The Times - UK (2020-08-28)

Don’t bet the house on

working from home

Iain Martin

Page 29

Charities such as Generating

Genius and the Amos Bursary have

done exceptional work in helping

some Caribbean heritage families to

beat the odds over the past 20 years.

But they are small and poorly

funded. To tackle this problem will

take the resources and power of the

state; reducing the levels of school

exclusions in this group might help.

But we will need to do more, and

some ideas will be unthinkable to

those who care more about street

theatre than substance.

Some years ago it was suggested

that some of the lagging groups, boys

especially, might perform better if

taught in classes separate from girls.

I have no idea whether this would

have worked or not. But the fact that

so many middle-class parents are

prepared to shell out tens of

thousands preparing their children

for entry to single-sex (but

multiracial) independent schools,

and then gladly pay hundreds of

thousands more in school fees might

suggest that there’s something in it.

But the predictable outcry prevented

any research that would establish the

truth one way or another.

Anyone who really thinks Black

Lives Matter should put down their

placards and pick up the EPI report,

read it thoroughly and ask

themselves “what can I do to help?”.

You could start with a donation to

those groups who are already

working on the problem. And then

open your mind to possibilities that

may not make you feel more

virtuous, but could tackle the racial

turmoil roiling our nation.

that dwarfs all the anxieties about

who sings what. The EPI team has

analysed the attainment of pupils in

England and Wales over the past ten

years. When tested for attainment in

English and maths, Caribbean

heritage children reach the end of

compulsory schooling on average a

full school year — 10.9 months —

behind their white peers, two and

half years behind Indian heritage

children, and over three years behind

the Chinese. They lag poorer

Bangladeshis by about a year and a

half, and black children who have

come more recently direct from

Africa, some with little English on

arrival, by more than ten months.

Uniquely, the gap between the

Caribbeans and the average has

widened over the past ten years by

two thirds — a full four months.

Bickering about what’s sung at the

Last Night of the Proms is irrelevant

second thought to the words of a

song they never hear.

Unusually, though, the corporation

may be outdone in hypocrisy by the

British Museum, which has plans for

the bust of its founder, Sir Hans

Sloane. Out of one side of its mouth

the BM has trumpeted that it is

removing a slave owner from his

pedestal; out of the other, it is

assuring its government paymasters

that it is simply protecting the image

of the revered philanthropist. Sloane,

a doctor, might have been hard put to

find a backbone in Bloomsbury. I

would wager that a little more

diversity in the executive ranks of

these institutions would stiffen their

resolve in the face of activist bullying.

Failing that, they could just be a

little more creative. Away from

London another venerable music

festival has displayed both the

courage and the initiative so far

missing in the national flagships.

Nobody could seriously accuse the

Benjamin Britten-founded

Aldeburgh Festival of being overly

woke. Yet, Roger Wright, the chief

executive, (himself a former Proms

boss) was the first to open his venue

to audiences this summer season,

selling 900 tickets last weekend. He

featured the Chineke! Orchestra

founded by the Chi-Chi Nwanoku,

composed entirely of musicians of

colour; and a “gorgeous”

performance of pieces by Barber

(American, white, gay) and

Rachmaninov (Russian, also white,

anti-Soviet) by the siblings Isata and

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (piano and

cello, both black). No angst about

cultural appropriation or about

politics, identity or otherwise. Just

great music.

The Education Policy Institute, a

think tank led by the former Liberal

Democrat MP David Laws, this week

released a telling piece of research

T

he fact that what we now
loosely call “the Black Lives
Matter story” simply will
not go away is a good
thing. People of all
backgrounds and colours who
previously would not have devoted a
second’s thought to racial and
religious inequalities are summoning
the curiosity and courage to debate
the issues. Until now, many have
assumed from their own limited
experience that things were getting
better; others have just been too busy
on the night shift to complain about
what they suspect to be prejudice.
In Britain at least, many are
talking about race relations
generously and thoughtfully. Some
are even looking for answers, though
often in the wrong places. The
mayhem on the streets of America
and its echoes here pale into
insignificance set next to the
extraordinary finding by the
Education Policy Institute that some
groups of black children leave school
at 16, a full school year behind whites
in learning. Guess which issue is
likely to be more significant to the
black families who have travelled
thousands of miles to a cold and
hostile land, worked the night shift
for years in the hope that their
children will have better lives and
more choices: I think a degree beats
defunding the police every time.
On the other hand, every fresh
police shooting understandably

Proms prattle does nothing to help black lives

Instead of arguing over trivia, supporters of BLM should look at improving education of Caribbean heritage children

provokes a new wave of protest. For

some this cause has become an

opportunity to assert their own

righteousness. The sight of a mostly

white mob screaming at a white

woman outside a Washington DC

restaurant because she refused to

copy their clenched fist salute turns

the stomach. Her refusal to be

coerced does her credit; and the

scene, which has now been viewed

millions of times, was all the more

shameful because she had herself

participated in peaceful BLM protests.

Fifty years ago, white civil rights

activists went to the South to confront

segregationists. Some died for this

cause. The bullying DC crowd risked

nothing more than having their

“Silence is Violence” T-shirts

dampened by a spilt mocha latte.

Even more unforgivable are the

incoherent, and in some cases

hypocritical, responses of some

of our formerly great institutions. As

ever, the BBC has led the way.

Despite the fact that the word n****

is in daily use in its music output, it

appears that the word “slave” is too

offensive for listeners and viewers at

the Last Night of the Proms. I expect

the French national anthem (“this

horde of slaves”) and its American

counterpart (“the hireling and slave”)

to be similarly censured; and I

assume that the BBC will start to ask

itself if it should listen to those who

want to ban the Eurovision Song

Contest, viewed by 182 million last

year. I daresay there are far more

people offended by its celebration of

camp culture or the participation of

Israelis than the number who give a

I daresay more are

offended by Eurovision

than Rule, Britannia

Getting a degree

beats defunding the

police every time

Comment

Trevor

Phillips

@trevorptweets

the times | Friday August 28 2020 1GM 27