15JUNE 4 - 10, 2007VIEWS

A 2005 report from theCountryside Agencylamented the paucity ofnon-white faces in ruralEngland. But DonaldButler, a shopkeeper fromthe sleepy Oxfordshiretown of Thame, has comeup with a cunning solu-tion; by filling his win-dow chockfull of golli-wogs.

For good reasons, theonly place you can reallybuy a golliwog these daysis from the murky con-fines of the internet.Because most people sub-scribe to values of decen-cy, good taste and racialsensitivity, the doll hasbeen largely absent fromBritain’s high street formany years.

But this absence isinterspersed with periodicattempts to bring the gol-liwog back into socialacceptability. The tactic isinvariably to promote‘golly’ as a ‘harmless doll’to which only ‘PClunatics’ could object.But, lest we forget, theV&A Museum reminds usthat the golliwog is a car-icature derived directlyfrom black slave min-strels. Defenders of thegolliwog often citeFlorence Upton’s ‘kindly’stories as a means todeny its racist heritageand legacy. What theyconveniently forget isthat the doll’s chequeredhistory neither begins norends with Upton.Granted, she gave thedoll a name and attempt-ed to rehabilitate itsimage. But she stillappropriated an image ofslavery in doing so andothers lost no time in re-stereotyping and furtherexploiting it. But back tothe above episode inThame and its altogethermore sinister side. Butleris not just an ordinarycitizen. He’s a Tory coun-cillor. As such, he mustsurely have been awareof the controversy hemight cause. After appar-ently having these dollson sale at the back of theshop for almost a year,shortly before the localelections, he suddenlydecides to mount an ‘in-your-face’ display takingup most of his shop win-dow.

Predictably enough,this caused heated debatein the local press, givingButler the opportunity tocondemn his detractors asthe PC-gone-madbrigade. To his credit,Tory MP John Bercowcame out swiftly todenounce Butler’s actions.The CRE has also cen-sured Butler, requestingthat he remove the dis-play. Incredibly, all thatTory HQ could offer was

the following statement:“There are far moreimportant issues involv-ing racism than anachro-nistic toys. Our Party isproving day by day thatit is changing by the verynature of the candidatesour members are select-ing.” This is much worsethan bland. What it boilsdown to is an acceptancethat the public display ofgolliwogs is indeed an“issue involving racism”,but that it’s not impor-tant enough to meriteven mild censure, letalone anything moredecisive. The Tories arerightly concerned thatthey face a delicate bal-ance between changingthe party and drivingsome members into thearms of UKIP or the BNP.But opting for the‘goldilocks zone’ ofracism is not the way togo about it (i.e. not toomuch, not too little, butjust the right amount). Asa result of this inactionfrom Tory HQ, daysbefore last week’s elec-tions, party campaignersset up their stall right infront of Butler’s shop,golliwogs in resplendentdisplay. This goes wellbeyond dog-whistle poli-tics and into the realmsof a two-fingered gesture.

Last month in thisnewspaper, Tory chair-man Francis Maude wasboasting about the party’sprogress in becomingmore welcoming tominorities. But as longago as 2001, Tory coun-cillor Richard Eddy wasforced to resign by theparty after adopting agolliwog as his mascot.Councillor Butler’sactions amount to sub-stantially the same, yetno action is taken thistime around. What kindof progress is that?There’s no delicate wayof putting it, but whatthe golliwog boils downto is a distorted image ofa black African dressedup, quite literally, in theclothes of slavery. Britainabandoned its trading ofslaves in 1807. Two hun-dred years on, the contin-uing trade in their effi-gies should be a source ofembarrassment, shameand contempt, not defi-ance or apathy.Anyone tempted to dismissthe golliwog as a harmlessor anachronistic dollshould check out its histo-ry. The sources below arereputable, concise andaccessible to anyone. V&AMuseum of Childhood:www.vam.ac.uk/moc/col-lections/teddies/gollies/matterwithgolly/index.htmlFerris State University:www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/golliwog/homepage.htm

IDON’T usually read The Observer, but last Sunday theheadline really caught my eye - ‘UK Schools Dividing OnRace Lines’.It was as disturbing as it was depressing, but I bought the

paper anyway. As a man with five children, education’sbeen a large part of my life and I worry about the state ofthis country’s schools. Unfortunately, The Observer articlehelped confirm my worst fears. Just last month theCommission for Racial Equality warned that there is a trendin Britain’s education system toward segregation. I’m afraidthat they may be right. In large parts of Britain manypupils have little contact with children from different ethnicbackgrounds, despite living in the same area.

It’s a sort of soft apartheid which people andGovernments have ignored for too long. The problem ismade worse by the fact that many of the schools which aredominated by BME children are struggling inner-city insti-tutions. As they segregate further, the effects of a poor edu-cation are felt by BME communities. It’s not a great sur-prise then that they perform worse when compared to chil-dren from other ethnic groups. Roughly only 30 - 40 percent of Black Caribbean, Black African and Other Blackpupils achieve 5 or more A* - C GCSEs.

They are also among the most likely to be permanentlyexcluded from school. In this paper, Dale McNish hasshown how Caribbean children are particularly prone totruancy. Such problems continue to affect these children forthe rest of their lives. The Commission for Racial Equalityrecently released figures showing that, at 11 per cent,unemployment is over twice as high amongst BME commu-nities compared to the rest of the population. But not onlyare these segregated schools failing to educate their pupilswell, they’re failing to prepare our children to be confidentin living, working and interacting with people from differ-ent social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Other figuresreleased by the Commission for Racial Equality showed that23.7 per cent of all cases before the Employment TribunalService are race related. In short, people are not integratingwell and tensions are surfacing in our workplaces. So, theconsequences for our children’s future lives are enormous.

If they have separated childhoods, future generationswill lead separated lives. If we don’t do something now,trying to integrate our communities may become an impos-sible task. Still, there is hope. One part of The Observerarticle gave me cause to be really optimistic. David Willets,

our Shadow Education Secretary, gave an interviewannouncing how the Conservative Party will tackle theproblem. When creating city academies, we are going toencourage them to recruit students from different commu-nities. We will ensure that pupils are taken from all sectorsof society; to learn together, live together and grow uptogether. We want to help break down the racial divide. Butdespite some great ideas David Willets has, unfairly, had ahard time in recent months. Only a few weeks ago he wascriticised over his announcement that the ConservativeParty will no longer support the creation of new Grammarschools, although he had made clear our continued supportfor existing Grammar schools. People have said that DavidCameron is simply picking a fight with the traditional rightwing of the Party in order to show that he’s modernising.But that isn’t true.

Together with the targets for City Academies and a char-ter for inner-city schools, our party’s policy on Grammarschools is part of a serious, long term strategy to improveeducation for every child in this country. If the unemploy-ment rate amongst BMEs is to fall and community integra-tion is to get better, social mobility has to be improved. Weunderstand that the best way to do so is by creating moregood schools for everyone, not by improving a few centresof excellence for a few select people. The day after I readThe Observer article, the headline in it’s sister paper, TheGuardian said “A Decade of Blair has left Society Moresegregated’. In 1997 Tony Blair was presented with a won-derful opportunity to create an inclusive, integrated Britain.It seems that he missed it.

As Chancellor for 10 years, Gordon Brown could havemade a difference. He could have influenced the adminis-tration and checked some of the Prime Minister’s unwisedecisions. The fact that he didn’t should be a warning forus all. After 10 years of missed opportunities and failedpolicies, Blair and Brown have not delivered on the promiseof “Education, education, education.” The state of our edu-cation system has to change. The Conservative Party hasstarted to set out its plans to improve all 24,000 schools inBritain. You can be sure that David Cameron, DavidWilletts and myself will make that change happen.

TORIES IN THEGOLDILOCKS ZONE?

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Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks inside The Labour Party’s headquarters in central London May 4, 2007. Blairsaid the results of Britain’s regional elections were far from a rout and gave a “perfectly good springboard” for the nextgeneral election.

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