News

TWO racists who were part of the English Defence League (EDL) are beginning year-long sentences after attacking a mosque and two Asian-run businesses.

Steven James Vasey and Anthony Donald Smith attacked the Nasir mosque in Hartlepool, spraying the letters EDL and NEI (North East Infidels) along with the slogan "no surrender" and images of poppies and the St George flag on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid.

Chuka Umunna has been promoted to Labour’s shadow cabinet after being named as Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The 32-year-old is a number of MPs who were only elected last year and takes over from John Denham who stepped down from the shadow cabinet ahead of the reshuffle.

Umunna has been tipped for big things ever since he was elected as Member of Parliament for Streatham in May 2010 and he took to his Twitter feed to express his delight.

Umunna wrote,

Three women including Africa's first female president have been awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize for their fight for women's rights.

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was honoured alongside compatriot Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni human rights activist Tawakkul Karman, with Nobel Peace Prize committee leader Thorbjorn Jagland praising their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work".

A Conservative councillor in Southend has been suspended for allegedly having links with the English Defence League (EDL).

Cllr Blaine Robin was suspended by the Tory party last night after attending an EDL meeting where he was apparently praised for his support of the far right group's protest in Tower Hamlets last month.

A video on YouTube appears to show EDL leader Tommy Robinson pointing out Cllr Robin it a meeting in Southend earlier this year.

Robinson is heard saying,

This summer saw the worst civil disturbances seen in Britain in the last 30 years. Despite those being involved being described by the Prime Minister as “purely criminal”, it is widely accepted that a primary cause of the disturbances, a reaction to the shooting of Mark Duggan, was the fact that thousands of young people living in some of the poorest communities in Britain are feeling both alienated and excluded from society. Public sector cuts to youth service are a false economy, and will cost the country more in the long run.

It’s the late August Bank Holiday weekend. You are walking through the streets of Notting Hill, there are no steel pans, no flamboyant costumes and the sweet aroma of West Indian foods does not fill the air. Carnival has been cancelled!

As unimaginable as it sounds, Notting Hill Carnival is in jeopardy after two of the co-directors resigned. The departure of Chris Boothman and Ancil Barclay came after the two volunteers decided that they could no longer carry on supporting the event.

Ancil Barclay said,

Imagine this. A young woman, who lives in Birmingham responded to OBV's call for volunteers. At her own expense Shanade has spent the last two weeks volunteering for OBV, and doing just about everything. Shanade is passionate about equality, particularly when it comes to race.

Last month saw the NHS BME Network celebrate their first anniversary at a conference titled "The Big Move" held at the Hilton Hotel on London's Park Lane.

I will be attending a small demonstration taking place in Sutton this Friday, 7th October. We will be protesting about the sale of Golliwogs by a local shop.

Despite repeated requests to remove the offensive "Wog dolls" from Sutton's Memory Lane gift shop window display, they have to date simply refused to do so. In fact they have now launched a public campaign arguing that these dolls do not cause offence and refused to remove them, a full month after Sutton Liberal Democrat Councillor Lester Holloway complained.

A leading public school headteacher has been criticised for suggesting schools in London are sleepwalking into segregation and compared it to apartheid in South Africa.

David Levin, vice-chair of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) said he was alarmed at how the capital was divided into ethnic ghettoes.

Levin is a headteacher at City of London school for boys, which collaborated with Stepney Green school in east London, where students from his school held private tutoring sessions in a range of subjects.