with all parts of society," said Mullard. "He has to reassert the fundamental social justice base of the labour government."
Working class
He added: "That is the way he is going to get votes - by winning over the unions, the white working class, BME groups, disability groups, and all other groups that have suffered traditionally in a society that has been WASP (White, Anglo Saxon, Protestant) based."
Mullard's analysis comes against the background that in the cabinet he announced on Thursday, a day after succeeding Tony Blair as prime minister, Brown swapped the one black figure rather than adding to the number of ethnic minorities at the top level of government.
Brown dropped Baroness Amos, who Tony Blair had made the leader of the House of Lords and packed her off to a job as the European Union's envoy to Africa. Another black woman, Baroness Scotland, was named the Attorney-General.
On the face of it, therefore, at least at this level, Gordon Brown, was making no concession to the findings of the recent Voice opinion poll which show only 24 per cent of black people in Britain had a favourable opinion of the new Labour leader and prime minister. By contrast, half of black people liked his predecessor, Blair, even as he was being pilloried by the rest of the society for taking Britain into an unpopular war in Iraq.
Additionally, while 86 per cent of the black people who vote cast their ballots for Labour, two-thirds of them say they believe that the party takes them for granted. Such statistics are likely to be replicated across the BME community, some analysts believe.
Nonetheless, Mullard and others argue that the new PM would not be unaware of the concerns and is unlikely to lose the plot.
In fact, says Tooting MP Sadiq Khan, Brown understood the importance of being representative.
"He's spent the last period engaging and listening to all section of society," said Khan. "I'm sure he understands the difference having ethnic minority people in positions of power and influence will make to minority communities in terms of being symbolic and setting the agenda for the whole country."
Strategic
It is a position echoed by Dawn Butler, the representative in the Commons for Brent South, who suggested the new PM would be thoughtful and strategic in his decision making.
"Gordon is going to be an extremely strong and powerful leader, and because he's so particular about how he operates, he would have thought things through very carefully," Butler said.
She added: "All his policy decisions will be decisions that will be particularly beneficial for the black community. We already have tax credits, the new deal, minimum wage and so on. The black community has been disproportionately in the lower end of the job market. When Brown said everyone should be able to achieve their full potential, that will benefit us greatly."
In this regard, Mullard expected that Brown is, or has been, looking carefully across the BME community for the people to place in positions of trust and influence.
"I'm sure he's looking for the best talent," Mullard said. "That's the only way to run a business and a government."
He added: "Amongst the best people there are some very capable black MPs and black ministers. People like Dianne Abbott right to David Lammy, and into the House of Lords, particularly Baroness Patricia Scotland, who has always been a very justice oriented and socially conscious person."
http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=11564
Dominican-born Baroness Scotland is Britain's first black Attorney General
A trained barrister and former Home Office minister, Baroness Scotland was the first black woman to receive silk as a Queen's Counsel.
Born Patricia Janet Scotland on August 19 1955, she entered the Lords as Baroness Scotland of Asthal in 1997.
The peer has worked in several high profile posts including as spokeswoman on women and equality issues and for the Department of Trade and Industry in the Lords and most recently as crime reduction officer at the Home Office.
After a two year stint as parliamentary undersecretary of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, she worked as parliamentary secretary at the lord chancellor's office from 2001 to 2003.
From 2002 to 2003 she was an alternate UK government representative of the European Convention, becoming Home Office minister for the criminal justice system and law reform in June 2003.
Her ministerial responsibilities have included antisocial behaviour policy, youth crime, domestic violence, criminal law issues and international affairs.
As a junior minister at the Foreign Office in 2000, she announced the launch of government unit aimed at tackling the problem of forced marriages.
She aligned herself with the ID card scheme, insisting in 2005 that the government would not be "wavering" on controversial plans to introduce biometric data as a means of identification.
After graduating from London University with an LLB honours degree, she was called to the bar in 1977, receiving silk in 1991 and becoming a bencher in 1997.
A former commissioner for racial equality, she has received recognition for her work with several prestigious awards including the House Magazine peer of the year award, Channel 4 peer of the year award and Political Studies Association Parliamentarian of the year award in 2004.
She married Richard Mawhinney in 1985. The couple have two sons.
http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200706/14d166a3-fd97-44c4-b1ba-dd679ece401c.htm
First black woman cabinet minister and joint first black woman peer and recently appointed Leader of the House of Lords, the third woman in history to lead the upper house of Parliament
Baroness Amos is one of three black peers that sit in the House of Lords. She was created a life peer in 1997. She is what is referred as 'a working peer', and is currently the Secretary of State for International Development
Prior to her appointment as Secretary of State for International Development, Baroness Amos was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs in June 2001 with responsibility for Africa, the Commonwealth, the Caribbean, Overseas Territories, Consular Issues and FCO Personnel.
Previously she was the Government Whip from 1998 to 2001 and a co-opted member, European Union Sub-committee F (Social Affairs, Education and Home Affairs) from 1997-98.
She was spokesperson for social security 1998-2001, international development since 1998, women's issues 1998-2001, and foreign and commonwealth office 2001
Born in March 1954 in Guyana, Valerie Ann Amos began her career in local government, working in various London boroughs from 1981 to 1989. She was educated at Townley Grammar School for Girls before completing a degree in sociology at Warwick University in 1976, a master's degree in cultural studies from Birmingham University in 1977 and doctoral research at University of East Anglia.
She was chief executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission from 1989 to 1994, and then director of Amos Fraser Bernard from 1995 to 1998.
She was deputy chair of the Runnymede Trust, a trustee of Institute of Public Policy Research and involved in Project Hope, an NGO which promotes healthcare.
Her charity works involved being the chair of the board of governors at Royal College of Nursing Institute from 1994 to 1998 and one of the directors of Hampstead Theatre
http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/baroness_valerie_amos.html