ESSEX POLICE DIVERSITY CAMPAIGN

ESSEX POLICE DIVERSITY CAMPAIGN

 

Following a video blog article by “Sargon of Akkad” (Carl Benjamin) about Essex Police’s diversity recruitment campaign, I wrote to the Police Commissioner who I do know from previously being a candidate of Police Commissioner in Essex, as follows:-

 

17^th December 2018

Dear Roger

Re: Essex Police racist recruitment campaign

I gather from the YouTube video below that your Essex Police Force are indulging in so-called “positive discrimination”. 

The English Diversity Police – YouTube >>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsDeE29hfOc

As you are probably aware “Positive Discrimination” is prima facie illegal under the Equality Act.  That is unless you are compliant with Sections 158 and 159 by having undertaken the requisite research to enable you to “reasonably think” that your “ethnic minority” recruits currently “suffer a disadvantage to their characteristic” and that such recruits are as qualified as English recruits and furthermore that you do not have a policy of treating ethnic minority recruits more favourably than English recruits and also that the actions that you are taking are “proportionate”. 

If you have undertaken such research and have documents showing your compliance with all aspects of the above, then please could you let me have copies (pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act)?

Whilst writing I would personally wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Yours sincerely

Robin Tilbrook

 

 

For good measure I then also wrote to Essex Police itself as follows on the 18^th December:-

 

Information Officer

Data Protection & Freedom of Information,

  Information Management

Essex Police

PO Box 2

Springfield

Chelmsford

Essex CM2 6DA

 

Dear Chief Constable 

Re: Essex Police racist recruitment campaign

I gather from the YouTube video below that your Essex Police Force is indulging in so-called “positive discrimination”. 

The English Diversity Police – YouTube >>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsDeE29hfOc

As you are probably aware “Positive Discrimination” is prima facie illegal under the Equality Act.  That is unless you are compliant with Sections 158 and 159 by having undertaken the requisite research to enable you to “reasonably think” that your “ethnic minority” recruits currently “suffer a disadvantage to their characteristic” and that such recruits are as qualified as English recruits and furthermore that you do not have a policy of treating ethnic minority recruits more favourably than English recruits and also that the actions that you are taking are “proportionate”. 

If you have undertaken such research and have documents showing your compliance with all aspects of the above, then please could you let me have copies (pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act)?

 

Yours faithfully

 

R C W Tilbrook

Chairman

 

 

In response I have had this from the Police Commissioner on 7^th January 2019:-

 

Dear Robin

Thank you for your email dated 17 December 2018 in which you asked me to consider whether the current Essex Police BAME attraction campaign meets the ‘Positive Discrimination’ criteria, as defined in Sections 158 and 159 of the Equality Act, and if the campaign itself is ‘racist’.

I fundamentally reject the premise that the campaign is about discrimination in any way. It is wrong to describe it as amounting to positive discrimination and it is not in any way racist. I shall refute your assertions below and thereby demonstrate that the criteria in Sections 158 and 159 of the Equality Act do not apply.

The diversity recruitment campaign sits alongside Police Constable and Special Constable recruitment activity that is ongoing. No one is barred from applying to join Essex Police unless they fail to meet the eligibility criteria which apply to every applicant. The force’s ongoing police constable recruitment campaign, Fit The Bill, is a general-purpose attraction and recruitment campaign that is still live and is accessed from the front page of the recruitment section of the Essex Police website. It was promoted before the BAME attraction campaign, it is currently being promoted alongside it and it will be promoted again after the BAME attraction campaign closes. 

Government policy, parliamentary select committee recommendations and national policing strategy all set clear expectations that forces do more to ensure that they reflect the communities that make up their force area. Currently the proportion of BAME officers and staff at Essex Police stands at just over 2%, considerably lower than the demographic make-up of the county with around 7% of the population identified as being of BAME origin.

The diversity campaign is an attraction marketing campaign aimed addressing (i) the disproportionately low numbers of applications by black and ethnic minority persons for the role of police constable Essex has received in the past, and (ii) the under representation of black and minority ethnic people serving as police constables with Essex Police.  This is lawful, positive action, falling within the Equality Act 2010.

The attraction campaign was developed with regard to research and strategy including the National Police Chiefs’ Council Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Strategy and the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee report on diversity in policing. The government response to that report stated:

“…increasing diversity in our police forces is not an optional extra. It goes right to the heart of this country’s historic principle of policing by consent. We must ensure that the public have trust and confidence in the police, and that the police reflect the communities they serve…  We believe that it is time for concerted action, prioritised across all forces, policing bodies and Government”.

The campaign was also informed by the National Centre for Social Research paper ‘Enhancing diversity in policing’.

I hope you now feel reassured about the context in which the BAME attraction campaign was devised and understand that it in no way seeks to recruit officers of any particular ethnic origin over any other. It is an awareness and attraction recruitment campaign to encourage all members of our different communities in Essex - who meet the eligibility criteria - to consider policing as a career.

Thank you for your good festive wishes. I extend mine to you and yours as well and wish you the very best for 2019.

Yours sincerely

Roger Hirst

Roger Hirst

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner

Office of The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex

 

I responded as follows on 10^th January:-

 

Dear Roger

Thank you for your email on the 7^th January

You talk about refuting my assertions in my email, however on reviewing my email I don’t think it can be fairly said that I made any assertions at all.  What I pointed you to was a YouTube video.  I wonder if you have watched it?  Perhaps you should, because it was in that where assertions were made about your campaign being racist. 

On one hand, I do however somewhat agree with the author of the YouTube, since, on the face of it, your “diversity recruitment campaign” does look, at first glance, as if it was treating people from different racial origins differently. 

On the other hand, I am however somewhat reassured by your comments that you are not in fact treating people differently.  

It is my belief that the official attempt to foster “multi-culturalism” by way of imposed policies under the oxymoronic heading of “Equality and Diversity” is part of the reason why all aspects of the British State are rapidly degenerating towards the point where even the simplest of tasks is beyond it.  This is increasingly because people are appointed because of tick box multi-culturalist tokenism instead of recruitment being strictly according to the ability to do the job.  In this regard I consider Government policy, Parliamentary Select

Committee recommendations and the National Policing Strategy all to be wrongly focussed on recruitment policies other than the traditional policing ones of recruiting a police force to maintain and enforce law and order. 

In my email I did ask you for your research justification and I note you assert that “currently a proportion of BAME officers and staff at Essex Police stand at just over 2% considerably lower than the demographic make-up of the County with around 7% of the population identified as being of BAME origin”.  Clearly there must be at least two items of research to back-up those statistics.  Please could you let me have those? 

I note that you pray in aid for “the National Centre for Social Research”.  This is a largely publically funded quango which states on its website that “we…believe in equality and diversity, and recognise that it is essential that people are treated with respect and dignity.  We believe that diversity enriches all our lives.

Legal and unfair discrimination, whether direct, indirect or by association, or perception, have become increasingly indefensible in today’s society.  A diverse workforce makes organisational sense, as it adds value by bringing staff with different experiences, knowledge and perspectives together.”

I hardly think there could be a clearer statement of the kind of thinking which disrespects English history, traditions and people and which has created the level of disenchantment with the direction of British Establishment policy which gave rise to the Brexit vote!

Yours sincerely

Robin Tilbrook

 

 

Then to my amusement I then had this response from Essex Police:-

 

From: Data FOI Essex <data.foi@essex.pnn.police.uk>
To: robintilbrook@aol.com <robintilbrook@aol.com>
Sent: Mon, 14 Jan 2019 9:23
Subject: FOI 12512

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above reference.

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Sec1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Sec1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon s17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

In respect of your enquiry:

I gather from the YouTube video below that your Essex Police Force is indulging in so-called “positive discrimination”.

The English Diversity Police – YouTube >>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsDeE29hfOc

As you should be aware “Positive Discrimination” is prima facie illegal under the Equality Act.  That is unless you are compliant with Sections 158 and 159 by having undertaken the requisite research to enable you to “reasonably think” that your “ethnic minority” recruits currently “suffer a disadvantage to their characteristic” and that such recruits are as qualified as English recruits and furthermore that you do not have a policy of treating ethnic minority recruits more favourably than English recruits and also that the actions that you are taking are “proportionate”.

If you have undertaken such research and have documents showing your compliance with all aspects of the above, then please could you let me have copies (pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act)?

Having completed enquiries within Essex Police and in respect of Sec 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Sec 1(1)(b) the following data

·         The diversity recruitment campaign is very much about addressing (i) the [disproportionately] low numbers of applications by black and ethnic minority persons for the role of police constable Essex has received in the past, and (ii) the under representation of black and minority ethnic people serving as police constables with Essex Police. This is lawful positive action, falling within the Equality Act 2010. At the moment just over two per cent of our officers are identified as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) as compared with 6.8% for the population of Essex.

·         Government policy, parliamentary select committee recommendations and national policing strategy all set clear expectations that forces do more to ensure that police forces are better able to reflect the communities that make up their force area. The proportion of BAME officers and staff at Essex Police is considerably lower than the demographic make-up of the county and this campaign aims to address that under-representation.

Essex Police trusts that the information provided is of assistance. Thank you for your interest in Essex Police.

Kind regards,

 Information Rights Team

Information Management Department

Strategic Change Directorate

E-Mail:Datafoi@essex.pnn.police.uk

 

 

I followed up as follows on the 19^th January 2019:-

 

 

Dear Sirs

Thank you for your email of the 14^th January. Thank you for confirming that you do hold data.  I would be grateful if you would please let me have copies of the documents which you refer to.

Yours faithfully

 

Robin Tilbrook

 

 

I also then wrote to the Police Commissioner asking for his comments on the fact that his claims had been undermined by Essex Police as follows:-

 

From: Robin Tilbrook <robintilbrook@aol.com>
To: roger.hirst <roger.hirst@essex.pnn.police.uk>
Sent: Sat, 19 Jan 2019 13:47
Subject: Fwd: FOI 12512

Dear Roger

I thought you might be interested to know that I also made a FOI application to Essex Police and have now received a response from them in which they say that in fact the action that is being taken is “lawful positive action, falling with the Equality Act 2010.”

This is of course contrary to what you said to me which was that it wasn’t in fact “positive action” and that it did not in fact fall within the Equality Act because it wasn’t different treatment! 

I wonder what your position is on that?

Yours sincerely

 

 

Robin Tilbrook

 

 

 

I have had no response to this last email, although I have had a further response from Essex Police giving me links to some of the research, which of course does not answer the question that I had actually put to them. 

 

In summary it would seem that not only do the Essex Police and the Essex Police Commissioner not properly communicate, despite the fact that that is not what is supposed to be happening at all.  The Police Commissioner ought to be in control of Essex Police, particularly on issues like recruitment.

 

So there would therefore appear to be a breakdown in the proper hierarchy.  Also it seems probable that Essex Police are in fact pursuing an illegal and discriminatory recruitment campaign in order to improve the “Equality and Diversity” tokenistic tick boxing!  Well done to Sargon of Akkad for raising this issue!

At last the two party system is beginning to break-up!

The two party system is beginning to break-up

Monday saw the politically exciting prospect of Labour breaking up into its politically constituent parts! 

The Labour Party has long been recognised as a coalition between hard-Left figures like Corbyn, McDonnell and the late Tony Benn etc; and multi-culturalist social democrats like Chuka Umunna, David Lammy and the Milibands; the traditional Labour, like Dennis Skinner and Frank Field; and the remnant of the globalist, liberal lifestyle, Blairites. What happened on Monday looks like it may be the start of the split between the hard-Left and the others.  How that split works out in Labour will probably depend on which way the various trade unions jump. 

Then on Wednesday we had the further excitement of the Conservatives starting to break up!  

Within the Conservative Party there was always some tension between the Europhile, internationalist, social democrats like Soubry and Dominic Grieve and the apparently patriotic global Britain Brexiteers whose view of patriotism is similar to 19^th Century Liberals who were opposed to the State looking after our poorer and less fortunate citizens and all for the free market and low taxes. 

Although amongst the non-parliamentary membership, I would say there is a considerable number who are patriotic people with traditional values that support welfare, health and housing provisions for all our fellow citizens.  That is however not a group that is very well represented in the Conservative Parliamentary Party.

The interesting thing from within the Conservative Party are that there are moves afoot to deselect more of the Europhile liberal values, social democrats. 

I suspect that if those MPs think that they are going to be deselected by their local party, they will jump before they are pushed and might well follow the others in jumping into the new parliamentary group with Chuka Umunna etc.

If that group manages to combine with the Liberal Democrats that will bode well for a major shift in parliamentary representation because there will then be a clear need for a patriotic political party that supports traditional values, low immigration and welfare, health and housing provision for our citizens. 

When we consider what is happening with the Union with the likelihood of Northern Ireland and Wales breaking away, it seems probable that that patriotism will be England-only focussed. 

So this is a very interesting time where we are beginning to see the shape of a possible realignment of English politics!  Let's hope our politics can also become more honest so that when a voter is asked to vote for a Party's candidate then that Party will be sufficiently politically coherent for the voter to be able to be sure of the real policies which the candidate will pursue if elected.

WHAT’S THE SNP PLAYING AT OVER BREXIT?

WHAT’S THE SNP PLAYING AT OVER BREXIT?

Ever since its foundation, in 1927, the Scottish National Party has been loudly dedicated to getting Independence for Scotland from the Union of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 

During the heady days of Alex Salmond’s leadership it looked as if it might actually achieve that ambition, but with Nicola Sturgeon it would appear that the SNP have lost their way. 

Rather like the questioning about why Theresa May was making such a poor job of Brexit (was it incompetence or duplicity?); we now have to ask the same question of Nicola Sturgeon and her leadership of the Scottish National Party about Scottish Independence and Brexit.

On Thursday last week Scottish Nationalist MPs proposed a resolution in the House of Commons to try to trigger Article 50 being revoked and thus to abort Brexit altogether.

This is a strikingly ironic and an apparently irrational thing for national ‘independence’ campaigners to do.  Not only are they trying to use Westminster parliamentary tricks to block the English Nation’s popular vote for independence from the EU, but also they are voting to block Scottish independence also. 

This last point needs explanation.  

During the Scottish Independence referendum, the then head of the European Commission, Mr Barosso, confirmed what numerous other EU figures had been saying, which was that Scotland leaving the UK would make Scotland automatically outside the EU.  

It follows that if the UK is kept within the EU Scotland cannot become independent of the UK without leaving the EU.  However if the UK leaves the EU and Scotland then leaves the UK, Scotland could apply to become an “Accession State” to the EU.  

Instead the SNP are now trying to block the UK leaving the EU which shows either a startling degree of incompetence, or that their policy on Scottish independence is mere duplicity. 

In weighing up which you think it is, it may be worth considering Nicola Sturgeon’s remarks in saying that she doesn’t like the word ‘national’ in Scottish National Party’s name, to see whether you think that the Scottish National Party is still sincerely committed to Scottish independence or whether it is just parasitically hag-riding the support of duped Scottish Nationalists as yet another Internationalist, Leftist party. 

Here is the BBC report of what Nicola Sturgeon said:-

“Nicola Sturgeon has said she wishes she could turn the clock back and change the Scottish National Party's name.

The SNP leader admitted the word "national" could be "hugely problematic" during a debate at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

She was speaking with Turkish author Elif Shafak, who said the word had a "negative meaning" to her.

However, the first minister insisted her party was about self government and was not insular.

Ms Shafak, who was wrongly accused of public denigration of Turkishness for her novel The Bastard Of Istanbul, told the audience at the sold-out event: "Coming from Turkey, seeing the experiences there, not only in Turkey, across the Middle East, the Balkans, for us for instance the word nationalism is, for me personally, has a very negative meaning because I've seen how ugly it can get, how destructive it can become, how violent it can become and how it can divide people into imaginary categories and make them lose that cultural coexistence.

"Whereas when I come here, I hear the word nationalism being used in a different way and I felt that, can nationalism ever be benign? Can it ever be a benevolent thing? So there is a part of me that doubts that very much."

In response, Ms Sturgeon admitted: "The word is difficult."

She said: "If I could turn the clock back, what 90 years, to the establishment of my party, and choose its name all over again, I wouldn't choose the name it has got just now, I would call it something other than the Scottish National Party.

"Now people say why don't you change its name now? Well that would be far too complicated. Because what those of us who do support Scottish independence are all about could not be further removed from some of what you would recognise as nationalism in other parts of the world.

"Two things I believe that I think run so strongly through the Scottish independence movement are firstly that it doesn't matter where you come from, if Scotland is your home and you live here and you feel you have a stake in the country, you are Scottish and you have as much say over the future of the country as I do. And that is a civic, open, inclusive view of the world that is so far removed from what you would rightly fear.

"Secondly one of the great motivators for those of us who support Scottish independence is wanting to have a bigger voice in the world, it's about being outward looking and internationalist, not inward looking and insular.

"So the word is hugely, hugely problematic sometimes for those of us who ...but Scottish independence is about self-government, it's about running your own affairs and making your own mark in the world.

"So yes words do matter but I think we can't change the connotations that the word has in other parts of the world, what we have to do is just demonstrate through words of our own, through deeds, through actions, through how we carry ourselves, that we stand for something completely different to all of that."

Here is a link to the original report>>>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-40975105

So what do you think?  Is the SNP's policy on Brexit incompetent or duplicious?

WAS THE SHORT SENTENCE OF DISGRACED LABOUR MP, FIONA ONASANYA, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION?

 

WAS THE SHORT SENTENCE OF DISGRACED LABOUR MP, FIONA ONASANYA, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION?

 

It used to be regularly claimed that the Criminal Justice system discriminated against Black and Minority Ethnic Defendants and imposed heavier sentences on them than they would do for “White” Defendants.  Although the statistics on the face of it looked disproportionate, most sensible commentators thought the difference was actually about the level of criminality in the different “ethnic minority” communities. 

 

That was until the not so bright Labour MP, David Lammy, made his 35 recommendations to reform the Criminal Justice system to give a bias in favour of Black and Minority Ethnic Defendants. 

 

Although the Judge’s reasoning has not been published, it seems likely that the Government’s politically correct adoption of David Lammy’s recommendations has led to the discrepancy. When the Liberal Democrat MP and Cabinet Minister, Chris Huhne and his wife were convicted of their much less serious case of Perverting the Course of Justice than Ms Onasanya’s, they got more than double the jail time that Ms Onasanya got. 

 

Any reasonable and objective commentator would have thought that Ms Onasanya would have got a stiffer sentence. 

 

It seems that we now live in a country where Whites, even if they are not English, like Chris Huhne and his wife, get stiffer sentences than Black and Minority Ethnic Defendants!  Such is the joy of diversity!

 

Here is a BBC article about David Lammy’s report >>>  

Bias against ethnic minorities 'needs to be tackled' in justice system

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41191311

 

Here is the Government’s press release on David Lammy’s report in which the Notes to Editors should be particularly instructive saying as follows:-

 

“In January 2016, the former Prime Minister David Cameron asked David Lammy to lead a review of the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales, to investigate evidence of possible bias against black defendants and other ethnic minorities.

 

His successor, Theresa May, said on the steps of Downing Street that: “If you’re black, you’re treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you’re white”.

 

The Lammy Review was supported by the Ministry of Justice and a panel of expert advisers. The review considered evidence from the point of arrest onwards.”

 

Click here for the original  >>>  

Press release: Lammy publishes historic review

 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lammy-publishes-historic-review

 

Here is a report on an approach that is being adopted >>> 

Prosecutions in London could be dropped or deferred as ministers respond to David Lammy report on legal treatment of BAME people

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/19/london-prosecutions-could-be-dropped-or-delayed-in-pilot-scheme

What do you think?