In response to the Black Lives Matters protests that had spread to the UK Boris Johnson has announced the launching of a racism commission.
Reuters: Calls for action, not words, as Johnson launches UK racism commission
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came under pressure on Monday to deliver action on racism after he launched a commission on racial inequalities following Black Lives Matter protests.
Johnson said a cross-government commission would examine racism and the disparities experienced by minority ethnic groups in education, health and the criminal justice system.
Johnson said he could not ignore the strength of feeling shown by tens of thousands of people who had demonstrated in British cities following the death of African American George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last month.
“What I really want to do as prime minister is change the narrative, so we stop the sense of victimisation and discrimination,” he said on Sunday.
“It won’t be easy. We’ll have to look very carefully at the real racism and discrimination that people face.”
On Monday, Johnson’s spokesman said that work to establish the commission had already begun, and a report on findings and recommendations was expected by the end of the year.
But…
…he gave few details about the commission, leading to criticism that he was prevaricating rather than delivering concrete steps.
“It’s the sort of morning that makes me slightly weary, because it feels like we’re going round in circles,” said David Lammy, an opposition Labour lawmaker whose own report into over-representation of black people in the criminal justice system is one of several whose findings have not yet been implemented.
“The time for review is over and the time for action is now.”
Sounds like Johnson’s government wants to be seen to be doing something but doesn’t really have much idea what to do, or they are kicking the racism can down the road.
The commission was announced in a broadcast clip and accompanied with an article in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, where Johnson also again said it was absurd that a statue of Winston Churchill should be under threat from protesters.
Johnson said he was “extremely dubious about the growing campaign to edit or photoshop the entire cultural landscape” by tearing down statues.
“Let’s fight racism, but leave our heritage broadly in peace”.
A commission that will take months is unlikely to stop the current protests and debate over statues and racism.
Your NZ 
Gezza
/ 16th June 2020Of course it’ll take months. It’s a tricky business. The UK once had an Empire & its heroes from then won’t have all been strictly amirable chaps or chapesses to those it once ruled over, sometimes harshly. It’s complicated now that so many born in the UK are descended from immigrants born in those exploited countries, or are immigrants themselves.
Pink David
/ 16th June 2020Is there any hero in existence that is total without sin? That seems an option only for the very dull.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th June 2020Black Lives Don’t Matter in Chch either:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/121833477/christchurch-murderer-too-emotional-naive-to-understand-rights
NOEL
/ 16th June 2020Aw gee Alan why didn’t you just cut and past the last paragraph.
“The Court of Appeal said there was no evidence to suggest there had been, or might have been, an unfair trial because of the way the jury was selected.
The appeal against Borell’s conviction was dismissed.”
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th June 2020The point is that in Chch black lives matter more to the mostly white justice system than they do to the mostly black perpetrators.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th June 2020Police identify the De La Salle College attackers as coming from Tamaki College – quite a distance away. What is going on here? Gang warfare?
NOEL
/ 16th June 2020blob:https://www.nzherald.co.nz/fdb7c599-0878-46e3-be50-80808a74d90c
NOEL
/ 16th June 2020Tamaki this year last time……..Manurewa
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/facebook-schoolyard-brawl-videos-glorify-violence-psychologist
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th June 2020Your Herald link doesn’t work.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th June 2020Black Lives Don’t Matter in Hamilton either:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12340363
When will they stop killing each other? When will the loony Left protest about what is really happening in NZ?
NOEL
/ 16th June 2020Here’s what Yah need Alan!
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/inm.12641https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/inm.12641
Rather, the level of violence within whānau seen today reflects the patriarchal norms of the British colonizing culture, as well as historical and intergenerational trauma from the widespread and ongoing fragmentation of Māori social structures that were enforced during and after the colonization of Aotearoa New Zealand (Family Violence Death Review Committee, 2017).
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th June 2020Well that’s a complete load of crap isn’t it. No wonder nothing changes when you get idiots producing reports full of utter nonsense like that.