Hackney South: Yet another seat bites the dust

You'd be wrong. Despite three very talented Black women standing on the Party's all women short list-Dora Dixon-Fyle, Carol Williams and Dawn Butler, Sedgmore voted for a white women. It's true his preferred candidate did not win but another white woman did: Meg Hillier. Sadly, the out going MP's actions are symptomatic of what seems to be Labour Party's policy, in this area: to say one thing and do another.

For a number of years Labour Party bosses have stated unequivocally they wish to see more Black and Asian MP's in Westminster. Indeed the Prime Minster Tony Blair has stated it is 'one of our priorities'. But as priorities go this one must rank about 0.0001, because time and time again golden opportunities present themselves, as they did in Brent East last year and Hackney South more recently, and a Black and Minority ethnic (BME) candidate still fails to get selected.

Excuses for failure are plentiful especially those that ignore the discriminatory obstacles that BME candidates face. The main one being that, '...maybe the Black and Asian candidates just aren't good enough'. These detractors choose to ignore that candidates such as Shahid Malik-who came a close second in Brent-, have grass roots and high office credentials that any candidate Black or white would be proud of. And no-one could dispute the ability of Dora Dixon-Fyle deputy leader of Southwark council and long-standing campaigner for social justice. It's also note worthy that many of these detractors used and the same lame-duck excuses when they tried to justify why so many women talented white women were not being selected.

But that all change after much lobbying by women's pressure groups such as The Fawcett society and Emily's list, and the not so insignificant fact that 50% of the electorate are female. The Labour Party not only admitted that the selection process miserably failed women, they did something about it. Their affirmative action programme would mean for the first time in British politics, women only short lists would be used to select some Labour candidates. The 1997 General election results were beyond Party's wildest dreams. 35 female Labour MP's came through that system to literally change the face of the House of Commons. The Prime Minister himself quickly seized upon his political coup to be photographed with what the press demeaningly called, 'Blair's Babes'.

Shortly afterwards however, a disgruntled male candidate challenged the legality of the all women shortlist. As a result the party abandoned its affirmative action programme. Not surprisingly the 2001 General election Labour witnessed a decline of female candidates being selected and elected. Thereafter, however, there could be little doubt that in the short term, positive discrimination or affirmative action was the only sure route to address the lack of women MPs. As a result the party reintroduced the scheme the following year.

The tragedy with Labours colour-blind affirmative action is that it is a double whammy for both BME men and women. For example, an Asian male would stand a good chance in the available seat such as Burnley because of its significant Asian population, but because it' an 'all women's seat' they can't stand. Worse still in Burnley and other similar areas there are very few politically active Asian women so the likely hood of an Asian woman being selected is very remote. As a result both BME men and women lose out.

It's not as though we are anyone else are calling for 'colour coded seats' -significantly populated BME areas =BME candidate-, but any strategic plan must be pragmatic. Whilst getting a BME candidate elected to Parliament from a seat such Dunfermline, Devon or Windsor is not impossible -the Conservatives have just selected Adam Afiyie a Black man, to stand in the safe seat of Windsor- it is very unlikely. However, in urban areas Islington, Brent, Hackney or Nottingham BME's would at least stand a more than reasonable chance of being selected and elected.

Over the weeks and months ahead the political will of the main three parties to tackle the problem of representation will be put under close scrutiny. It will be totally unacceptable for main stream parties to adopt a colour-blind approach that ignores the prejudices within party selection processes. Parties must explore using all BME shortlist and other proactive ways such as 'top up' list to address the lack of representative governance. The first party to be serious and get it right will win the hearts and minds of a new generation of BME voters. A generation that occupies the centre ground of British politics and will be persuaded by an agenda that affords them respect, a voice and a chance to use their dynamism in all areas of British life.