News

One year ago, a groundbreaking report was delivered in Parliament. It was called Hear Me Now: The uncomfortable reality of prostate cancer in Black African-Caribbean men. With the help of several community organisations, Rose Thompson, radiotherapy radiographer and founder of BME Cancer Communities, had compiled some shocking and revealing statistics in this report: Black men in England are more than twice as likely to develop prostate cancer than white men, and twice more likely to die from it.

The plot is straight out of a spy novel: ‘A letter is received which uncovers an Islamic plot to subvert the city’s schools, brainwash all the children and then take over the city.  The Government bring a former spy out of retirement to undercover the jihadist plot and save the day’.

There was a funny article in The Independent yesterday about how with the demise of Maria Miller’s political career the Cabinet is now under-represented by “greedy shysters” and that the prime minister should create "all-greedy shyster" shortlists to redress this imbalance.

The Minister of Justice Chris Grayling is under considerable pressure from the family of Cherry Groce to afford the family legal aid so that they can finally get some justice for her being shot and paralysed by the police in 1985.

On change.org an unprecedented 133k signatories have signed a petition calling on Grayling to act.OBV supports this call.

Here is there letter below. We urge you to read and sign the petition so that it can quickly reach 150K

Black is beautiful!

This is a powerful message to embrace the colour of your skin, the colour that you have been blessed with – white or black, light or dark. This seems a very obvious statement, but the seriousness of this issue, was made clear to me when I recently came across a news item on Channel 4 News.

In an impassioned article the Minister leading the programme to mark the centenary of the First World War Helen Grant makes the case for Walter Tull and others like him to be  celebrated by al. This in a week when football legends Garth Crooks and Sol Campbell signed a letter to the Prime Minister insisting that Walter Tull be awarded a posthumous military cross for his bravery on the battle field.

For years, designers have used African influences as their inspiration for their collections. This reverse fashion fusion fully exploded onto the British fashion through the work of British Ghanaian tailor and designer Ozwald Boateng. Boateng burst on the scene in 1991 and became famous for his innovative creations, which included colourful linings inside suits, and the use of more colour in men’s formal attire, which in many ways comes from the vibrant African heritage of colour and panache. This become Boateng’s signature touch.

If the Labour party come into power in 2015 they have pledged to ‘bust open’ the closed club that is Whitehall. In a speech at the Think Tank IPPR the Shadow Cabinet Office minister Michael Dugher announced that the elite Fast Stream programme will aim to comprise 18 per cent black and ethnic minority candidates (double the current level) and 24 per cent working-class candidates.

Sajid Javid made history today by becoming the first Black and Muslim Secretary of State ever. In the last few hours Javid was  appointed to Government's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture and Media.  He has taken over from the beleaguered Maria Miller who resigned earlier today.

The Head of the Metropolitan Police has announced his support for a temporary 50/50 recruitment programme to help increase the number of Black and minority ethnic (BME) officers.

Speaking to BBC London recently, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe stated that as of right now, the police force was not representative of the London population. A 50-50 recruitment programme would require that half of all recruits be from the BME community.