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Top social scientist claims the over-representation of Black people in prisons is attributed to bias foundations of policy-making and racist enforcement of drug laws

Black people are 11 times more likely to be jailed for drug offences than their white counterparts and six times more likely to be arrested, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

It is right that former Macclesfield manager Keith Alexander should be posthumously honoured by The Voice’s Black list. He was well respected as an excellent manager and a quite extraordinary human being.

Alexander suffered a brain aneurysm in 2003 and was subsequently given a clean bill of health but died in March this year.

Former Macclesfield manager Keith Alexander will be honoured this Thursday with a life time achievement award as part of the ‘Black List’. Alexander, 53, who passed away in March of this year will be one the fifty chosen Black sports people celebrated by the list. 


300 local school children were invited last week to a special Show Racism the Red Card event at the Rutherglen Town Hall in South Lancashire.



Show Racism the Red Card is an anti-racist campaign which uses role models, such as professional footballers, to help educate young people about the damage caused by racism in British society. It holds competitions, events and other awareness raising drives across the UK.

The private security company G4S at the centre of controversy surrounding the tragic death of Angolan Asylum seeker Jimmy Mubenga will not have their contract renewed.

In a spectacular turn of fortunes for the private security firm the Government informed them today their services after their contract ends in May will no longer be required.

House of Commons Speaker John Bercow has praised the UK Youth Parliament for its high level of representation of gender and ethnicity in stark contrast to the chamber in which British Parliamentarians sit. The Youth Parliament is meeting today in the Commons chamber for a second year.

In this time of austerity the negative voices against the very notion of a Black History month have become louder and louder. ‘Why this focus? Why should public money be spent promoting Black history? What about white history month?’. And so it goes on.

MI6 head Sir john Sawers has given a speech about the secretive security agency and its claim that it doesn’t engage in torture of suspects. This was the first public speech by the head of MI6 in over 100 years.

Sawers, who gained unusual notoriety in recent years due to a family member posting photos of him on holiday on Facebook, claimed that MI6 declined to pass on intelligence about individuals to foreign countries if it could lead to torture even though "terrorist activity" could be the end result.

A well known Birmingham lawyer has accused the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of racism in bringing him to trial over a charge that he was cleared of. Jeffrey Atkinson is well known locally, particularly in the Handsworth and Lozell districts where he has built up a reputation of defending people caught up in the city's gun and gang territories.

Growing up in Birmingham, being a Rastafarian and lawyer, has been a challenge due to the reaction of the courts to him.

In a battle that could be at odds with his own Government London Mayor Boris Johnson has said he will fight against ‘Kosovo style cleansing’ in the capital that could be caused by the Coalition Government’s proposed changes to housing benefit.

Under the proposed scheme, families living on housing benefit in and around central London would be forced to move to cheaper areas.