Race Chief Trevor Phillips has received an overwhelming vote of no confidence in an opinion poll of prospective leaders for the new single equalities body.

A paltry four per cent of people who responded to the poll that was conducted on Blink, the website of the 1990 Trust, believe the Commission for Racial Equality chair would be an effective leader in driving forward race equality agendas.

Phillips, (pictured), who is being considered for the role, finished last in a list of credible contenders for the position – trailing behind other contenders, including former CRE chair Lord Herman Ouseley.

The CEHR will bring together the work of the Disability Rights Commission, Equal Opportunities Commission and the CRE from 2009.

Campaign groups, such as Operation Black Vote and 1990 Trust say the appointment of Phillips to the new body would ‘hammer the final nail in the coffin’ for the new body.

Although mainstream Britain has by and large lauded his three-year tenure as CRE chief, Phillips has come in for a bit of a hard time of it of late with community activists who say he has followed the government’s agenda too closely rather than challenge its policies on race.

They slammed him last October when he called for a new ‘highway code’ of rules to be reached by questioning basic assumptions such as the use of the word coloured, the desirability of official documents being printed in several languages and the universal recognition of minority religious holidays. In response to their poll, the 1990 Trust Board of Trustees issued a statement that said: ‘We have seen a never-ending stream of headline-grabbing comments from [Phillips] that do not focus on the issues that matter and actually do damage to the interests of people who look to the CRE to protect them from race discrimination.

‘The poll, while not scientific by any means, does reflect what we’ve heard from black communities across Britain.’

Other campaign groups were quick to back up the 1990 Trust and said they believe Phillips’s Equalities Review of government policies focusing on integration represents a further ‘missed opportunity’.

Simon Woolley, national coordinator of Operation Black Vote who were also involved in the poll, said: ‘It’s a shame because at times he can be very good.

He added: ‘It’s not personal but race equality is so important that we need somebody that is going to effectively challenge the institution.’

More than 300 votes were polled, with Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti receiving 43 per cent, Lord Ouseley 36 per cent and ex-trades union leader Sir Bill Morris 17 per cent.

The CRE said: ‘Trevor Phillips will not be making a response to the 1990 Trust/ OBV statement or the poll and as it is not really a CRE matter we cannot really pass comment.’

I'm not surprised that his ratings has dropped, remember this is a person who thinks bigbrother has 'helped' black people. As it shows bluefoots and other non-blacks about black culture (LORD HAVE MERCY......)

I swear people like him just beg BRITISHNESS I mean when I got the time I will post all the ridicolus things he's came out with! Infact I can swear this guy actually said that calling a BLACK person COLOURED is acceptable....



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[align=center]Nuff Said......blkrainbowfro[/align]

Uncle Toms in Race Relations Industry Turf War ...

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[align=center]... £150,000 p.a. at stake ...[/align]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5297760.stm







UK race chief in ghetto apology







Trevor Phillips came under fire after last year's speechThe head of Britain's race watchdog has apologised for how he presented an academic report that suggested racial segregation is increasing in the UK.
Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, warned last year that Britain could see racial ghettos similar to the US.
But experts accused him of trivialising the racial problems seen in the US and exaggerating those in the UK.
Mr Phillips stressed his fears over segregation were supported by evidence.
In a wide-ranging speech to the Royal Geographical Society's annual conference, Mr Phillips said it was right to ask hard questions about multicultural Britain - but to do so on the basis of hard evidence rather than fear or hearsay.
He praised last week's launch of a commission on integration, saying we could not pretend that a more diverse society did not bring with it any costs.
He said Britain must not confuse "domestic tourism", as seen with the success of the Notting Hill Carnival, with "genuine experience" of people from diverse backgrounds.
And failure to know each other, he argued, meant it was harder to solve critical social problems.
Someone who does not know any black families would find it hard to understand the anger surrounding the over-representation of black men in jails, he said.








Policy is all too often driven by panic, by political expediency or by whim

Trevor Phillips



Commission to tackle ethnic tensions
But in his speech, Mr Phillips turned to the controversy he sparked in September 2005 when he warned Britain was "sleepwalking into segregation".
Mr Phillips had warned some areas could become "fully-fledged ghettos", with racial divisions approaching those seen in parts of the US.
These areas would be "black holes into which no-one goes without fear or trepidation and from which no-one ever escapes undamaged".
Mr Phillips partly based that claim on research by Dr Mike Poulsen of Macquarie University, Australia, who had suggested "ethnic enclaves" were growing in the UK.
Dr Poulsen did not however say that Britain had ghettos, areas where there is little or no racial mixing on any level.
'Policymaking by panic'
Mr Phillips said: "I should ... apologise to Mike for mangling his work a little in a speech I made last September - and for his graciousness in accepting that even if my account of his presentation here was a little off, that the conclusions I drew were consistent with his findings."
Mr Phillips however defended his position, saying segregation was a growing issue amid a failure by policymakers and the media to properly understand how society was changing.
"As a result policy is all too often driven by panic, by political expediency or by whim.
"And worst of all, far from the honest debate that [Communities Secretary] Ruth Kelly called for, we have a public argument which is the equivalent of shadow boxing."
Mr Phillips said that much of the debate around segregation, integration and faith schools was "hypocrisy" because it focused on Muslim communities rather than Christian institutions as well.
People had to make up their minds whether they wanted faith schools or not.
He warned against calls for racial profiling of air passengers, saying the CRE could use its legal powers to challenge such a move.
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Poulsen said that he had no argument with Mr Phillips' view that segregation had increased, but that "crossed wires" amid a media and political storm surrounding his research had led to public confusion.

MarcusGarveyLives wrote:
Interesting..I heard Mr Livingston on BBC London today..rip into Mr Phillips....making much the same point...that he was a 'disgrace' that he appears to have gone right wing... and virtually calling Phillips an opportunist who uses his position for personal agenda and NOT for the people...

MarcusGarveyLives wrote:
Now it all begins to make sense......Now I begin to understand all his recent pronouncement on race....what this has been is a year long interview by this Thirty pieces of silver...