Tonight:
5°c
Our interview today with black community worker Ken Hinds raises troubling questions about police use of stop-and-search.
Mr Hinds was this week paid £22,000 for false imprisonment by British Transport Police after being arrested in 2004: he says that being stopped and searched is routine for him.
It is hard to disagree with his conclusion that he gets stopped so often - roughly once every two months, he says - because he is a black man.
It is not supposed to be this way. The Metropolitan Police has, over the years, repeatedly promised to refine its use of stop-and-search.
After the 1999 Macpherson report into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, new procedures came in, forcing police officers to fill out a form for every stop-and-search they made.
But after the July 2005 bomb attacks, use of the tactic soared again. Figures released earlier this year show that the increase has disproportionately hit black and Asian men.
In May, Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson signalled that he wanted to see a reduction in these searches and announced the trialling of new tactics in four boroughs. And yet men like Mr Hinds still get stopped.
Stop-and-search can be a valuable tool. Yet it is still being used unfairly against black men.
This is, if nothing else, unproductive: earlier this year, Doreen Lawrence, mother of Stephen, warned that the tactic was increasing hatred of police in the black communities.
The Met and BTP have to move towards tactics based on proper intelligence. If they do not, they will continue to alienate a swathe of London.
Primary concern
Today's authoritative report on primary schools should be deeply embarrassing for ministers.
The largest inquiry into primary education in decades slams the Government's obsession with micro-managing the curriculum and performance.
It recommends scrapping Sats exams; delaying formal lessons until age six and having more play-based learning until then; and pursuing a more rounded curriculum than the present focus on the three Rs.
As if to confirm the "authoritarian mindset" that the report accuses them of, ministers have already rejected its findings out of hand.
The wider point is that despite more than 12 years and unprecedented spending, Labour has achieved at best incremental improvements in results.
In primary schools, vast amounts of money have gone on new buildings and headteachers' salaries, at the same time as a rigid curriculum and numbing preparation for Sats tests has turned countless children off education.
There is a lesson here, too, for the Conservatives, whose present schools plans are every bit as centralist as the Government's.
The Tories have rejected the idea of delaying formal lessons until age six. But they should heed the warning: dogmatic micro-management of primary schools by ministers simply doesn't work.
Capital of art
The Frieze art festival sets out to challenge, and as such will outrage some as it delights others.
What all exhibition-goers would surely agree on, however, is the way that Frieze shows - yet again - what a Mecca for the arts London is.
Today we report that the BFI has secured funding for a £166 million new National Film Centre on the South Bank.
Meanwhile, this weekend sees Tracey Emin, Gilbert and George and others takes part in a two-day poetry marathon at the Serpentine Gallery.
London's arts are in rude health - and that is a treat for us all.
Reader views (2)
I think it is terrible that a man (forget the matter of race for the moment) is workig alongside the MET to help build a relationship between them and the Black community and all the MET seem to be succeeding in is contradicting this action. Ken Hinds may decide to forget the work he has been doing for them and the community, however this may be rewarding for him. BUT, where would this leave the MET?! Left in a place without any understanding of the Black community.
Ken has quite obviously worked well to date and what the MET need to do is, as Ken said ... find a more INTELLIGENT way to solving these situations.
I am a black female and feel that the way black men are treated is appauling...
- Ant, London, UK, 16/10/2009 15:20
Report abuse
The Met should not think again on stop and search and it is not being used unfairly.
Can we please have some truth told in this country? Muggings and knife crime and gun crime are disproportionately a problem of the black community in London and they have brought stop and search on their own heads.
- Charles, Bath, Great Britain, 16/10/2009 14:17
Report abuse
