Below we reproduce an article from RightsNI, by Daniel Holder, that analyses the controversy surrounding recent comments made by Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Peter Robinson and evangelical Pastor James McConnell. On Saturday hundreds of people lined up outside Tesco in Belfast city centre clutching ‘I am shopping for Peter’ posters, in a creative anti-racist protest
News Service
IRR News 30 May – 5 June 2014
Dear IRR News subscriber, In a week when twenty leading educationalists and Muslim leaders have questioned Ofsted’s impartiality in the Birmingham ‘Trojan Horse’ affair, education consultant Robin Richardson analyses the factors behind its controversial recent inspections. We also publish a reflection by John Grayson on the ‘UKIP surge’ in South Yorkshire. In news from across
Funeral of Christine Case to take place
Christine Case died while being held at Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre on Sunday 30 March 2014. Her family is asking concerned individuals to attend the funeral to show their support. Christine Case, a 40-year-old Jamaican woman, died at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre near Bedford. Emergency services were called to the centre at around 8am but she
Explaining and learning from the ‘UKIP surge’ in South Yorkshire
John Grayson examines the factors behind UKIP’s recent successes in South Yorkshire. On Friday lunchtime 23 May, as the local government results flowed into the BBC TV studio, Nigel Farage nominated Rotherham in South Yorkshire as UKIP’s ‘most significant’ result. He claimed that UKIP had led in the popular vote (41 per cent to Labour’s
Naming the Narratives: the Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham
In a week when twenty leading educationalists and Muslim leaders have questioned Ofsted’s impartiality in the Birmingham ‘Trojan Horse’ affair, education consultant Robin Richardson reflects on the factors behind its controversial recent inspections. The Trojan Horse story in Birmingham is one in which carelessness, incompetence, coincidence, opportunism, self-interest and sheer wickedness all play significant parts.
IRR News 23 May – 29 May 2014
Dear IRR News subscriber, In a week where extreme-right and anti-immigration parties have consolidated their presence in the European Parliament, we review two important reports on racial violence across Europe. The case studies provided by Amnesty International, Médecins du Monde and the Greek Council for Refugees are not only harrowing in themselves, but the way
When the state is complicit in hate
Racist violence in Europe is sustained by cultures of impunity, as reports by Amnesty International, and Médecins du Monde and the Greek Council for Refugees make clear. Two reports published last month document in harrowing detail the reality and impact of racist violence across Europe, as well as its intensification against a backdrop of economic
IRR News 16 May – 22 May 2014
Dear IRR News subscriber, Since 2010, the prisoners’ support group JENGbA has been campaigning to reform the legal doctrine of joint enterprise: a doctrine which, according to JENGbA, disproportionately impacts upon BME families. This week, we highlight a second call for evidence by the House of Commons Justice Committee on the use and impact of
Second joint enterprise inquiry to examine impact on BME communities
The House of Commons Justice Committee is set to hold a further inquiry into joint enterprise. Since 2010 the prisoners’ support group JENGbA (Joint Enterprise – Not Guilty by Association) has been campaigning to reform the legal doctrine of joint enterprise, also known as common purpose. Joint enterprise allows for individuals who ‘knowingly assisted or
IRR News 9 May – 15 May 2014
Dear IRR News subscriber, Last month, Barnardo’s published a report reflecting on the first two years of Cedars – the ‘pre-departure accommodation’ for families set to be removed from the UK within which the organisation has safeguarding responsibility. As Frances Webber argues, Barnardo’s reflection on its involvement in Cedars ‘raises once again the problem of