Good riddance Lee Jasper
Slightly old news now, but Lee Jasper, Ken Livingstone’s race relations “expert” resigned yesterday following revelations of sending “saucy emails” to Karen Chouhan – who just happened to run the 1990 Trust previously, an organisation that was a recepient of Mayor’s money.
I’m glad Lee Jasper has gone. Good riddance.
I say this not because of the corruption charges – which is small beans compared to money that nationally elected politicians waste on idiot schemes that are not scrutinised enough. The Metronet/PFI scandal is a good example. Though, I’m not downplaying it and I think Dave Osler makes a good point on this.
And I neither say this because I particularly like the Evening Standard (its an annoying and trashy paper at the best of times which clearly has an agenda against Livingstone and gave up any pretence to balance ages ago).
I say this because Lee Jasper was one of those “race relations industry” activists that would accuse anyone and everyone of insitutional racism without having any nuanced analysis of what was going on. In fact, Jasper was one of the main reasons I got annoyed at the debate around multiculturalism following 7/7 and got into launching the NGN manifesto. Annoyance at his ideas was what got me here.
Their tacit support for Hizb ut-Tahrir was one of the main points of the NGN manifesto. In fact, people who opposed that agenda within the organisation were hounded out and its been taken over by deluded twats that will soon be consigned to the dustbin of anti-racism. I hope.
Only a few months ago I was invited to a debate hosted by the 1990 Trust where, when I said things had changed siginificantly on the issue of race over the last 20 years, Lee Jasper accused me of ignoring the fact that he had to “struggle for rice and peas” back in his day. I can’t imagine a better example of a person still living in a different generation and trying to apply those arguments to a changed world.
Ken Livingstone’s accusations that people pointing fingers at Jasper were racist did no one any favours, least of all people who suffer from real racism. This kind of stupidity on the left really annoys me. Soon as a finger is pointed at wrong-doing by an Asian or black person, they start crying racism. And when you get old school lefties like Ken Livingstone leading that charge, and then being exposed so badly, it looks even worse.
Don’t get me wrong, the 1990 Trust did some good work. But the stench of nepotism and people scratching each other’s backs was too strong for me. They belonged to a different era and frankly, Lee Jasper did more harm to race relations than he did any good.
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predictable. but more interestingly.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/05/livingstone.london08
I agree with the article; the corruption allegations are a strawman. Though reprehensible if true he can’t really be said to be any different to any other politican. Those higher up the trough do far worse.
Lee Jasper’s politics are archaic. His opinions belong in another time, and though i can’t criticise him for forming those opinions in an age when Britain was far more volatile i can criticise him for holding them now and being in an influential public position despite having them.
The problem with the press was a tendency to avoid the issue. They were unwilling to present an argument to counter Jasper’s views without using it as an opportunity to launch a sweeping attack on modern Britain. Instead of saying Lee Jasper was wrong and ‘race relations’ had moved on; they said Lee Jasper was wrong as was most immigration over the last 40 years.
His opinions were used as foundation to attack what Britain is rather than using what Britain has become to put Jasper’s opinions to rest.
When that didn’t get the traction they wanted; they brought up the nepotism. I reiterate i find any such corruption or nepotism outrageous, but that isn’t why Jasper stood out. Simply put he was a political dinosaur, and saying that without using it as a battering ram to attack multiculturalism would have got rid of him far far sooner.
Jasper is a crook and he has failed to answer any of the allegations made against him time and time again.
He had to go, although hanging around for a bit longer would have done even more damage to Ken which I would have thoroughly enjoyed.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
Sunny:
Agreed. But I don’t think that the corruption charges were a red herring either. He was stealing from cleaners and pensioners in order to gratify his sexual desires.
Sunny,
Agree totally. I’ve known Lee for a few years now and I have great respect for what he has done over the years. But my issue has always been that Lee and friends do not appear to want to let anyone else on the platform. they will shout and scream and deride you if you don’t agree with them totally. Race relations has changed significantly ove the past 25 years and since 9/11 and 7/7 we’ve had to adapt to even quicker changes in race relations.
The 1990 Trust unequivical and blanket support for all Muslim orgs incl HuT has been at the expense of other faiths, races and objectives. It’s been one-sided and anyone who didn’t agree with them was ‘racist’. That’s just not a professional stance to take.
I absolutely deplore the Standard and the last articel about Karen Chouhan was probably one of the worst pieces fo so-called ‘journalism’ I have ever come across. Karen has done so much for the race agenda and continues to do more than most.
However, since leaving the 1990 Trust to thers the organisation has, in my opinion, become a one-tracked tunnel-visioned organisation. It happily and instantly castigates people for being ‘racist’ esp if they’re Tory – but will not even raise a single concern if ‘one of theirs’ says anything. They laugh it off. This has made them become a liability in the battle for equality. They’re agreesion and single-minded attack on Trevor Philips was abhorrent and Lee must take some blame for that. If you live by the sword you die by the sword.
Lee has been an easy target for the media – a black man in a high profile position. He has done a great deal for London and black communities as a whole – but in all honesty its time for him to go. If Ken gets re-elected I fear we’ll get another four years of Lee’s vision.
Race and equlaities has moved on from getting people to vote, and walking the streets with a loud hailer. We have to embrace the internet (like you do Sunny), we have to reach to communities that are not always involved and we have to stop the favouring of one communities for the sake of all others.
It’s time for change, the new generation are hear and waiting. It’s our turn let us speak fo rourselves.
Its a shame he went down on a sex scandel…the demise of many a politican
The politics espoused by the likes of Lee Jasper and his ilk has become a dated embarrassment, now was the time to move on. Lee has done a lot for BME communities especially during the 80s with stop and search and deaths in police custody which disproportionately effected the black community. I met Lee on one occasion and I took a instant like to him, he is a funny guy. However I do think that the stories in the ES are subliminally racial motivated and feel that there is a vendetta against BME organisations. Saying this I do understand that seems to be a level of corruption in some so called community groups which need to be investigated, but it is not only BME groups guilty of this. I really do believe that the right want to ‘take back’ London and to appease those who feel that commitments to diversity has gone to far.
nyak nyak nyak. in yer face, livingstone. i only met him once, at a community musicians event and he was staggeringly patronising and clearly didn’t understand how ethnic musicians might find it a bit odd to be described as “black” by him (chinese, jewish, kazakh, you name it…?) as a synonym for “ethnic”. how about i’d like to take london back from people who think that institutionalising grievance politics is a suitable response to institutional racism.
b’shalom
bananabrain
Lee Jasper is a shameless crook – any official who fails to account for public money in the manner exhibited by deserves sacking. That Jasper received the unbridled support of Ken Livingstone and his bought and paid for acolytes in the race business shows that they are not fit to receive or control public monies either.
Well done to the Evening Standard for exposing this nest of cynical spivs.
Ken and Jasper’s play of the race card affronts the intelligence of the general public and undermines the efforts of people who, in whatever way they can, are genuinely seeking to make London a better place for people of all races. Ken’s fratenizaton with things anti-semitic suggests that he’s in no position to point fingers. I wont be lectured on racism by the likes of him.
Incidentally, I’m black, London born and raised and have been around the block enough times to be able to tell the difference between racism and crookery.
Saying this I do understand that seems to be a level of corruption in some so called community groups which need to be investigated, but it is not only BME groups guilty of this.
I’m in some agreement with you. There’s all this talk about nepotism… but fuck me – the media industry talking about nepotism? It’s full of the most nepotistic bastards around.
Some of the allegations were hazy, some of them were quite serious. There’s no doubt a lot of backs were scratched.
Incidentally, if Jasper came back – Ken Livingstone would be one of the stupidest politicians around. There’s a lot more dirt to be found I’m told and he’d be gone within months if he was re-appointed. Ken’s arrogance is def now his biggest liability.
What a sour, envious little article from you Sunny Hundal, who is happy to genuflect around any white politician with access to a funding stream.
Lee Jasper has, over the years, proved himself and able and feroucious battler against racism.
He may not have changed with the times, not realised that the nature of the battle has changed, but he deserves respect for his contibutions in our ongoing struggle.
It’s easy for people like Sunny and other Asians to condemn Lee Jasper because he is black.
Would they dare criticise a white clown like Boris Johnson if he got trapped in a similar situation? And has Sunny and his clique ever condemned the Daily Mail, Express and Sun for their nasty racism over the years?
Most Asians tend to be a cowardly and devious lot, always looking over their shoulder and only waking up when it is safe to join others to condemn a black.
I agree with Swaraj & Rami that Jasper had guts and was prepared to defend multiculturism loudly against the racists and lament the demise of the old CRE.
‘And has Sunny and his clique ever condemned the Daily Mail, Express and Sun for their nasty racism over the years?’
Nope. Sunny and his clique regard the Daily Mail as the fount of all wisdom. And frankly, Boris Johnson is idolised on this blog, it’s nauseating.
‘Most Asians tend to be a cowardly and devious lot,…’
Lucky we have people like you to defend us against the racists. Well done you.
Its a shame he went down on a sex scandel…the demise of many a politican
Zaffer, it wasn’t saucy emails that was the scnadal. It was cronyism. The scandal was giving £100,000 of tax payers money to her organisation. Just one example of the cronyism.
Ros,
You posted this:
This was, perhaps, a pre school playgroup insult. It is certainly racist.
Do you think most of the folk that write here are cowards? When the opposite is clear to me, and many silent obsevers?
Given that you are at a maximum four years old, you are lucky and you are free from the prosecution that adults might expect.
Bloody Asians, eh! What fun!
Let’s stir up some black / asian hatred.
This is supposed to be a semi serious forum. Correct me if I am wrong, Mr Hundal…..
No doubt some other forum has linked it, and a crew of Jasper defenders have turned up, with no idea of stances I’ve taken previously on Johnson or the Daily Mail. But its good fun to watch anyway.
1. It seems that to be politically successful, however brief, one needs to become a caricature of the views that one expresses, to get things done. If one of these caricatures is successful, it means that his/ her negative side is temporarily ignored as he/ she has some use. Lee Jasper, as happens to many politicians regardless of colour, no longer tipped the balance in terms of usefulness- his foibles have always been there, but they now act a convenient device to use to ‘discard what is not required or useful’. It’s not a black/ Asian thing or a uni/ multicultural thing- just that his caricature is no longer useful- sorry to be so ruthless about it.
2. Ros’ comments are rather like a clumsy joke- tolerated at the time but only of any seriousness if people decide to be offended by it. Sorry Ros, not a particularly effective ruse- making the point that Lee was (and continues to be) a champion of a particular cause is fair cop, but attributing the negative comments over his his political demise purely to ‘asinine Asian racism against brave Blacks’ is jaw droppingly embarrassing. What’s next- ‘Brave Blacks Battle Asinine Asians Against Wiley Whites’? Don’t think so. Please grow up.
I have no intention of offending anyone. What’s the point of upsetting minorities, already marginalised by the system and forced to skulk in the shadows?
Take the few Asians who hold some sort of power – the Asian MPs or industrialists. Do they they open their mouth on issues like race or immigration issue raging around them? Clearly they don’t want to rock the boat and jeopardise the £60,000 they receive per year. Let Jeremy Corbyn fight for social justice. So our MPs just shut up and toe the line.
There are exceptions of course such as Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Shammi C.
By devious I mean not straightforward – taking the safe and easy route already cleared by the mainstream pundits. Remarks like ‘grow up, 4 year old’ merely deflect the issue, not answer it. It was easy to slam a poor black loner like Jasper – he has no body & no paper to defend him.
Now here’s a simple question – how many members of this blog would hit back at Britain’s rightwing pundits like Andrew Neil, Rod Liddle, R Littlejohn or Simon Heffer?
let’s be specific. Rod Liddle had this to say in the Sunday Times (31Dec08:
How would Asian members of this blog respond to Liddle?
Sorry – Rod Liddle remark appeared on 31 Dec 2006, not 2008.
To say the asians don’t stand up for themselves and other minorities is just plain untrue. There are many that do. However, MPs are a different breed. Black and Asian MPs fail to stand up for minorites on almost a daily basis for fear of being branded a ‘one issue’ MP. David Lammy, Shailesh Vara, Mark Hendrick, Adam Afriyie among others don’t and won’t speak on ‘minority issues’.
To say asians stay quiet because they “don’t want to rock the boat and jeopardise the £60,000 they receive per year” – s completely an individual thing. A large proportion of Asians are self-employed and are entitled to earn what they want. Asian industrialists use their power in different ways. Many donate to political parties or politicians and use thier influence in a completely different way to an activist. They’ve created various political clubs and associations that regularly speak and lobby MPs. They just don’t do it in public.
It seems that your quibble is that Asians don’t react or support other minorities for fear of losing out financially. I think you find they do. THe muslim community do agreat deal to show how they are not all fundamentalists. The Hindu community show promote the fiath in and out of Westministe. Both faith groups also speak and support others on numerous subjects.
The fact is that Lee Jasper got caught. As he is black and in high-profiel position he was always going to be under more scrutiny than his peers. I’m jsut really annoyed that the Evening Standard and Gilligan in particular picked on him. What about Ken’s other advisers?? All got the roughly the same pay rise after Ken’s re-elections, not just Lee and Simon Fletcher got a huge increase in salary. Where’s Gilligan’s comments here?? His focus should be on Ken’s single-minded and unconsultative nature tenure as Mayor, Ken ‘jump on any bandwagon to stay popular’ Livingstone shoudl be the focus of thi, not one of his advisers. In the end, Ken is elected, Lee wasn’t Ken should take responsibilty.
#11
Straight to the point. Jasper’s good qualities of steel, spine, oratory and real life practical usefulness need to be brought to the surface for younger people who wish to improve matters.
rest assured a forum like PP is not the place where you find asiatics with balls of steel. i dont find your asian generalisation resembles my reality though, but i see where you are coming from. You know the think about ‘black skin white mask’
How would Asian members of this blog respond to Liddle?
As the pitiful bag of shite he is. Lee Jasper might be a has-been but Liddle is a never-was.
Ros – why not search for Rod Liddle on here before shooting your mouth off and looking even more silly?
It appears as if there is only one way to fight injustice and discrimination- by being vocal, by being in politics, and by having balls of steel. Any other approach is seen as being unfaithful to the cause. Last time I heard a line like that was from Bush in his ‘either for us or against us’.
Politicians by definition have to be regarded as compromised- only occassional ones do demonstrate ‘balls of steel’. I don’t see why black, Chinese or Asian politicians should behave any differently (shame really).
To have odious, pompous words such as Liddle’s in print is unacceptable, of course. But to lose one’s temper, stamp one’s feet and proclaim ‘this is not right’ could be exactly the wrong thing to do. Sometimes ignoring the odious is the right thing to do, in order not to give it the airplay. You will always get those who will agree with these sentiments, who will be waiting for some form of aggressive response, so that Liddle can be martyred.
A strategy of appropriate aggression and similarly steely everyday diplomacy is probably more effective that one alone.
For the record, Liddle’s article is here.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/rod_liddle/article1265364.ece
Can’t stand the cocky little scruff-bag, myself.
I think Lee Jasper has one of these
Sunny, you say “Ros – why not search for Rod Liddle on here before shooting your mouth off and looking even more silly?”
SEARCH WHERE? Why not do the efficient thing and list the sources like Don?
Thanks,MARVIN- very appropriate.
SWARAJ said: “As he is black and in high-profile position he was always going to be under more scrutiny than his peers.” But the Evening Standard was pitilessly vindictive – where are British journalist ethics when it comes to blacks? And how could anyone stomach a score of reporters camped round his home?
FUGSTAR – how right you are to say that “Jasper’s good qualities of steel, spine, oratory and real life practical usefulness need to be brought to the surface.”
Meanwhile here is the same Liddle venting his spleen on Lee Jasper in the SUNDAY TIMES yesterday (9th March):
Just see how privileged a few rightwingers are to have access to ample media space to spout their venom as they please while the rest of us will disallowed any of this same space to respond. We have left to feed our frustrations in blogs.
SEARCH WHERE?
In the bit near the top where is says ‘search’?
Oh, and I’m still not clear on how ‘Most Asians tend to be a cowardly and devious lot,’ isn’t odiously racist. Could you join the dots for me?
Don- thanks for the link. You’re right- he is an odious little scruffbag, picked up from the local with a belly of bitter speaking clearly.
i can’t believe anyone could take him seriously- and he’s paid for spouting this bull?
Hundal and his cronies see themselves as part of a mythical brown and white establishment, waiting in the wings…. Waiting for a sign from old establishment to take their places at the table… preferably next to a Royal.Of course, part of the price to be paid for that level of access is to publicly dog the Black and islamic zealots..in Hundal’s crazed new world we are subsumed as the not so new undesirables.
Of course sellouts and shameless careerists are nothing new in the shiten world of leftist politics. It comes with the territory. What galls me though is to see how, at the slightest touch, emperors cloak racism seeps out from behind the well considered poses they like to strike.
Remember, you right thinking black and asian folks (who like me come here to lurk and , ahem, learn) this is the same Hundal who says he supports Barack Obama because his campaign platform has lilttle relavance to issues of race.
Nice, sunny boy. In your famished world view, race has been finally banished from the American political discourse..and by a black man to boot!
RAMIIE
fugstar: rest assured a forum like PP is not the place where you find asiatics with balls of steel.
asiatic balls of steel. Heh, I like that village boy. Are you part of the cowardly and devious lot as described by Ros. Certainly seems like it… lick lick!
Ros – it looks like you like coming out with long words to call Asian people cowardly and devious, but can’t even find a simple search function. But, since you’re that incompetent, I’ve done the work for you.
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/1026
I can’t remember the last time I took Rod Liddle seriously. He’s an odious scumbag. What that has to do with this I don’t know. The fact of the matter is, you (Ros) are as racist as the people you condemn. As soon as some criticism of Jasper comes out, you’re happily calling all Asians cowardly and deviant. That’s really going to get you plaudits.
I think your attacks on Lee Jasper were unnecessary and weakened by you suggesting there were other things to come out – without telling us what.
Your comments perhaps stem from the fact that you were not here when most of the serious political battles around race and discrimination (or for that matter, gender equality and gay rights) were being fought. Lee and many many others deserve to be recognised for their work and how they managed to frame the issues – correctly for the time.
You and the rest of us are net beneficiaries of that work. I am quite keen to see how you and others who were not part of the political scene of the 80′s and 90′s view those of us who were.
And it seems to me you like what came out of it.
I see your attacks as that of a newcomer taking on the old-guard and so frame the issues in a different way. That’s fine. Although I have to say its probably more to do with finding a gap in the market. I don’t decry that, because for all I know you may have seen something the rest of us haven’t. But it would be a tragedy to assume that it was always as you think you found it.
Right now I simply see you marking out your territory, and hope your contributions to come, will be relevant and worthwhile. My recommendation would be that there is plenty to be learnt from the hard work that has gone before.
Lee Jasper should be recognised for his efforts. As for his presumed ‘fall from grace’, well what do you expect. Its politics after all.
No doubt your day too will come.
Refresh – Either you don’t read my articles or you just pretend you do. I’ve always acknowledged that Lee Jasper did his time, but keep stating that he now belongs to a different era. His comments, whenever such discussions come up, betray that.
Now you may think that just because a person has done his/her time, it gives them the right to stick around forever. This is probably why you’re so protective about the “community leaders” who are happy to protect their own power bases while refusing to give the youngsters a voice or any representation.
either way a new generation, rooted in the realities of today, needs to arise.
I’ve also repeatedly stated that I don’t want to become another career “race relations expert”. If I do, I hope to god someone kicks me out and takes over the discussions once I’m past it. I know so much about what goes on behind the scenes that one could write a whole book about it. There’s a lot more that will undoubtedly come out of the GLA.
But your article betrays #34:
Its titles ‘Good riddance Lee Jasper’, not quite the acknowledgement of his work.
As for having done his time – are we really sure?
(1) Rest assured a forum like PP is not the place where you find asiatics with balls of steel.
(2) I dont find your asian generalisation resembles my reality though, but i see where you are coming from.
hmm,
Sunny Pindu, was it just too difficult to read on one sentence and hold both ideas in your head at the same time?
Some people really are well and truly obsessed with colour of skin, so much so that it filters the blinkers of all they see in their world. How sad.
Lee Jasper was shown up in the media for cronyism, and being part of Ken’s little clique. Ken has spent a lot of time being Mayor of London, and over that time has pissed a lot of people off. He’s employed 60 of his closest friends at the GLA.
Why isn’t the campaign against Ken racist? Cos the whole focus is not on race you fucking num nuts. And he’s white. It’s on Ken and 60 of his closest friends.
Lee Jasper, as exactly the opportunist Ken would do if he were Brown, immediately attacked the media as ‘racist’ for picking up on his dodgy deals.
Pathetic!
Sunny, I do take my hat off to you for your “asiatic balls of steel”!!!
The rest of you attacking Sunny, cos he is brown, and not sticking up for a brown brother, regardless of his actions, well it’s fucking pathetic.
Marvin,
‘The rest of you attacking Sunny, cos he is brown, and not sticking up for a brown brother, regardless of his actions, well it’s fucking pathetic.’
Surely you are not playing the ‘race-card’ on Sunny’s behalf, given your post at #26?
Now that is pathetic!
I’ve already given the example of our dumb MPs who won’t speak up when
1) the Home Office introduces unfair laws on race or immigration, 2) the rightwing pundits slag off blacks & browns, 3) Muslims are labelled extremist but not the state that bombs innocent civilians, 4) the state violates human rights through detention without trial, mistreats asylum seekers, OKs rendition flights, etc.
Doesn’t their silence on these grave issues suggest they are cowards or do you prefer the term opportunistic or pragmatic? (Keith Vaz is an exception of sorts among politicians.)
How many Asians with some POWER have the courage to stand up publicly against injustices and criticise the establishment? The other Asians don’t count as we never hear their voices anyway.
Surely you are not playing the ‘race-card’ on Sunny’s behalf, given your post at #26?
Everyone’s playing the race card Refresh – including you. Please stop trying to take the high moral ground. It’s getting rather boring.
‘Everyone’s playing the race card Refresh – including you. Please stop trying to take the high moral ground. It’s getting rather boring.’
Of course its boring. That’s the problem with the moral high ground.
Sunny
‘Everyone’s playing the race card Refresh – including you.’
Don’t think so.
But you’ve got to admit Marvin was being less than honest.
I don’t think you are playing the card, but I do think there is every chance you are being played.
How many Asians with some POWER have the courage to stand up publicly against injustices and criticise the establishment? The other Asians don’t count as we never hear their voices anyway.
Ros, please get your facts right. There are many Asians who stand up for what they believe in. Baroness Verma does lots on Human Rights and forced marriages; Baroness Warsi also speaks on subjects that concern her; Lord Ahmed does his bit; they’re just a few. As you don’t hear their voices why don’t they count?? So, you’re saying that Asians have to speak out publicly to be admired, championed?? Obviously, those that work effectively behind the scenes are not as good in your skewed view of the world!
but I do think there is every chance you are being played.
Give it a rest Refresh, that’s your answer every time I say something you don’t like. I know exactly what I’m saying – I’ve been saying it for ages. For lack of an adequate response, this is your best comeback. I don’t normally agree with marvin but he was spot on. You can’t see yourself as anything else but a victim. As for the village boy, well I can’t really help fugstar.
swaraj – good points mate, and let’s not forget Yasmin Alibhai’s columns in the Indy every week. But I forget, most Asians are spineless and cowards right?
Ros hasn’t even come back to me on Rod Liddle. Are we still Daily Mail lover Ros? Tell me, I’m dying to hear you tell THE TRUTH.
Jasper is still a man of positive integer value whose contributions will be valued long after his passing. He wasnt a headline hopper like some of those who mobilise their imaginary value with a deluded brown mand’s burden and dated, canned righteous indignation, whenever they are prompted to do so.
Hundal says Jasper has done his time. However there is no honorable exit for Jasper, just a kick in the balls from Hundal.
which smacks of spite and envy to me..
RAMIIE
This thread on Jasper has generated some light but more acrimony. What lessons can be drawn? Here are some suggestions:
1) Britain’s dominant discourse is sustained by a bunch of rightwing columnists like Rod Liddle. They are given ample space in the billionaire press to villify and malign individuals and groups of their choice with immunity. Their views are read (and no doubt internalised) by millions.
2) But the victims and their sympathisers are rarely allowed equal (or any) space to defend themselves and present their case. They can’t complaint – the IPCC is a joke. So they vent their fury and drop expletives like scumbag in their ghetto press or blogs, which the offenders have not heard of. And they end up slinging mud at each other. Sad but inevitable.
3) The urgent issue is: how to get some mainstream space and representation! Figures like Sunny , Lenny Henry or Meera Syal have raised the matter but nobody up there is listening. In the British scheme of things, ethnics are supposed to remain in their place, like true post-colonials.
4) So what else do the ethnics do? In their frustration, they stir up their inter-communal differences. Bashing Muslims and Sikhs is a favourite -never the white working class or the toffs or the police.
5) Time to leave the ghetto and challenge the policies of mainstream institutions like the Home Office, police and the obnoxious tabloids. They have the power and when it is misused, we get injustices of which we are the victims.
So it is time to interact with those that matter. Leave fellow ethnics and their petty differences alone.
[End of homily]
All these poor words used to criticise/defend a politician. The kind who only wants his own kind on their platform, and will hound and ridicule anyone who disagrees with them. London is full of them, they are all sizes, races and religions. And anyone who puts their trust in any of them requires help. Except for Chakrabathi and Yasmin Alibhai Brown.
Gawd Almighty is this what the English language is reduced to. You’d all be better off writing poetry.
Only just found this wonderful site and I am glad that McCarthy’s Bar has kept this one going as I know a great deal about Lee Jasper and non of it is good. I was born in Hoxton in East London just after the war, the Second World one in case any one is confused!
I saw the rise of the far right in my area in the early sixties. Our area was full of it, it had been a stronghold of the British Union of Fascists in the thirties and my family remembered that.
My family being English/Irish travelers was more or less immune from racism but people I went to school with became open fascists after the National Front was formed in 1967.
I was active against them through that decade and then when they collapsed after the Tories got in 1979 scaled down my involvement and went into business building although I still had all my old contacts from the street fighting days.
The rot set in as far as I am concerned when Ken Livingstone arried out a coup just after Labour won the old GLC in May 1981. He was heavily influenced by a group called Socialist Action which had formulated a theory that white people, and particularly the white working class, were racist and the revolution was to be made by ethnic minorities, disabled people, Gays and old uncle Tom Cobley and all. Any one but whitey!
Livingstone began to fund any group that said it was oppressed and this is where a whole series of ethnic minority and left wing hustlers began to appear. The next thing was that the loony left began to take over councils, Hackney was one, and political correctness went mad. I was asked to tender for building work on Hackney Council but was told that my workforce had to reflect the community and I had to employ ethnic minorities even if they couldn’t lay bricks or rewire a house.
All my white employees had to take Race Awareness Training for which I would have to pay and guess who was running the courses, the same black loony left who were setting up the council and GLC funded equality schemes. Linda Bellos mad a fortune out of it. It seems impossible now but white people were demoted and lost their jobs because they asked for black or white coffee. The mere accusation of racism and an enquiry was launched. I told Hacknet Council where iit could stuff there contract and stayed in the private sector and doing my own developements. Over the years I employed many black and Asian people but they were good at their jobs and some are friends to this day.
This was the background that the Lee Jaspers came from. A reign of terror where white people kept their heads down while Livingston poured money into groups that spouted anti white and anti Jewish racial hatred.
I first came across Jasper when one of his front groups either the National Black Alliance or the National Black Caucus, I can’t remember as there were so many, announced a march through Bermondsey in South London, then as now a largely white area, to prtest against racial attacks. They had brought over Al Sharpton from the States and when they marched into the area they were absolutely smashed by NF/Combat 18.
I remember Jasper running down Southwark Park Rd as fast as his little legs to hide behind the police as the whites went on the rampage attacking any ethnic minorities they could find.He had been told by experienced anti fascists to call the thing off but his attitude was there were no no go areas for black militants like himself.
I kept in touch with the anti fascist movement through the nineties as did a few older people who had gone through the sixties and seventies and who were either in business like me or in the professions and we would provide what help we could.
What we saw develop from our voluntary movement was a huge anti white money making racket with Jasper in the middle of it. The man has never got off his backside to do anything unless there was money in it.
It is wrong as some of those posting to say that he has been persecuted by Gilligan and the Standard, instead ask yourselves are the allegations true or not, where has the money gone and who in the black communities of London has benefited? The beneficiaries are a handful of Jasper’s mates, over twenty years of money being poured into these scams and African Caribbeans are as badly off as ever.
Well done Sunny, you have taken on a difficult subject that a lot of people didn’t want to touch. Lastly on the subject of the Daily Mail. It’s not a paper I read but remember it was the only one under David English who followed the Stephen Lawrence case and called the five accused murderers.
billericky, well there’s an inside view. Interesting. So the white working class are racist as decided by this group, hmm, when is someone going to come up with the universal truth, that all groups regardless of race, religion etc possess within their numbers those who are racist towards other groups. But anyway thank you for an enlightening insight. I’d ask for my money back, if I were you.
McCarthy’s Bar,
Interesting point and one the race industry never admit to. Although I use the initials BME in fact the whole thing is a massive fraud, the idea that there is any unity of interests between the hundreds of ethnic groups in the country is nonsense and many are equally intolerant of other supposed members of the group.
As far as I can make out the scam started about ten years ago and was dreamed up by another of the Jasper organization Operation Black Vote. I have come across Asians who are openly racist towards people of African descent and call them Bandoor Lokh or in Syhleti Bandoor Manus, monkey people. There is no unity of interests between the three main religions of the sub continent in the UK and there is no reason why their should be.
The reason why non of this is mentioned is that the race industry is a business and the money lies with the state which has to be forced to hand it over. There is no financial mileage in pointing out that West Africans look down on Jamaicans and call them slaves.
What is good is that whereas people were to frightened to take on the Lee Jaspers and all of the other crooks and hustlers it is now open season on them which can only be healthy for all of us.
I give this contact everywhere I post http://www.hopenotehate.org.uk. Get involved we need peopleon the streets handing out the anti BNP literature. Tomorrow it’s Camden and there is free food and a free Billy Bragg concert. Be there or be square!