Dear IRR News Subscriber,

In the same week as Lord Ouseley, Chair of Kick It Out, has stepped down from the FA Council over its mishandling of the year’s high-profile incidents of racist abuse, the IRR’s Jon Burnett puts a spotlight on racial violence, focusing in part on racism in football.

In other news from around the UK, Target Housing, a sub-contractor working for G4S, removed a heavily pregnant woman from her house in Rotherham even though she was giving birth that day. A recent Refugee Council report has claimed that thousands of refused asylum seekers are forced into destitution in the UK. And immigration and prison watchdogs have called on immigration officials to ensure that detainees are not held for longer than necessary, suggesting that an independent panel should be established to examine such cases.

We are also sad to announce the death of Jan Carew on 5 December (a member of the Race & Class editorial committee and frequent contributor to the journal). The issue of Race & Class in his honour is available here.

Harmit Athwal

Editor, IRR News