An analysis by the Institute of Race Relations has revealed that the number of stops and searches conducted by the police in England and Wales has gone up for the first time since the publication of the Macpherson report, with Blacks and Asians bearing the brunt of the increase.* Black people are now eight times
News Service
Libraries rebuff police surveillance of asylum seekers
Police in Plymouth have asked local libraries to log internet activity by asylum seekers in the city, following an unfounded terrorism scare. But library bosses have told police that they are unwilling to violate the public’s right to privacy. Recently, a member of the public called the police after seeing a foreign student using a
Rural campaign against the BNP launched in South West
A broad coalition of local campaigners in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset have launched a major drive to stop the British National Party from making gains in the forthcoming council elections. The ‘Unite to Stop the BNP’ campaign, led by the South West branch of the National Civil Rights Movement, has drawn support from a range
Inquiry into the death of David ‘Rocky’ Bennett begins
The public part of the inquiry into the death of David ‘Rocky’ Bennett began this week. Rocky Bennett, a 38-year-old Black man, was certified dead in the early hours of Saturday 31 October 1998. He had been a detained patient in the Norvic Clinic, an NHS medium secure unit in Norwich, for three years. His
Blunkett loses appeal over asylum support
The appeal court has upheld Justice Collin’s high court ruling that the Home Secretary was in breach of the human rights convention by denying support to destitute asylum seekers. On Tuesday 18 March, three appeal court judges led by the Master of Rolls, Lord Phillips, dismissed David Blunkett’s appeal against the earlier high court ruling
Globalism’s imperial war
The war on Iraq is the opening salvo in a war to redesign the world to the needs of corporate America. The plans for it were already in place long before 9/11 – in the September 2000 report of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), for instance, which mapped out a strategy for
‘Accidental death’ during immigration raid, says inquest jury
On Friday 7 March, the inquest into the death of 39-year-old Ghanaian Joseph Crentsil recorded a verdict of accidental death. The verdict meant that the jury decided Joseph came by his death ‘unintentionally or unexpectedly’. Joseph died on 25 November 2001 after falling from a third floor balcony of a block of flats in Streatham,
Kurdish journalist victim of mob attack in Islington
A prominent Kurdish journalist has been the victim of a racist attack in London, while covering a story for his newspaper. The journalist, who has asked not to be named but is well known among North London’s Kurdish community, was the victim of an unprovoked assault by a gang of white youths on Thurday evening,
Black Caribbean pupils at the bottom in GCSE league
New official figures reveal a disturbing gap between the performance of black Caribbean pupils in GCSE exams and pupils of other ethnic backgrounds. The annual pupil census, implemented in 2002, makes it possible, for the first time, to monitor the achievement of black and ethnic minority pupils in a consistent way, locally and nationally. The
Analysis: Asylum figures – behind the headlines
The release, last week, of the asylum statistics for 2002 was greeted by politicians and media alike as ‘bad news’. But a closer examination of the numbers reveals a more complex picture. ‘Asylum up 20%’ and ‘Record levels of asylum seekers’ were the headlines proclaimed across last week’s news-stands. And, since the government, earlier this