News

We must be content to die for the benefit of the rest. I, for one, am ready to die, in order that the rest may be free…. I depend for salvation upon the Redeemer, who shed his blood upon Calvary for sinners.

Samuel Sharpe

Until a few days ago I had only vaguely heard of the Jamaican, Sam Sharpe. I guess in the pantheon of Emancipation heroes we readily know of Toussaint L'ouverture, Olaudah Equiano, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass.

The organisation, Black Mental Health (BMH) UK has relaunched its online magazine entitled “The Solution”. To help with the relaunch, Home Office Minister for Crime and Security, James Brokenshire MPs has written an encouraging forward and an endorsement of BMH UK's activities, particularly those around the impact of the DNA database on mental health services users and black Britain.

The Coalition Government have set out in Today's Queen's Speech historic legislation to reform the House of Lords. This piece of legislation could be as controversial as the voting reform was last year which saw the Liberal Democrats hopelessly out maneuvered by their Coalition Conservative partners. This time, though, the Lib Dems will be better prepared for a political dog-fight about reforming the nation's political infrastructure.

Introduction by Simon Woolley

Dear Operation Black Vote readers:

80's soul band Frankie Beverly & MAZE sang my marathon experience step by step, breath by breath perfectly in their hit record "Joy and pain... sunshine and rain"...others might say agony and ecstasy, no pain, no gain, tears of joy and tears of pain, and so on.

Bright, sunny and no going back...the big day came. Was I ready for it? OMG - no way, but as most adventurers, entrepreneurs, and people who generally live their life on the edge would...I felt the fear and did it anyway!

In what was an acrimonious fight to head the governance of London, Boris Johnson once again defeated his Labour adversary Ken Livingstone. For his part, Livingstone announced his retirement from front line politics.

There are many who have said that the only bright element to come out of these elections was the Independent candidate Siobhan Benita. For a long time she ran neck and neck with two other big party machines –Liberal Democrats and the Greens- eventually coming 5th.

In a landmark legal case, the High Court has been told that police stop-and-search powers are being used disproportionately against black people in London without any adequate explanation. The accusation was made by Ann Juliette Roberts who has launched the landmark legal challenge.

The Labour party has not enjoyed this level of political success for a long time. Results coming in show that Labour has one an extra 500 seats, with the big losers being the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats losing 288 seats and 133 seats respectively. Although present Mayor seems to be bucking the national trend and is on course to notch up what will be a famous victory if as the early results suggest he has won.

It also looks like the only remaining BNP councillor in Burnley has lost his seat with the Party losing more than 50% of its voting share.

Yesterday, during a debate at the United Nations in Geneva I had the great pleasure of meeting Mireille Fanon Mendes, daughter of Frantz Fanon.

OBV are delighted that five of its graduates are standing in this year's elections.

In Birmingham, Parveen Hassan and Afzal Shah both graduates from the Parliamentary Shadowing Scheme hope to make their mark on local politics in Birmingham. Hassan is the Conservative Party’s candidate for Ladywood ward. Talking about the importance of politics she said’ politics is important for us all to get involved in, to nurture and empower others’.