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The drawing used on the BBC website to illustrate BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time discussion on Slavery and Empire is a most interesting portrayal of a meeting between English officers and African natives. The interest lies in the dishonesty of the representation of the two groups of people, deliberately distorted to justify the subjugation of one group by the other.

Nineteen years ago today, a vision and a grand plan was born. A group of campaigners pledged their lives to change our world. This group of men and women would not, could not, sit idly by while racism demonised Africans, Asians, Caribbeans and those from other minority ethnic communities. We recognised and understood that racism was and is a scourge that shackles our talent and poisons society.

On the 16th July, 1996, at Westminter, the ‘mother of all parliaments’, Operation Black Vote was launched.

The Football Association have incredibly taken no action over the outrageous texts that were shared by former Cardiff City boss Malky Mackay and head of recruitment Iain Moody.

The FA have apparently undertaken a "thorough" eleven month long investigation into the language used in the messages at the end of which, according to the FA’s statement, both men have been spoken to "about the inappropriateness of terms used in the messages".

The statement added:

Forty percent of Londoner’s are Black, Asian or part of the real global ethnic majority - people of colour. In a city that thrives on its diversity in terms of its people, economy and culture, it's absolutely vital that the rapid transformation we see on our streets is more rapidly translated into fairer representation in civil society, public administration and local government.

Civic Leadership Programme

The Civic Leadership Programme is designed to help more people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds get active in civic and political life.

The Civic Leadership Programme is a partnership between Lewisham Council and Operation Black Vote.

The programme

14th July 2015

John Crumlish, CEO, Paul Fahy, Artistic Director
Galway International Arts Festival
Administration Office
Black Box Theatre
1 Courthouse Square
Duke Road
Galway
Republic of Ireland

Dear Mr Crumlish and Mr Fahy

We the undersigned are writing to you regarding your inclusion of the racist installation 'Exhibit B'in the 2015 Galway International Arts Festival.

We are very pleased to reproduce here The Runnymede Trust Annual Lecture which was presented by Iqbal Wahhab OBE FRSA (restauranteur and social commentator) at the London Guildhall Faculty of Business & Law, London Metropolitan University, on 8 December 2014.

A BBC2 documentary to be screened this Wednesday takes a much needed look at Britain’s imperial past. 'Britain's Slave Owners', the first of the two part programme, features what happened in 1834 when Britain abolished slavery and paid compensation to over 46,000 British slave owners. Presented by the historian and film-maker David Olusoga the documentary will shine a bright light on this murky part of our history.