No faith in Boris’ new race inquiry
■ The Government’s planned commission on racism is a case of the poacher trying to become the gamekeeper. Boris Johnson’s insistence on making it about structural racism appears to be an attempt to avoid any discussion about recent Tory culpability in fanning the flames of xenophobia and racism.
We’ve had the Windrush scandal, Johnson and Cummings’ exploitation of prejudice during Brexit, and the failure to act immediately over the disproportionate consequences of Covid-19 on the BAME community.
Many Tories seem to be more concerned about statues than black lives. Although no British government has a good record on dealing with racism, Johnson and Cummings’ populist nationalism is based on a whitewashing of the past – they should not be allowed to get away with it in the future. Brett Grainger, Rugeley, Staffs
■ Boris Johnson’s announcement of a new commission on racial inequality is just another empty promise that will result in nothing actually being done. What’s needed is action to implement the recommendations of all the previous government inquiries. The money that will be spent on this commission would be far better used on reinstating youth services that have been axed amid Tory cuts. To me this is an attempt to kick this issue into the long grass so the Government doesn’t actually have to do anything.
Carole Bartlett, Manchester
■ As a middle-aged white man, I’ve been struck by how the Black Lives Matter movement, of mainly young people, called off some of its protests last weekend to keep people safe, whereas the far right rampaged through London fighting with police officers.
I’ve also been struck by the hugely disproportionate sacrifice of black and ethnic minority healthcare workers who have paid with their lives to keep us safe from Covid. We owe it to the Black Lives Matter movement to respond with strong government action to make black lives safer.
Bob Banks, Grindleford, Derbys
■ I have been to two recent rallies in support of Black Lives Matter in Hull. The second was in Queens Gardens in the shadow of the statue of William Wilberforce who was born in Hull, became our MP and was instrumental in putting through an Act of Parliament to ban the slave trade.
On both occasions I felt like the token old person, because the age group of the protesters was mainly school age up to 30, which gladdened my heart.
There was no trouble. I saw no more that half a dozen police liaison officers in their light blue jackets who mingled with the crowd. Why do some rallies have to face lines of tooled-up police giving the impression trouble is expected? Liz Charles, Hull
■ I find it hypocritical that Johnson is calling for racism to be expunged from society. Have people forgotten his past racist remarks or his party’s support for Windrush deportations? Saying this Government has more BAME MPs than previous administrations does not mean racism is not present in its ranks.
The twisting of BLM’s goals by saying they want to censor history when they actually want to illuminate the past is part of the problem. T Maunder, Leeds
■ As the Black Lives Matter campaign gathers momentum, it will start to lose sympathy if it carries on targeting the likes of Lord Baden Powell, Winston Churchill and Queen Victoria.
We can’t change history but we can learn from it. Do we remove the Albert memorial in Kensington, or rename the Albert Hall? This is how ridiculous this could get. Victor Laidlaw, St Leonards-onSea, East Sussex