News

The Smiley Culture Campaign for Justice has issued the following statement and petition calling for a change in the law relating the number of deaths in police custody:

Peterborough Today reports on the local Race Equality Council being given a Royal award for the work they do. The award is considered a highly prestigious honour in that it recognises volunteer groups who have made an exceptional contribution to their local communities, setting the benchmark for volunteering excellence nationationally:

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to deepen its commitment to the common values of social inclusion, acceptance and understanding, saying emigration was increasingly a global trend with minorities and migrants gravitating towards cities for economic opportunities.

We’ve received the following statements regarding the story we ran last week about Cadbury’s and Naomi Campbell:

From Cadbury:

Glasgow Airport has invited ethnic minority representatives to a security open day at to try to allay fears they are being singled out for questioning by security staff.

Newly elected MSP for Glasgow Humza Yousaf has been in discussions with airport authorities following claims that some ethnic minorities would rather travel to Manchester or London rather than face "awkward questions" at Glasgow.

The Trustees of the charitable body that holds the freehold for the historic Africa Centre have taken the decision to sell the centre because of rising maintenance cost related to the upkeep of the historic Grade 2 listed building at 38 Covent Garden London. Currently the estimated cost of making the building good is said to be around £2million.

In the last couple of days, the British press has given much coverage to Cheryl Cole’s removal from the American version of the X Factor. According to the reports, the executives of the programme feared that the American viewers would not be able to understand Cheryl Cole’s Geordie accent, which has been described as “too thick”.

The modern day magistracy aims to be a system by the people, for the people. However, only 7.3% of the total number of magistrates across the country are Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) magistrates. With so few BME representatives sitting in the magistrates’ courts, it seems that “a system by the people, for the people” is more of an aspiration than a reality.

London is the most ethnically diverse city in the UK, and one of the most diverse cities in the world. The face of London is changing: over 300 languages are now spoken in London, and about 31% of the city’s population comes from an ethnic minority. With the upcoming London Mayor elections in 2012, the BME vote is now more crucial than ever.