Section:GDN 1N PaGe:21 Edition Date:190815 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 14/8/2019 20:56 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Thursday 15 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
National^21
▼ Oldham, Greater Manchester. The
diversity of northern towns must not
be forgotten or ignored, a report has
warned PHOTOGRAPH: MARK WAUGH/ALAMYMaya Wolfe-Robinson
North of England correspondent
The focus on the needs of a “mystical”
white working class in the aftermath
of the Brexit vote has led politicians
to neglect the needs of a growing and
underserved minority ethnic popu-
lation across the north of England, a
new report warned yesterday.
Researchers behind the paper by
the Runnymede Trust and the Uni-
versity of Leeds said “deep racial
and ethnic inequalities” were not
being adequately addressed by exist-
ing plans to boost economic growth
in the region, such as the “northern
powerhouse”. And they argued that
most discussions of the northern
working class in the media and polit-
ical debates since Brexit had left out
minority groups that have lived in the
region for decades.
“Ethnic minorities have been part
of working class communities in the
north since post war migration,” said
Omar Khan, a co-author and the direc-
tor of the Runnymede Trust. “They
should not be forgotten or ignored in
current political and media coverage
of ‘working class communities’.”
Narratives focusing on a disaff ected
white working class in post-industrial
northern towns risk treating the north
as a “monolithic area”, the report
argues, and also ignores areas where
diversity has increased owing to newly
arrived European migrants and asy-
lum seekers.
Some northern cities now have
among the largest minority ethnic
populations in the UK, rising by 74%
in the north-east, 69% in the north-
west and 68% in Yorkshire and the
Humber. These new migrant groups
are all more likely to be working class
than not.
The report argues that some local
authorities are failing in their statutorynorth is not a monolithic area and
there is remarkable variation between
cities and towns,” she said. “Future
plans for regeneration of northern cit-
ies and towns have to refl ect and cater
to their racially diverse population.
“The government has taken a step in
the right direction with the introduc-
tion of a national racial disparity audit
but this should be followed by invest-
ment in the areas with the highest
inequalities to uphold the commit-
ments taking place under the Equality
Act, and they have to be articulated
within wider policy agenda such as
the industrial strategy.”
Favell said the northern power-
house agenda hads “very little space
for ethnic or racial diversity” and “very
little thinking about these places that
are not cosmopolitan like Manches-
ter or Leeds”. He pointed out that
predominantly white towns that
had experienced a rapidly changing
demographic would need a diff erent
political approach to towns with an
established BAME population.
The report highlighted the increase
in hate crimes, with the north of Eng-
land accounting for about a third of all
hate crime in England and Wales. Last
year, nearly 29,000 reported incidents
of hate crime took place in the region,
an increase of about 6,000 from 2017.Focus on white working class is
‘fuelling inequality in the north’
duties under the Equality Act if they
fail to address discrepancies between
various ethnic groups.
This may lead to economic propos-
als ignoring the discrimination faced
in education and the workplace and in
relation to home ownership by minor-
ity ethnic groups, the authors suggest.
Dr Roxana Barbulescu, who leads
the Commission on Diversity in the
North project with Prof Adrian Favell
at the University of Leeds, said that
while racial inequalities were “a fea-
ture of modern Britain”, they ran
deeper in the north of England. “TheCitizens
Advice staff
angry at racist
stereotypes
in document
Aamna MohdinCitizens Advice has been accused of
propagating racist stereotypes in a
training document for advisers work-
ing with BAME communities in the UK.
The training document listed “com-
mon traits” allegedly found within the
BAME community, includ ing a distrust
of British authorities, evidence of
gender bias and discrimination, early
marriage and large families, low levels
of literacy, and a cultural focus on
honour and shame.
The document, which has been
taken down online, has been criticised
for reinforcing racist stereotypes by
the charity’s own BAME group and
others in the sector.
Citizens Advice’s BAME Network
Group has said the document “propa-
gates racist stereotypes which actively
harm the communities we come from”
in a statement that has been shared
with senior management and staff.
The group, which represents BAME
staff , state d that the executive commit-
tee had not seen, let alone approved,
the training document.
“Citizens Advice should be embar-
rassed about believing advis ers could
help these marginalised clients by
using this training document as a
shortcut for understanding the diverse
stories of clients who are not white.
The contents of the document are
damaging, reductive and dangerous .”
A staff member who spoke to the
Guardian anonymously said: “BAME
staff feel really upset and angry about
this incident ... This stems from a
culture where we are not involved in
the decision-making process.”
Fatima I ftikhar , an organiser of
#POCI mpact, a group that supports
people of colour working in the third
sector, said: “It’s so frustrating that
an organisation that gets millions in
pounds of public funding came out
with this when trying to work with
underserved communities.”
Gillian Guy, chief executive of
Citizens Advice, said: “We agree
these materials are not acceptable
and apologise unreservedly. We have
taken them down from our website
and will be investigating how this has
happened. We strive to ensure our
service is truly inclusive.”Doctors say 25%
of ‘picnic’ snacks
have dangerous
levels of salt
Haroon SiddiqueOne in four savoury picnic-type foods
contain dangerously high levels of salt ,
and almost half are high in saturated
fat, a health group has warned.
Action on Salt found that a typical
picnic basket could contain more than
5g of salt, almost the recommended
daily limit for an adult, which is 6g a
day. Excessive salt consumption hasbeen blamed for thousands of cases of
heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Among the worst off enders in the
555 picnic foods analysed by the group
were Aldi’s specially selected hand-
stuff ed Halkidiki olives, with 5g of salt
per 100g, double the salt concentration
of seawater, and Ginsters Cornish past-
ies, with 2.99g a portion, equivalent
to seven portions of salted peanuts.
Action on Salt said its fi ndings dem-
onstrated the need for immediate
compulsory front-of-pack nutritionallabelling on all such savouries. The
group’s chair, Graham MacGregor ,
professor of cardiovascular medicine
at Queen Mary University of London ,
said: “Due to inaction by the Depart-
ment of Health and Public Health
England , the public are still eating
more salt than recommended, which
is leading to thousands dying or suff er-
ing from entirely unnecessary strokes
and heart disease .”
The pressure group said its research
showed reformulation was possible,given signifi cant variations within
product categories. For example,
Gosh! Mediterranean falafels with
chickpea and parsley had 3.5 times
more salt per 100g than Cauldron Mid-
dle Eastern falafels. A Ginsters large
sausage roll had twice as much salt per
100g than Aldi Everyday Essentials’
sausage rolls in an eight-pack.
Both Ginsters and Aldi said their
products carried nutritional informa-
tion so enabling customers to make
informed choices.‘Plans have to refl ect
the north’s racially
diverse population’Dr Roxana Barbulescu
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