THE PAREKH REPORT [1]
It is plain common sense that one can influence a report by the choice of those who are appointed to compile it. In the UK, reports into matters dealing with race are packed with lefties and race zealots, especially if carried out on behalf of the government or one of the lefty pressure groups - such as the Runnymede Trust, which is described in the Parekh Report as ‘an independent think-tank devoted to the cause of promoting racial justice in Britain’.
The Runnymede Trust set up the Parekh Commission in 1998:
So who are these ‘distinguished individuals’ whose 2 years of deliberation produced the Parekh Report? Below is a list of them and their background as in the year 2000, when the Parekh Report was produced.
1. Lord Bikhu Parekh [a Labour nouveau toff] chaired the commission. Lord Parakh was the emeritus professor of political theory at the University of Hull. A former deputy chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality [CRE] and a trustee of the Runnymede Trust. His publications include Marx’s Theory of Ideology and Rethinking Multiculturalism: cultural diversity and political theory.
2. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, senior research fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre and also a research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research. She has served on several other race committees. Her publications include After Multiculturalism [2000].
3. Muhammad Anwar, a research professor at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations and Head of research at the CRE. Publications include Race and Politics, Race and Elections and From Legislation to Integration?
4. Colin Baily who was chief constable of Nottingham Police. He has also been the Association of Chief Police Officers chairman of the Race Relations subcommittee.
5. Amina Begun, a social worker. Also youth and community worker and trainer in community development and co-founder of Women United Against Racism in Tower Hamlets.
6. Michael Chan, professor of ethnic health at the University of Liverpool, director of the NHS Ethnic Health Unit [1994-97], Chairman of the Chinese in Britain Forum, and a former CRE commissioner.
7. Lord Navnit Dhoakia [a Labour nouveau toff] had previously worked for the CRE and was a member of the Home Office Race Relations Forum.
8. David Faulkner, senior research fellow at the University of Oxford Centre for Criminological Research. Publications include Public Services and Citizenship in European Law.
9. Kate Gavron, who was the commission’s vice-chairman, was a trustee of the Runnymede Trust and a Trustee, Research Fellow of the Institute of Community Studies, specialising in the Bangladeshi community in East London, and a member of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia.
10. Stuart Hall, emeritus professor of sociology at the Open University. Publications include Questions of Cultural Identity, chapters in Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies and Revising Multiculturalisms.
11. Bob Hepple QC, Master of Clare College and professor of law at the University of Cambridge, and former commissioner at the CRE. Publications include Discrimination: the limits of law [co-editor], and Equality: a new framework, the report of the Independent Review of Enforcement of UK Anti-discrimination Legislation [co-author].
12. Judith Hunt, chairman of Camden and Islington Health Authority. Publications include Fairness of Failure: equal opportunities recruitment [co-author].
13. Anthony Lerman, formally executive director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, editor of Patterns of Prejudice [1983-99], member of the Runnymede Trust Commission on antisemitism [1991-93] and of the Imperial War Museum advisory committee on a permanent Holocaust Exhibition. Editor of The Jewish Communities of the World and Antisemitism World Report.
14. Matthew MacFarlane, chief inspector of Nottinghamshire Police, and responsible for strategy and policy on race and community relations issues. Former staff officer to the Race and Community Relations Sub-Committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers [ACPO], and attended hearings during the Lawrence Inquiry on behalf of ACPO.
15. Andrew Marr, BBC political editor and formerly editor of The Independent. Publications include The Battle for Scotland, Ruling Britiannia and The Day Britain Died.
16. Sir Peter Newsam, who had been chairman of the CRE for 1981-85.
17. Sir Herman Ouseley, Chairman of the Caribbean Advisory Group of the Foreign Office, and former chairman of the CRE, former chairman of Lambeth Borough Council and the Inner London Education Authority, and council member of the Institute of Race Relations.
18. Sue Woodford-Hollick, founding commissioning editor of multicultural programmes at Channel 4, vice-chairman of the Caribbean Advisory Group at the Foreign Office, member of the general council of the Royal Commonwealth Society and of Broadcast Diversity Network, and co-founder of EQ, a project to increase black and Asian representation in politics.
19. Sally Tomlinson, emeritus professor of educational policy at Goldsmith’s College, University of London and member of the African Education Trust. Publications include Multicultural Education in White Areas, Ethnic Relations in Schooling and Hackney Downs: the school that dared to fight.
20. Seamus Taylor, head of policy: equality and diversity at Haringey Borough Council, chairman of Action Group for Irish Youth, and adviser to the CRE on research study on discrimination and the Irish community.
21. Anne Owers, director of Justice and former general secretary of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, chairman of Trustees of the Refugee Legal Centre, and was on the Church of England Race and Community Relations Committee. Publications include Providing Protection: asylum determination systems, and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: their implementation in UK law [which she co-edited].
22. Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Greater London Assembly, Chairman of the Runnymede Trust [1993-98], member of the Home Office Race Relations Forum. Publications include Windrush: the irresistible rise of multiracial Britain [co-author].
23. Sarah Spencer, director of the citizenship and governance programme at the Institute of Public Policy Research, former general secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties. Publications include Strangers and Citizens, and Migrants, Refugees and the Boundaries of Citizenship.
It will be noted that the above ‘experts’ are nearly all lefties, and the commission is packed with those who are already race zealots. There are no outsiders. The content of the Parekh Report should therefore not come as a surprise.
It would be complacent to underestimate the report’s influence. The Runnymede Trust, on their website, comment on the report today thus:
Labour has not only acted on the report, but has since promoted several members of the Parekh commission. Anne Taylor, who is now the chief inspector of prisons, has recently been in the news concerning her views on the racism of the English flag. Sir Herman Ouseley has become yet another Labour nouveau toff [they are getting quite common these days].
And of course, Trevor Phillips has been promoted to the chairmanship of the CRE. Presumably, this is because of Labour’s reverence for the Parekh Report. Certainly, Labour cannot plead ignorance of the views of the report [especially as it supports those views], and hence its authors. Whatever policies Trevor Phillips has pursued as head of the CRE, both pre and post 7/7, those policies were predictable and Labour is entirely responsible for them.
This is made all the more obvious by the howls of protest which greeted the report’s publication. This will be dealt with next.
The Runnymede Trust set up the Parekh Commission in 1998:
‘It was made up of 23 distinguished individuals drawn from many community backgrounds and different walks of life, and with a long record of active academic and practical engagement with race-related issues in Britain and elsewhere. They brought to their task different views and sensibilities and, after a good deal of discussion, reached a consensus. The report is the product of their two years of deliberation.’
So who are these ‘distinguished individuals’ whose 2 years of deliberation produced the Parekh Report? Below is a list of them and their background as in the year 2000, when the Parekh Report was produced.
1. Lord Bikhu Parekh [a Labour nouveau toff] chaired the commission. Lord Parakh was the emeritus professor of political theory at the University of Hull. A former deputy chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality [CRE] and a trustee of the Runnymede Trust. His publications include Marx’s Theory of Ideology and Rethinking Multiculturalism: cultural diversity and political theory.
2. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, senior research fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre and also a research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research. She has served on several other race committees. Her publications include After Multiculturalism [2000].
3. Muhammad Anwar, a research professor at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations and Head of research at the CRE. Publications include Race and Politics, Race and Elections and From Legislation to Integration?
4. Colin Baily who was chief constable of Nottingham Police. He has also been the Association of Chief Police Officers chairman of the Race Relations subcommittee.
5. Amina Begun, a social worker. Also youth and community worker and trainer in community development and co-founder of Women United Against Racism in Tower Hamlets.
6. Michael Chan, professor of ethnic health at the University of Liverpool, director of the NHS Ethnic Health Unit [1994-97], Chairman of the Chinese in Britain Forum, and a former CRE commissioner.
7. Lord Navnit Dhoakia [a Labour nouveau toff] had previously worked for the CRE and was a member of the Home Office Race Relations Forum.
8. David Faulkner, senior research fellow at the University of Oxford Centre for Criminological Research. Publications include Public Services and Citizenship in European Law.
9. Kate Gavron, who was the commission’s vice-chairman, was a trustee of the Runnymede Trust and a Trustee, Research Fellow of the Institute of Community Studies, specialising in the Bangladeshi community in East London, and a member of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia.
10. Stuart Hall, emeritus professor of sociology at the Open University. Publications include Questions of Cultural Identity, chapters in Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies and Revising Multiculturalisms.
11. Bob Hepple QC, Master of Clare College and professor of law at the University of Cambridge, and former commissioner at the CRE. Publications include Discrimination: the limits of law [co-editor], and Equality: a new framework, the report of the Independent Review of Enforcement of UK Anti-discrimination Legislation [co-author].
12. Judith Hunt, chairman of Camden and Islington Health Authority. Publications include Fairness of Failure: equal opportunities recruitment [co-author].
13. Anthony Lerman, formally executive director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, editor of Patterns of Prejudice [1983-99], member of the Runnymede Trust Commission on antisemitism [1991-93] and of the Imperial War Museum advisory committee on a permanent Holocaust Exhibition. Editor of The Jewish Communities of the World and Antisemitism World Report.
14. Matthew MacFarlane, chief inspector of Nottinghamshire Police, and responsible for strategy and policy on race and community relations issues. Former staff officer to the Race and Community Relations Sub-Committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers [ACPO], and attended hearings during the Lawrence Inquiry on behalf of ACPO.
15. Andrew Marr, BBC political editor and formerly editor of The Independent. Publications include The Battle for Scotland, Ruling Britiannia and The Day Britain Died.
16. Sir Peter Newsam, who had been chairman of the CRE for 1981-85.
17. Sir Herman Ouseley, Chairman of the Caribbean Advisory Group of the Foreign Office, and former chairman of the CRE, former chairman of Lambeth Borough Council and the Inner London Education Authority, and council member of the Institute of Race Relations.
18. Sue Woodford-Hollick, founding commissioning editor of multicultural programmes at Channel 4, vice-chairman of the Caribbean Advisory Group at the Foreign Office, member of the general council of the Royal Commonwealth Society and of Broadcast Diversity Network, and co-founder of EQ, a project to increase black and Asian representation in politics.
19. Sally Tomlinson, emeritus professor of educational policy at Goldsmith’s College, University of London and member of the African Education Trust. Publications include Multicultural Education in White Areas, Ethnic Relations in Schooling and Hackney Downs: the school that dared to fight.
20. Seamus Taylor, head of policy: equality and diversity at Haringey Borough Council, chairman of Action Group for Irish Youth, and adviser to the CRE on research study on discrimination and the Irish community.
21. Anne Owers, director of Justice and former general secretary of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, chairman of Trustees of the Refugee Legal Centre, and was on the Church of England Race and Community Relations Committee. Publications include Providing Protection: asylum determination systems, and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: their implementation in UK law [which she co-edited].
22. Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Greater London Assembly, Chairman of the Runnymede Trust [1993-98], member of the Home Office Race Relations Forum. Publications include Windrush: the irresistible rise of multiracial Britain [co-author].
23. Sarah Spencer, director of the citizenship and governance programme at the Institute of Public Policy Research, former general secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties. Publications include Strangers and Citizens, and Migrants, Refugees and the Boundaries of Citizenship.
It will be noted that the above ‘experts’ are nearly all lefties, and the commission is packed with those who are already race zealots. There are no outsiders. The content of the Parekh Report should therefore not come as a surprise.
It would be complacent to underestimate the report’s influence. The Runnymede Trust, on their website, comment on the report today thus:
‘When the report of the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain (The Parekh Report) was launched in October 2000, it "created a bit of a stir", according to its ever-diplomatic Chair. In the words of the editor of the report, it had been "misunderstood, grossly misrepresented, and often deliberately distorted". Three years on, the debate continues, but the "heat" of those weeks immediately after publication has been replaced with the "light" of serious engagement with the vision set out in the report. By the end of 2003, with over two-thirds of the recommendations of the report acted upon, the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain can be seen to have been influential in shaping the latest phase of thinking on race equality.’
Labour has not only acted on the report, but has since promoted several members of the Parekh commission. Anne Taylor, who is now the chief inspector of prisons, has recently been in the news concerning her views on the racism of the English flag. Sir Herman Ouseley has become yet another Labour nouveau toff [they are getting quite common these days].
And of course, Trevor Phillips has been promoted to the chairmanship of the CRE. Presumably, this is because of Labour’s reverence for the Parekh Report. Certainly, Labour cannot plead ignorance of the views of the report [especially as it supports those views], and hence its authors. Whatever policies Trevor Phillips has pursued as head of the CRE, both pre and post 7/7, those policies were predictable and Labour is entirely responsible for them.
This is made all the more obvious by the howls of protest which greeted the report’s publication. This will be dealt with next.
posted by erc @ 10:36 pm
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