Thanet councillors will tonight (December 10) decide whether to debate and then put forward for adoption an anti-racism motion put forward by Broadstairs member Cllr Aram Rawf.
The motion being put forward is: “Thanet council notes the mood for change amongst the community to defeat racism. In recent months Thanet has seen two peaceful, socially distanced, community led marches in support of the cause of anti-racism.
“The council also notes that:
- Nationally there has been a surge in hate crimes since July 2016
- The council understands the importance and deep reliance we have on tourism to support the health of the local economy. This council believes that our future prosperity as a tourist destination is inextricably linked with our ability to stamp out the scourge of racism. This council further believes that we have a historic opportunity to shape the area into one that is attractive to all sectors of our diverse community and the wider country.”
If the motion is debated and then eventually adopted it is being suggested Thanet council would acknowledge and support the work of local groups such as Calling Time on Racism, the People Dem Collective and Everyday Racism.
And: “Build a campaign to mark a cultural shift toward businesses taking a more active role in shaping an anti-racist community calling on the experience of these local groups. Review the obligations under the Equality Act making explicit the working links between all the departments and functions of the council.”
Other commitments suggested in the motion include creating a task force/working group to oversee implementation which would include “councillors, council officers, community activists and organisations and external expertise when required.”
If councillors back the motion it will then go to Cabinet for a decision.
The last time an anti-racism motion was put forward to Thanet council was in 2016 when the authority became one of the only councils in the country to reject debating the issue.
The motion put forward by then councillor Iris Johnston urged TDC to condemn racism, xenophobia and hate crimes.
The decision not to debate the issue was supported almost unanimously with only then-councillor Suzanne Brimm and Cllr Ash Ashby supporting the debate.
Then UKIP and council leader Chris Wells said at the time that the council was already committed to improving community cohesion.
Well done Aram. Hope it passes.
Let’s hope that no-one noticed that Cllr Aram Rawf celebrated the Eid festival celebration at Margate FC, describing the event as “The Prayer of Eid-Al-Adha in your game without the brand of Jews.”
I’m sure that the casual reader will feel that its perfectly obvious that TDC should oppose all forms of racism, and recognise the great work done by many voluntary groups in Thanet. So why bring a motion to Council to establish as policy what should be routine? This would be to ignore the deplorable history local political grouping have regarding these issues. Just 4 years ago the then ruling groups at TDC, UKIP and Conservatives refused even to debate a similar motion brought by Cllr Johnston. Much more recently, South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay accused Cllr Rawf of political gameplaying in attempting to raise the issue. TDC has a second chance to clean the slate. It should welcome it.
Excellent move forward. Well done all involved.
How about cleaning the streets?
Well said. Promised land of Labour led Council not apparent to most of us. Priorities?
Yeah, whatever happened to Fido the dog shit machine? But hey, who cares about filth & stuff that can cause blindness on the pavements everywhere, as long the dem collective can give talks about black people’s hair & other riveting stuff? I quote from one of its leaders-Co-founder Kelly Abbott said the aim is to “deliver culturally rich programmes that include identity, heritage, history, hair, music, art and food. The programmes will be for everyone to engage in and learn about the cultural experience of ‘others’ with a focus on British Black and Brown people and Roma/Travellers.”
This motion will achieve nothing and is a waste of time.
Please concentrate on improving services like refuse collection etc to the ordinary Thanet council tax payer who is not interested in gesture politics.
It would be useful for residents to have some further information. For example, who precisely are these groups, why would they be specifically chosen for Council support and who organises them?
I knew before I read it that it would be lobbying from ‘People Dem Collective’ & it seems two other groups jumping on the victimhood bandwagon.
The reality is their agenda, as shown by their social media pages & statements is to try to make white people feel guilt over things we have no control over(even things from before we were born)& to promote extremely niche woke/virtue signaling events that don’t interest the vast majority of the 95% white people who live in Thanet & the only white people that will be welcome are those wearing BLM shirts & down on their knees doing a Black Power Salute like Malcolm X, while of course grabbing all the money they can from KCC, lottery funding etc-just like the other ‘arts’ & ‘community hubs’ such as the Turner Centre.
“This council further believes that we have a historic opportunity to shape the area into one that is attractive to all sectors of our diverse community”
Tet in mid 2019 the Thanet demographics show that it isn;t that diverse a community-
95.4% White
1.5% S.Asian
1.1% Black
1.1% Mixed Race
With any luck this motion will help to redress the imbalance in those figures by encouraging more diversity in the longer term
It won’t if there aren’t many jobs here.
I still have no idea what People DEM Collective means or stands for, is it some sort of slang colloquialism? What is it’s history too. Is there anyone out there that knows? I feel we are owed some sort of explanation if they want people to get along and become a diverse community. It’s no good enforcing this upon people without explaining what it’s all about, that just get’s others backs up.
The freedom to expect equality is not gift it’s a right. If you need not being racist “enforced on you” and it gets you back up you are a racist.
People asking for them not be treated differently because the colour of their skin is tragedy and it’s sad that people think it effects them negatively then society is far worse than we thought.
Do better people.
Not impressed with Not impressed. I was generally asking who they are and what this is all about, etc. Nobody has answered that yet. Being called racist for asking a question is what you get rather than educating people on the equality issues instead. I take it that TDC has passed some order to enforce this issue and do not understand fully what this means. Do better yourself Not impressed, I am not racist, I am from a closely diverse family and neighbourhood personally. We have not had racist remarks thrown at us until now. You throwing the racist word around is what is bad about it all, you do not know how damaging that can be to a community.
Articles like this always bring out the casual racists. The comments here belong on the kent online – I expect better on here.
Oh well, the comments are closed for the thread saying this was passed last night. Remember this one as the day the council pandered to minority agitator groups whose express purpose is to cause division & resentment towards white people. The white people who make up over 95% of people in Thanet of course.
The insidious Dem Collective faction will now be calling the shots as to local policy if the cabinet members vote as expected-you can expect even more highly niche KCC(taxpayer)funded, money losing, handout reliant ‘social hubs’ to pop up everywhere-they may not like white people, but they sure like their money.
Expect to see what has recently happened in Birmingham with renaming street names to be woke-Yoakley Square will become Wokely Square, White Hart Mansions will be BAME Mansions etc. TDC will probably be badgered into flying the flag of Cuba, Ghana etc under the guise of being inclusive.
This is what happens when you pander to a very niche minority of bandwagon jumpers with a chip on their shoulder, who shout the loudest & make threats, rather than the overwhelming majority, when the 2010 equality act TDC are signed up to covers this perfectly well already & as is said in that other thread racial crimes are actually reducing significantly in Thanet the last few years-that doesn’t fit the victimhood narrative though.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/angry-councillor-says-remoaner-road-19425502