'Unite communities'

The BBC are continuing their attacks on Boris Johnson, today this piece notes his presence at the Sikh New Year festival, Vaisakhi, in Trafalgar Square. The BBC faithfully report that:

"The new mayor is expected to build bridges with the city's ethnic minority groups, after being accused during his election campaign of being a divisive figure who could not represent all of the metropolis."

Now I wonder who accused Boris of being a divisive figure and which media organisation faithfully reported this?


The BBC continue:

"Operation Black Vote's Simon Woolley said Mr Johnson "must now demonstrate that he understands what it means to govern a multi-cultural metropolis" and address issues of poverty."

That's Operation Black Vote, the non-political organisation that exists to get "blacks" involved in public affairs? Simon Wooley who wrote on 30th April:

"Today is the day we make ourselves heard. Let’s first and foremost democratically crush the politics of race hatred: the Far Right. In London every vote for the Greater London Assembly counts.

Your no vote in affect becomes a vote for the Far Right. In the battle for racial justice Black people don’t have the luxury not to vote.

Equally we should vote for a candidate that we believe will best serve the interests of our communities, and London as a whole. Ours is an international city, with a vision, culture and its politics that transcend way beyond capital. We must be central to the governance of our capital city.

It’s easy to make an excuse not to vote today. Lets care enough not to do that.

Simon Woolley
OBV Director"

No indication there of who Simon Woolley would like "Black people" to vote for is there? Well maybe a little hint that a vote for the Left would be preferable to a vote for the "Far Right". I wonder if Simon Woolley thinks of Boris Johnson as of the "Far right"?


Simon Wooley who wrote an article for the politically unbiased New Statesman on 15 April entitled "Race, diversity and 1 May" that included these thoughts:

"why has race negatively come to the forefront this time around? There are two main factors. The first has been the wholly disproportionate attention towards Ken Livingstone’s former equality aide Lee Jasper, and a number of black groups and individuals, including Doreen Lawrence and Pastor Nims.

No-one in the black community condones financial wrongdoing but many have asked, was the scale of this focus on these allegations fair, and how come everyone targeted by this media onslaught just happens to be black?"


"The second element has come from Boris Johnson himself. His remarks about Africans and Africa have forced him to make an unreserved apology. Johnson has had to learn quickly that the politics of London demands that it’s not enough not being a racist, you have to be a passionate anti-racist."

Simon Woolley who the New Statesman describe alongside his article thus:

"Simon is Director and co founder of OBV. He sits on a number of Gov Task forces tackling race inequality. He writes in the national media and is a regular contributor in the Black press."

Operation Black Vote whose list of "black peers" excludes Baroness Warsi the Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and Social Action. Presumably the list of Labour supporting black peers could not be contaminated by the presence of a black Tory...


I think we can see that Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote may have an agenda somewhat at variance from that of a director of an unbiased organisation. Let's see who else is on the OBV team, look at the bottom of the page, the "management team" consists of two people - "Rita Patel" and "Lee Jasper". Lee Jasper, that name rings a bell, wasn't he Ken Livingstone's Senior Policy Advisor on Equalities until he had to resign?


Oddly the BBC report omits to mention on a page that at least ostensibly is about Boris Johnson's visit to the Sikh New Year festival, that Boris's wife is half Sikh, her mother being Dip Singh. I suppose that might make him seem more able to understand how "to build bridges with the city's ethnic minority groups" than Ken Livingstone, Lee Jasper or Simon Woolley.