IRR News continues its discussion with A. Sivanandan about Miliband’s policies. Have you changed your view in any way given Miliband’s party political broadcast and Yvette Cooper’s speech on 7 March? You seemed in December to have some hopes that Labour under Miliband might be somewhat more progressive. (Read the interview here: ‘Miliband’s progress?‘) No
Theme: Sport
The new wasteland
It is poverty not migration that is changing the nature of Britain’s towns and cities. If you want to feel and smell austerity, go to Hatfield – in leafy Hertfordshire, with the rolling hills that EM Forster loved. It provides a microcosm of the changing social geography of Britain today.[1] Hatfield was, until the 1990s,
Scottish councillors join in condemnation of Gypsies and Travellers
Community councillors in Scotland have accused Gypsies and Travellers of self-segregation, claiming that the younger generations have a ‘chip on their shoulder’. Since September 2011, Members of Scottish Parliament (MSPs) have been conducting ongoing inquiries into the ‘reality of Gypsy/Traveller lives’ as part of the Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee. Starting from the position that
Culture of disbelief? Why race discrimination claims fail in the Employment Tribunal
As the European Court partially vindicates employees’ rights to manifest their religion at work, and with coalition measures set to make access to justice more difficult for all employees, employment lawyer, historian and activist David Renton discusses the added difficulties for those bringing race discrimination claims. On 15 January, the European Court upheld the claim
The Met police and mental health
The Independent Commission on Mental Health and Policing is currently carrying out a consultation in the form of an online survey. The Commission was established in September 2012 by the Metropolitan police in response to the inquest verdict into the death of Sean Rigg in police custody. Sean Rigg died on the floor of Brixton
Protest vigil: stop deaths in police custody
Below we publish an edited version of an article that appeared in the Slough Times on a demonstration that took place at the end of December. On a dark and cold winter evening protesters campaigning for justice for the two men who died in Thames Valley Police’s custody held a peaceful vigil outside Slough police.
From despair comes resistance
Asylum-seekers and migrants across Europe are determined to change the inhuman circumstances of their existence. In his new book Fortress Europe: dispatches from a gated continent, journalist Matthew Carr describes a protest in Lombardy in which five migrants climbed to the top of a crane above Brescia’s new light railway line. ‘For seventeen days they
G4S, Jomast Stockton hostel and the mother-and-baby-market
John Grayson, researching the G4S asylum housing contracts and their impact on the North East, uncovers the latest G4S twist on asylum housing markets – a hostel for asylum seeker mothers and babies in Stockton on Tees. The hostel is contracted to G4S by Jomast Developments, a family property development company empire headed by Stuart
When the going gets tough
The Irish Traveller Movement in Britain’s annual conference. Thursday 15 November 2012, 9am – 4.30pm The London Resource Centre, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA Speakers include: Lord Avebury – Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers Professor Steve Field – Chair of the National Inclusion Health Board (TBC) Helen
Facing the Abyss
A recent conference presented the challenges facing separated children seeking asylum as they turn 18. The conference, organised by the Royal Holloway and the Tavistock and Portman NHS on 19 September, brought together lawyers, teachers, mental health workers, social workers, refugee organisations and young asylum seekers to share their knowledge and experiences and to establish