Dear IRR News subscriber,

At the end of last month, a new planning policy was quietly published which could have devastating impacts for Gypsies and Travellers. As Chris Johnson and Andrew Ryder explain on IRR News this week, it ‘appears that Gypsies and Travellers are being punished for the longstanding shortage of sites and stopping places which has been caused by central and local government inaction and failure’.

This article is the first to appear on our newly launched ‘Race & Class blog’ which will publish archival content as well as short articles by Race & Class authors. Also new on the IRR website is an ‘Audio & Video’ section, gathering together our audio and video files, and a ‘Fortnightly bulletin’ section which lists all of our news bulletins to subscribers over the last few years.

We also reproduce a statement by educationalist Robin Richardson, of Insted Consultancy, highlighting concerns about the Department of Education’s recent disqualification of people from being school governors on the basis that they have ‘engaged in conduct aimed in undermining fundamental British values’. And we also have a personal reflection on the events of September 11 and beyond by Race & Class author Phil Scraton.

IRR News readers might be interested in attending a Race & Class meeting being held in London on 15 October on ‘Collusion and covert policing: colonial roots, contemporary issues’.

And finally, we have our regular events listing and calendar of racism and resistance, a fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe.

We would welcome your feedback on the new sections on the website, please email any comments to news@irr.org.uk.

IRR News team