Oracle wrote:Niki wrote:Oracle wrote:Barack Obama, Condoleeza Rice,
Colin Powell ...
The rise of the African in American Politics.
More of the same or a hope for the Future?
I think this is fantastic! It gives real hope for a more open minded future.
The UK (and Cyprus) should learn from this.
How so Niki? Are Black people more open minded?
Anyway, Britain is too conservative to go anywhere
near having a Black PM, despite the large population of Africans and West Indians. They even object to being governed by the Welsh (Kinnock) or the Scots and Gordon Brown is being blamed by many for having Scottish interests above English interests (and not just simply for being a bad PM).
(Cyprus would struggle down this road, only because there are so few African people here .... ).
The objection to Kinnock was nothing to do with him being Welsh, it had more to do with what the Labour Party had stood for and continued to stand for at that time. Any trade union member who ran the gauntlet of Labours extreme left combined with the Socialist Workers Party to attend union meetings/dispute meetings knew exactly who these people represented and it certainly was not the workers! Kinnock, decent enough as he was could not control those on the extreme left of his party. The best Prime Minister that Britain never had was unfortunately the late John Smith, a Scotsman.
Regarding the Scotsman Gordon Brown, I dont go along with blaming him for the current economic situation but his association with Blair and the perhaps/perhaps not imagined Scottish Westminster cabal that got the UK into three wars in less than ten years is to be regretted. At least the late Robin Cook another Scot, had the decency to resign his cabinet position prior to the stupidity of the Iraq invasion, just a shame that he did not speak up before we became embroiled in the Balkans and Afghanistan. Britain and hopefully one day just England has no place in these war situations no more than it has in any UN peace keeping operation.
As for black people in UK politics, well perhaps these two gentlemen who never made it to national politics but who were influential in their predominately white local communities need to be checked out on google,
Dr. Allan Glaisyer Minns, Mayor of Thetford Norfolk 1904.
John Archer, Mayor of Battersea London 1913.
Both were way ahead of their American contemporaries who were more likely to have been lynched than elected!
Todays non white UK politicians have nothing to thank the Chairman of the House Commitee Keith Vaz MP for in their struggle to be taken seriously by the UK electorate. Anyone who knew or had dealings with Baroness Flather the first Asian British woman Mayor (Windsor and Maidenhead) and the mother of Keith Vaz MP will not have been surprised by his behaviour.
My own dealings with UK multi racial politics came to an abrupt end in the 1980's when I refused to contest a seat previously held by a British Moslem who had resigned after being accused of racism. Honest decent and hard working on behalf of all he represented this mans life was made hell not by skin head NF yobs or by the white English but by his Hindu constituents who took every opportunity to accuse him of racism.
As for colour, ethnicity, gender, orientation and religion or none, I and many other ethnic English could not give a damn. The question is quite simply, 'if elected can they do the job in our best interests'.
