Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
You’re a sitting duck, pal
THE mum of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has warned a controversial Governmentbacked report risks “giving the green light to racists”.
Campaigner Doreen Lawrence, whose 18-year-old son was murdered by racists in 1993, said the review “has pushed [the fight against] racism back 20 years or more”.
Baroness Lawrence said: “They [the report authors] are not in touch with reality. My son was murdered because of racism and you cannot forget that. Once you start covering it up it is giving the green light to racists.”
Boris Johnson faces a furious backlash over the findings of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which claimed there was no evidence of institutional racism in the UK.
The report was branded “insulting” and “divisive” by critics and triggered an outcry for appearing to put a positive spin on the legacy of slavery.
It emerged yesterday that Mr Johnson’s most senior black aide Samuel Kasumu is to step down next month. He had threatened to quit in February after accusing the Tories of pursuing “a politics steeped in division” but later decided to stay on. Downing Street insisted his departure was not linked to the report.
No10 said: “This has been his plan for several months and has not changed. Any suggestion this decision was made this week or is linked to the CRED report is completely inaccurate.”
But Lord Woolley, a
THIS brave bloke needs to watch the birdie sitting beside him. The great white pelican has a wingspan that can be more than 11ft and bills up to 1.5ft. So if it spread its wings, the pelican could send the man flying. The birds, which rarely stray far from the lake in St James’s Park, central London, are known to mingle with walkers.
But they usually prefer to be admired from afar while they catch fish in the royal park’s lake.