What fantastic news that Boris Johnson's first senior appointment is to make Ray Lewis a Deputy Mayor with an important role in tackling youth crime. For those who don't know him, Ray runs the East Side Young Leaders Academy, which is a charity specialising in giving young black kids a real education. It relies on more traditional teaching methods and discipline plays a key role. Lewis says every child emerges with at least two A Levels and three quarters go to university. Polly Toynbee will have a seizure when she learns of this appointment as Ray Lewis is living proof that her liberal creed has failed black, inner city youngsters.
Lewis's academy has been financially supported by Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice and is a working example of how voluntary sector organisations can make a real difference to people's lives.
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It is great to see such an inspired appointment. We hear so much from the Toynbees of this world about 'empowerment' and we see kids treated like victims who need to be indulged even if they are going further off the rails.
But Ray Lewis has shown that providing real educational opportunity and some structure in life while encouraging kids to achieve something for themselves is far more effective.
Good news indeed but why on earth should we or anyone else care what Polly Toynbee thinks? Last time I looked she was a Guardian columnist.
Polly's already had a seizure: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/06/labour.conservatives
An impressive start for Boris...!
There's something about me that finds this post a little bit rich coming from a right-winger. I doubt Polly opposes what they're doing in the ESYLA. I certainly don't.
I would argue that giving structure and constructive things to do for the disconnected youth in parts of the country is one of the things us lefties have been saying for a very long time. Engaging the new generation with society is a good thing.
It's nice to see Conservatives admitting that society does exist and is, in fact, an essential requirement for social order. We should use this new consensus on this issue to really tackle the problems at the heart of Britain today.
Firstly, Conservatives have always believed that society exists. Don;t come back to me with the famous Thatcher quotation because you know as well as I do how that has been twisted.
Secondly, I am sure Polly does not oppose what they are doing, but I am fairly certain some of their more disciplinarian methids would stick in her craw.
Golfwidow's link can be accessed more easily here
There are some really good comments. I particularly commend 'Evil Tory' writing at 2.10am. Good stuff.
he's not a deputy mayor, is he? Only one can be appointed and they have to be a member of the assembly.
Seems "spin free" Boris can make like a top with the best of them.
I am sure there will be plenty of similar stunts by the end of the week.
Eddie, i am not sure I have heard of any Conservative ever say society doesnt exist, are you some kind of fool???
I love the fact that he teaches the classics! More of this please! Learning about great men teaches us a lot of the values of 'citizenship' which the left have suddenly realised have been left out of their system. It also teaches cynicism about claims to be 'new' and 'progressive' and 'revolutionary' and encourages kids to view their own culture and country in comparison to others. Good tory sentiments.
Of course voluntary organisations can do good, and for far less money. The reason is the State does not have its interfering konk in everything, dictating policy and tying up the staff with all their ghastly compliance and policy by which they first influence then hamstring.
The guys probably too intellectual for Polly!
Ian
Why do you have that picture of you to the right of the screen with a blue, red and yellow bow tie and a square nose with an arrow on it?
Come on Iain. This is illogical to the point of complete dysfunction.
This guy's academy activity has been funded and supported by Labour - government and London alike - and La Toynbee would have no issue with it.
And as pointed out by others Ray Lewis is NOT a deputy mayor. Don't be a complete pillock Iain.
New Statesman:
"I couldn't stand the Conservatives. I thought they were all a bunch of greedy bastards"
Ray Lewis
Mr Lewis has subsequently been won over to a point by IDS and he will of course take funds from Tory-linked city trusts as well as from LEAs and more regular charities.
Anyway, quite a contrast with the "United Estates of Wythenshawe" project that Cameron allso photo-opped with repeatedly. Also taking money from Tory-linked "charities" but the polar opposite of the Ray Lewis approach.
UEW is run by ex-prisoners not ex-officers and they are not turn out any A* pupils there I can tell you. That's part of Cameron's plan too?
From http://www.london.gov.uk :
'The Mayor has announced the appointment of Ray Lewis as Deputy Mayor for Young People'
Re: 'they have to be a member of the assembly.'
I don't know about the old Kremlin structures. I think Boris is absolutely right to appoint Ray to a senior position .
I can see there are still some customers for the Blair and Brown snake-oil bottles. Brown and Blair twisted Thatcher's remarks about the society. The 'so what 'EdBalls got away through creative entry in Hansard. I voted for Boris precisely becuase he was the one candidate who spelled out clearly the damade done by youth crime, crimes in buses and underground. Please forget the snake-oil buyers.
Check out:
http://www.london.gov.uk/gla/jobs/info/gla_structure.jsp
'Mayor Ken Livingstone' um... I think someone needs to change the graphic: glastructure_jun07.gif
but leave the electric red star on the tower, we like that.
Chris Paul said...
"And as pointed out by others Ray Lewis is NOT a deputy mayor. Don't be a complete pillock Iain."
Maybe Boris has changed the rules. Here is the official press release.
Perhaps Chris Paul would like to apologise for the second time in a week. It's not me who's the pillock, Chris.
I can't see anything to get excited with so far. He's been to a monocultural Sikh event. The appointment of Ray Lewis will address disaffected young black men only. And London community charge payers, in their hour of need, are going to have to shell out more of their hard-earned cash to finance Nelson Mandella's birthday party. I only hope that we're not paying for 1st classs air fares from South Africa for him and his entourage.
I don't want bread and circuses. I want efficiency and thrift.
"Deputy Mayor" is I think being used rather loosely by the buffoon in City Hall Iain. Why should anyone apologise for pointing that out.
Deputy Mayor as known is a full time job. Mr Lewis will surely not be undertaking such a job and if I'm wrong and he is then it raises the issue of how his academy will continue.
You have not tackled the substantive issue. This academy is in Newham where there are no Tories on the council and almost none on the ground. It has succeeded because Newham was willing to allow schools to refer pupils (and their funds AFAIK) to the organisation.
The academy will also receive LSC and previously FEFC or DfS cash to support their activities.
The question of whether Mr Lewis is really "Deputy Mayor" as understood by the rest of us will no doubt be bottomed out soon.
In the meantime what else is it you think I should apologise for? pointing out that Boris would not close thelondonpaper (classic Dale mistake that) and should not even dream of firing successful officers at TfL or City Hall in general.
Obviously the SpAds go. But not the top professionals you want Boris to fire. You should be apologising!
Or getting back to helping Tories lose the Crewe and Nantwich BE.
Good, I hope he gets to do some good work. I don't think the volunatry sector can (or, for that matter, wants to) replace the state but it is good.
The public sector should copy some of the attitudes of charities, realise it is there to serve us and it should be empowering the weak to find their own wealth and become self-reliant in the long term. That is what Asquith (and Attlee) wanted, but it doesn't exist now.
Toynbee probably doesn't, but I admire people like this.
PS-
I should add that I admire what Duncan Smith has been doing. I also admire the Prince's Trust, which never seems to get any recognition. Excellent people.
I wanted to hire him!
Here's the wiki for "Deputy Mayor". Just one post it says. Originally to be passed around but Labour and the Greens played fair in the first cycle. Ken and Nicky stood as a ticket the second time.
If Boris is going to have a string of honorary or non-exec Deputy Mayors outside of the Assembly this means that he is already beginning to delegate his own post into shreds. This is what he is supposed to have done with the only organisation he has previously "run" i.e. run away from the task.
Excellent start for Boris - this is an inspired appointment. Shame the DP couldn't bring themselves to mention it in their package on BoJo this lunchtime. But it goes against the image the BBC so desperately want to project. Did anyone catch Ed Stourton on R4s Sunday STILL harping on about 'racist' Boris and 'picanninies' - if it's so unacceptable why does the BBC feel able to use the word so often?
Yes, how Toynbee the ghastly Abbott, and the risible Alibi Brown must truly despise this fellow.
He seems to believe young deprived black people need boundaries, & formal structures to their lives, that's just sooo fifties.
They can't label him as a racist so they'll require some other form of smug, sanctimonious put down.
Abbott must be wondering why all black families in Hackney dont send their kids to private school, the utter peasants.
Great start Boris.
Ray Lewis may be an excellent choice as an advisor to the mayor, but he is emphatically not the Deputy Mayor -- at least not under the terms of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 Section 49 subsection 3: "The Deputy Mayor shall be appointed by the Mayor from among the Assembly members."
Futhermore, the Act states:
"A person appointed Deputy Mayor shall not act in that office unless or until he has satisfied in respect of his office as an Assembly member the requirements of section 28(1) above.
(A person elected to the office of Mayor or of an Assembly member shall not act in that office unless
(a) he has made a declaration of acceptance of the office in a form prescribed in an order made by the Secretary of State; and (b) within two months from the day of the election, the declaration has been delivered to the proper officer of the Authority.)
So if Boris were to get sideswiped by a Bendy Bus this afternoon, Ray would not become Mayor.
The guy is no hero, he is a racist!
He runs a black school for black people only!
I don't know why you're feting him Iain -- if he was white, he'd be your enemy because what he is doing is divisive -- but because he is black, racial segregation is cool with you all of a sudden?
Amazing, isn't, how so many of the Lefties here have no interest whatsoever in the initiative and what it could achieve. All they want to do is (as ever, and more desperately clutching straws by the day) make something 'negative' out of it.
The people of London will welcome this -- only the dead-beat Lefties and other such dinosaurs would find any other line to take. They are the self-servers, Boris is a people-server, and that's the "bottom line" difference.
I think it is a OK appointment. But if Ken or labour government did It would be called divisive, and racist and patronising by the right wing media. We would have right wing pudiots saying how wrong it is to only want to help black people.
So the tories used the race card they do not even believe in it.
http://dirtyeuropeansocialist.blogspot.com/
Neither the Mayor nor any appointee of his can tackle the real problem with schools and that is the control exerted by the state. When schools run themselves, when the money starts following children and not go to schools via LEAs, when people will have a choice in where to send their offspring, then we might see some changes. But the Mayor cannot do that as it is not in his remit. Whether his appointee is Deputy Mayor or Deputy Dawg, he still can do nothing about the problems.
Eddie 9:31, or may I call you by your more familiar name - Moronic?
You write with a logic that can only be achieved by the legally brain dead: "I would argue that giving structure and constructive things to do for the disconnected youth in parts of the country is one of the things us lefties have been saying for a very long time."
No. It's you lefties that caused the break down of the family structure - the most powerful element in all societies on earth. It's you lefties that promoted no discipline in schools. It's you lefties who disempowered little boys as you forced the feminisation of state education. It's you lefties who promoted the "all must have prizes" destruction of disciplined education. It's you lefties who promoted tens of thousands of unmarried pregnancies among schoolgirls, some as young as 12, through filling up school hours that should have been filled with the teaching of academic subject to promoting sex, sex, sex - ever more obtrusively, I might add. So obtrusively, in some instances of very young children that the people promoting it under the guise of
"education" should be done for paedophilia.
So do us a favour and shut up. You have nothing to add to the discussion because we've heard it and read it all for the last 11 years as our country crumbled around our ears.
Ray Lewis is a hero and he gets results.
So shut up,Eddie. No one is interested in the trite, lying droolings of traitors whose agenda is the destruction of the nation state.
Desperate Dan - Did you have to wreck the good news by bringing Nelson Mandela into it?
Chris Paul - Who cares what complex patronage structure Livingstone had devised - as complicated as all his families, really. We're in charge now and triumphalism is in order.
BJ - So what? Boris is changing the rules to suit his agenda.
Cinammon, it's a private initiative and Mr Lewis can choose to help whomever he chooses. This is called conservative politics.
And here's another waste of money. I keep being bombarded by letters from "Energy Saving Trust advice centre for London. Funded by government..."
They would like to help me identify the best energy saving needs..blah blah blah..
My local authority already does that if I want them to. What fool decided to duplicate this useless service from something called Creative Environmental Networks and how much tax payers money are they receiving?
We don't need them Boris.
"But if Ken or labour government did It would be called divisive, racist..." (Dirty European Socialist)
Precisely - because if Ken or Labour did, it WOULD be divisive and racist.
Erm.. Iain, say what you like about Polly Toynbee, but please don't attach her to me and others who think of themselves as "liberal". She is not a liberal, she is a socialist.
Iain said:
"Cinammon, it's a private initiative and Mr Lewis can choose to help whomever he chooses. This is called conservative politics."
Erm, supporting organisations that openly practice segregation along racial lines is 'conservative politics'?
What next -- the 'Young Fuehrers Academy, to give young white kids a real education? Is that OK too with the Conservatives? Or does this sound a tad obscene?
"Boris Johnson's first senior appointment is to make Ray Lewis A DEPUTY MAYOR with an important role in tackling youth crime."
The press release says "DEPUTY MAYOR FOR YOUNG PEOPLE".
Perhaps Boris is proposing to create a series of such Deputy Mayor posts, some of which could be honorary, unpaid appointments.
Interesting that you didn't approve my earlier comment. People who don't know Ray Lewis can praise him, but those of us who have actually dealt with him are forbidden to voice our criticism.
And I thought it was 'new' Labour that were the control freaks.
What's an old bore like Verity doing telling people what they can or can't think or say? She's clearly not a democrat of any sort.
*sigh* I need glasses, I thought that Iain had written what I answers -- but Verity had.
Iain, I am sorry about that.
Now Verity, explain to me, slowly, what exactly is heroic about racists and why is the supporting of the organisations 'conservative policy'?
Cinnamon who figures that racism is colourblind
***You write with a logic that can only be achieved by the legally brain dead.***
Verity, darling, as you write with all the subtlety of a fourteen year old, can we assume that you too are brain dead but not yet legal?
Er, scoose me. Who (apart from Desperate Dan) said Ray Lewis is only interested in black kids? He's a former prison governor; was his a blacks-only jail?
Brilliant appointment, whatever the title.
Eh, I just looked over at the unmentionables' website, and yep, in their leader article, this immediately has given them ideas AND the chuzpah, plus, the 'moral right' to demand it:
"The BNP want to see a whole range of schools set up across the country that will be run along the lines of the Eastside Young Leaders’ Academy and run with a similar mono-racial entrance policy for indigenous White British children.
We want to set up schools where White British children will be taught to be proud of themselves, their country and their culture and not shamed into educational underachievement in the name of political correctness."
Congratulations... (not)
PaulD Rubbish. You need to grow up. Boris has learn from Ken.
verity What do you feminized boys, where is your evidence for that. I never got femnized at school Are you mad?
Do be more careful with your attributions, Cinammon. We want Iain's blog to be at least as dependable as Hansard, when it recorded Ed Balls as shouting, "So weak!" in the official record, do we not?
Cinnamon writes, with world weary patience, "Now Verity, explain to me, slowly,...".
No.
pauld: "Er, scoose me. Who (apart from Desperate Dan) said Ray Lewis is only interested in black kids?"
Erm, running a black only elite school is a bit of a give away, no?
If he was genuinely interested in kids, he'd run that school for kids, regardless of race.
He doesn't, he turns down kids in need merely because they are not black.
It's what you do that counts, not what you say...
I think it is a OK appointment. But if Ken or labour government did It would be called divisive, and racist and patronising by the right wing media.
Compare and contrast.
Ray Lewis
Puts his energy into helping people in trouble
Lee Jasper
Puts his energy into shaking down the tax payer.
That's the difference between what we Tories like and what is seen as a good thing on the left.
Perhaps Boris is proposing to create a series of such Deputy Mayor posts, some of which could be honorary, unpaid appointments.
I think this is exactly what Boris is planning to do. According to the Sunday Telegraph he wants to apopint three 'deputy mayors' with specific responsibilities. This is the first of these appointments. A lot of creative thinking has gone into this plan - it gets knocked by Labour supporting types because they abandoned creative thinking a long long time ago. All they do now is bureaucratese.
BTW Adrian Yelland - very very funny!
Have attempted some discussion of this appointment at my blog. HERE.
This is sadly going to be seen as gaffe's one and two which is no reflection on Boris's good intentions of Ray's qualities.
1. U-Turn: Boris will be forced by good sense to change the name of the role from "Deputy Mayor". That's silly. He's apparently going to appoint lots as equivalent to Mayor's Special Advisors.
2. Segregation and separate development. This appointment is stirring up some horrid nasties on the right. That would be predictable to anyone but a Tory. There are 100s of 000s of working class children of both genders and all races facing exclusion, deprivation and failure.
Sorry Iain, but this is a bit of a wonky moment. So soon as well.
Let me get this right.
Gun crime is all over London between black kids and for those that can't afford a gun, they use knives.
And you say Ian Duncan Smith is living proof of how successful his initiatives are.
Hmmmm. I think your line should retain the 'it's all Labour's fault'.
After all, it has brought you success.Granted, short term, but success non the less.
Nice to see that black kids get 'A' levels though in London.
Maybe this is because Margaret Thatcher was PM during 1979 -1989.
Iain Dale said...
"Firstly, Conservatives have always believed that society exists. Don;t come back to me with the famous Thatcher quotation because you know as well as I do how that has been twisted."
People might be interested in the context of the "no such thing as society" quotation.
It is from an interview published in Women's Own magazine in October 1987.
"I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."
I know nothing of the man but will google his Project with interest. I trust Boris and if he thinks Ray Lewis is a good chap then so be it ( unless proven otherwise ).
golfwidow and rush-is-right, thank you for the Polly link.
I forced myself all the way through it ( used to read her in my more foolish years some thirty years ago ).
Her blathering contained this gem on the 10% thing.
" It found him ( Brown )dishonest: he lied about the losers. Interestingly, middle Englanders said they were as shocked as those who suffered: the unfairness was unacceptable- "
"interestingly " Polly ? Why Interestingly, presumably meaning 'surprisingly'. How smug of you to be surprised that Middle England was shocked at Browns naked aggression toward low earners ?
She gets a good kicking from her commentators both left and right, especially from EvilTory whose piece ( about the third or fourth ) is sheer brilliance on the subject of labours failings.
Fair play to Polly, the great majority of posts are negative or hostile; goodness knows what the many deleted ones were like.
Help, Verity or somebody - anyone know what DES means by a 'right-wing pudiot'?
I'm thinking of starting a collection of these DESisms, you can sell all sorts of 'humorous' books at Xmas.
Erm, running a black only elite school is a bit of a give away, no? (Cinnamon)
Erm, no. All it says is that he's run a black-only school. Are black kids with knives that different from white kids with knives? Ray Lewis's operating principles could work anywhere.
It's a masterstroke of an appointment politically - OK, so the far right might squeal - but I happen to think Boris is a genuine racial agnostic, for want of a better word, and is keen for the guy to work his apparent magic in any setting.
His only possible mistake is the Deputy Mayor thing, which the pirhanas out there might exploit. Boris would have been better off waiting for the GLA to approve some kind of Honorary Deputy Mayor arrangement, although it's all a bit academic. At the moment he wants to show he means business - and that's good.
Oh, Dirty European Socialst - Boris has learn from Ken. You has learn English to must or we not understand you.
Erm, running a black only elite school is a bit of a give away, no? (Cinnamon)
Erm, no. All it says is that he's run a black-only school. Are black kids with knives that different from white kids with knives? Ray Lewis's operating principles could work anywhere.
It's a masterstroke of an appointment politically - OK, so the far right might squeal - but I happen to think Boris is a genuine racial agnostic, for want of a better word, and is keen for the guy to work his apparent magic in any setting.
His only possible mistake is the Deputy Mayor thing, which the pirhanas out there might exploit. Boris would have been better off waiting for the GLA to approve some kind of Honorary Deputy Mayor arrangement, although it's all a bit academic. At the moment he wants to show he means business - and that's good.
Oh, Dirty European Socialst - Boris has learn from Ken. You has learn English to must or we not understand you.
Boris may be intending to change the terms. Deputy might be people he has deputised for a specific purpose. He might be planning to call his official understudy the Vice-Mayor.
Or he may be planning to call him Cynthia. Who cares? Lewis is a brilliant, high profile appointment of a very competent and right-minded individual.
"In 2002 Ray Lewis became Executive Director of Eastside Young Leaders Academy.. The aim of the charity is to improve the lives of young black males... academic coaching and mentoring from successful black businessmen. Lewis' personal aim is: "We see no shortage of young black males in the courtrooms, so my vision is to seek to prepare as many as possible for the boardrooms." The charity received national recognition from The Guardian newspaper in December 2007."
Thank you aardvark for your pointing out the original Maggie quotation.
I had heard it a little differently, put in a speech with a direct reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan. (I wonder if that is taught these days?) Anyway it went more or less as follows;
This victim of a criminal assault is lying in the road, obviously in need of help. Along comes a stream of do-gooders, all pointing at him and saying words to the effect that 'Society should do something about that poor man'. And the guy nevertheless gets left bleeding in the road.
Eventually, along comes the eponymous Samaritan who takes charge, has him looked after and the victim gest better.
And the message of this parable, oh ye thickos on the left, is that if you leave things to 'society', nothing happens.
[End of Maggie attribution]
My personal take on that is that that is why we have hordes of social workers paid for out the public purse and the dirty little secret is that those who are not actually malicious are just effing useless.
Better by far to rely on public philanthropy.
Rush-is-Right
And Iain, do us all a favour will you? We really don't need to hear from Chris Paul for a bit. What a tosser.
Still waiting by your phone for that call, eh, Iain ?!...
If I were (which I'm not!) I think I would have a bloody long wait!
See: http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=16774
"The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has today announced further appointments to his senior team in City Hall.
Richard Barnes, Assembly Member, has been appointed Mr Johnson’s [statutory] Deputy Mayor.
Three further appointments, which come into effect immediately, have also been announced and these are:
Ian Clement who becomes Deputy Mayor, Government Relations;
Kit Malthouse, Assembly Member, who becomes Deputy Mayor, Policing;
Sir Simon Milton who becomes Senior Adviser, Planning."
I hope Iain won't mind me linking to my site but other than Richard Barnes none of these people are Deputy Mayor.
http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/Theres-Only-One-Deputy-Mayor-article_id-1607.html
The role of DM is a constitutional one laid down in law.
These people should be applauded for agreeing to serve London but Team Boris arejust going to create confusion calling them by a title they don't qualify for.
I did vote for him but hope Boris's term as Mayor is a huge success (London doesn't benefit from the sily wishes of gaffes we've seen in some quarters) but it would be nice if we could have job titles which reflect the reality of the world.
They're all blokes. Fingers in ears as the equality/diversity mob come to the boil.
"Erm, running a black only elite school is a bit of a give away, no? (Cinnamon)
Erm, no. All it says is that he's run a black-only school. Are black kids with knives that different from white kids with knives? Ray Lewis's operating principles could work anywhere."(pauld)
Lol, you're funny, even a gifted racist remains a racist :-D No decent person would ever get involved in a black only school, just like they avoid working in white or asian only schools, or anywhere where racial discrimination is written into admission policy. Working for an organisation like that makes you a racist, far more than someone who just mouthes a racist slogan or votes a racist party -- Mr. Lewis proved to the world he is a practicing racist, it's not just pub trash talk, he is the real thing.
(Feel free to explain to me why any organisation should be racially pure, I'm all ears...)
As for your question if there is a difference between white and black kids pauld -- according to Lewis there is, he doesn't want the white kids at his schools, only blacks. Maybe you ought to ask Mr. Lewis about the difference, since he is the 'professional'?
That should of course say I didn't vote for him!! ;-)
"(Feel free to explain to me why any organisation should be racially pure, I'm all ears...)" (Cinnamon, 6.32pm)
No asshole. You're all mouth.
There. I beat Verity to it for once.
*ahem* I beleive the Conservatives are using London as a policy laboratory, yes?
So where does it state that the new young leaders academies will be strictly black or non black or yellow, pink, green, purple, red, cyan, violet, orange, jasmine or any other colour that may reside in one of the greatest cities on the face of the earth?
No? Perhaps if those people such as Chris hadn't been so decisively ignorant in reading up on the statistics behind the EYLA he may get it into his Leftie-riddled skull that his way is not right, and it's not racist to stick at a problem group to marginalize and cut down on various societal problems that may arise in that aforementioned group.
[I do beleive the left has been trying to do this with the English "highly integrated" population, Mr Straw called us "Dangerous and violent" after all]
According to the statistics that led to the EYLA Black people make up just under 5% of the total population of the UK. Yet they make up a staggering 17% of the UK's PRISON population, suggesting something wrong within that grouping.
It's a significant chunk of a fairly insignificant minority [when one considers whites make up probably 60% and our largest minority grouping are the Muslims]
Evidently he addressed it in the best way possible. Now if this is to be rolled out "London-wide" we'll probably see they're not black exclusive, but will be all inclusive to all kinds of people wether they're Black or Magnolia.
If anybody is wondering why I am using random colours it's to show how stupid I think people who use the "colour card" as a leg for their argument actually are.
As a conservative with a small c I am a beleiver in equality being an absolute. I don't care if you're covered in yellow spots and are bright pink, or are so dark that I couldn't see you with the lights turned off.
(I continue to use these silly statements because of the idiocy of the "colour and creed" argument)
And you know what? Despite that beleif that'd make me probably dislike such an academy?
I welcome this posting and all the genuine good that it will bring, the main aim and argument is to make the children feel damn good about themselves and to give them something which has been systematically torn asunder for the last decade by the left.
Inspiration.
James Whale has been fired from his late night spot on a radio station for bias in favour of Boris - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7385370.stm
Does it not follow that Dimblebore should get the axe for his Red Ken bias?
On the other hand, the radio station may have been looking for an excuse to get rid of Whale who is truly awful.
Verity, I was fascinated to read your assertion that "It's you lefties that caused the break down of the family structure - the most powerful element in all societies on earth."
Perhaps, if "lefties" are to blame for the demise of the family, you can talk us through what Thatcher did to reverse the trend towards divorce and single parenthood. Nothing or nothing? Actually both of them rose dramatically on her watch, as did welfare dependency and child poverty.
Oh dear.
Cinnamon, if you ran a general-purpose garage, would you automatically disqualify an outstanding job applicant because he has been working in a Fiat garage? Does that make him a "Fiatist"?
I'm not being wishy-washy about this, I just get fed up with people being written off by pure guesswork about how they might / might not rise to a new challenge.
They did it to Boris, the "bumbling racist toff". Now look.
Chuffinwell3- thank you so much for explaining to us, a group of literate adults with exposure to the world at large, so colourfully why prejudice against a race is wrong.
Your allusions are simplistic and foolish, however. You refer to "yellow, pink, green, purple, red, cyan, violet, orange, jasmine and magnolia" people with an air of self-congratulatory revelation. As though no one had used this stale terminology before.
You even spell it out for us, in case we didn't get it. "(I continue to use these silly statements because of the idiocy of the "colour and creed" argument)."
Your "argument" tells us nothing, because there are no purple, violet, orange, etc people in Britain or the world.
So they have no history and no prejudice and myths have grown up about them.
Deprived black boys do exist and do have a history. And it is not pretty. That is the difference. Mr Lewis is tackling real boys with real problems, and he is doing a damn fine job. Otherwise, these boys would be lost to society and, indeed, to themselves.
Just now, we have no idea what his remit is. It may be saving black boys Londonwide to become responsible citizens and contributors to their society; or it may be that he is also charged with straightening up some aggressive white boys.
We'll see. But the floral arrangement was counter-productive.
Lee Jasper: Puts his energy into shaking down the tax payer.
That's the difference between what we Tories like and what is seen as a good thing on the left.
Since when have money-grubbing, self-serving sexual harassers been seen as a good thing?
I'm on the left and I think Jasper should have been fired a long time ago. Ken's misplaced loyalty was one (among many) cause of his demise.
Frankly, one hour in Bangkok is too much. Well, it's OK if you're just changing planes and don't have to leave the airport.
I'm not going to rehearse all the arguments about how the socialists have all but destroyed the family in Britain, especially among the poorest and most feckless, and entwined them in a never-ending complex benefits trap because you already know, and so does everyone else. The first thing Communists always want to do is destroy the family, the strongest structure among humans worldwide.
Don't ask me any boring nit-picky questions that have been addressed ad infinitum over the past 11 years because I am not interested in ploughing that territory again.
So many deputy mayors! Bexley are saying their leader (now ex) is Deputy Mayor too -
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/news/2008/05/0601.html
Guess that's what securing an 80,000 majority in the Borough gets you.
Martin said...
"...other than Richard Barnes none of these people are Deputy Mayor.
The role of DM is a constitutional one laid down in law.
These people should be applauded for agreeing to serve London but Team Boris arejust going to create confusion calling them by a title they don't qualify for."
There will be no confusion if they are referred to by the full title Boris has bestowed on them - 'Deputy Mayor, Policing', 'Deputy Mayor, Government Relations', etc.
"Does it not follow that Dimblebore should get the axe for his Red Ken bias?"
There are degrees of bias. He urged listeners to vote for Boris. Dimbleby's bias is nowhere near as blatant.
Yep no confusion there at all!
Verity, you are too harsh on Chuffinwell3. He is saying much the same as you even if his metaphors are a bit dated. To criticise so roundly make you look like a clever-clogs with sourpuss tendencies.
bexleygirl said...
"So many deputy mayors! Bexley are saying their leader (now ex) is Deputy Mayor too"
You are repeating what Richard Nabavi said at 5.48 p.m.
"Ian Clement who becomes Deputy Mayor, Government Relations"
Ray Lewis is an inspired appointment. Every time I have heard him talk I have been impressed by his common sence aproach to the youth problems. He cuts through all the leftie waffle and goes to the heart of the problem.Its nice to have some real world politics at last after 11 years of the roundheads.
I backed Boris.
And Verity is spot on the money. I love her.
Anonymous said...
"You are repeating what Richard Nabavi said at 5.48 p.m."
Blimey, people are so uptight on here!
I was also making the point about his role in securing an 80,000 majority for Boris. Jobs for the boys and all that.
Actually Verity I was largely aiming at one commenter on this blog in particular who didn’t seem to understand the whole concept.
I don’t think the floral arrangement is counter productive at all as it merely highlights the ludicrous and pointless concept of basing things on colour as people had done so in this blog.
We’ve had the drum banged for equality and classlessness for a good decade or more from those on the left and in the centre, then the split second they appoint someone with no prejudice and some actual experience with the front-line of racial problems and educational ones they scream and decry it as so.
Also, London has 200 registered racial minorities it’d be pointless and genuinely stupid not to roll it out on a wide scale and the title of his role seems fairly obvious and simple to me, he’s there to cut YOUTH crime, not Black Youth Crime, not “Insert Colour here” Crime. Crime specifically perpetrated by Youths, regardless of creed, colour and race. If you actually read my comment properly you’ll see that, despite the dated comments I go into it a bit deeper, but hey, politicians and political commentators with substance are still a little ways off yet, or perhaps I‘m being too generous, considering you‘re little more than a photosphere commentator like me….
“According to the statistics that led to the EYLA Black people make up just under 5% of the total population of the UK [Seeing as you like being picky Verity, it‘s 4.6% exactly]
Yet they make up a staggering 17% of the UK's PRISON population, suggesting something wrong within that grouping.
It's a significant chunk of a fairly insignificant minority [when one considers whites make up probably 60% and our largest minority grouping are the Muslims]
Evidently he addressed it in the best way possible. Now if this is to be rolled out "London-wide" we'll probably see they're not black exclusive, but will be all inclusive to all kinds of people whether they're Black or Magnolia.”
Also, having used that kind of comment with colours before and being subsequently pounced on by Leftist commentators as “racist” I felt it prudent to POINT OUT that, otherwise I’d be bagged under some nonsensical BNP label by some fool instead I am set upon by a person who actually agrees with it in part.
My main point was that Lewis isn’t racist, despite the comments otherwise and that his idea of segregating white kids and what have you. We even had somebody draw out that tired and used favourite of favourites the British National Party! Joy.
"The BNP want to see a whole range of schools set up across the country that will be run along the lines of the Eastside Young Leaders’ Academy and run with a similar mono-racial entrance policy for indigenous White British children.
We want to set up schools where White British children will be taught to be proud of themselves, their country and their culture and not shamed into educational underachievement in the name of political correctness."
Mmm, reheated leftovers.
I didn’t go about it with self-congratulory revelation at all, all I did was highlight the sheer lunacy of going about breaking things down by race…
If you read it that way then I suggest you take a look at yourself and your perceptions of people.
Might be a bit skew whiff.
Chuffinwell3 writes: "If you actually read my comment properly you’ll see that, despite the dated comments I go into it a bit deeper" - I see. The reason someone presents a counter argument to your pointless examples is not because they didn't understand them, but that they did. You illustrated nothing because there are no yellow or purple people and therefore such notional people have no history and there is no public perception of them. Because they don't exist, so your long, tortured lecture was absolutely pointless. "all I did was highlight the sheer lunacy of going about breaking things down by race" But you didn't. Because you used examples that don't exist. And there's no point in denial, because there is a whole swathe of black boys - not purple, yellow or tangerine boys -who are very much a social problem and they need discipline and guidance to straighten up, which is what Mr Lewis provides them.
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