Institute of Race Relations newspaper cuttings

Topics include:

- Reports covering the Conservative Government’s new Nationality Act and the strong opposition to it from the Church, opposition MPs, race relations groups and ethnic minority groups.

- Several reports on the rise of neo-Nazi groups such as the British Movement. This covers racial violence, intimidation and abusive language, often by ‘skinhead’ gangs. Key cases include the murder trial of Asian man, Akhtar Ali Baig, and British Movement leader Roderick Roberts being sentenced to seven years for his involvement in a weapons trading ring. There is also some speculation into the connections between these groups and the culture on football terraces. The Government commissioned reports on both the growth of far-right extremism and the severity of racial violence.

- Several reports on the National Front and the battle to continue their meetings and marches against broad opposition. The Government consider a Public Order Act to ban such racially provocative marches.

- Investigations into the problems and potential solutions to education in a multi-cultural society. Many of these reports are focused on language barriers in the classroom and the alleged poor performance of West Indian children.

- There are several reports about policing and race relations with debate about clashes with West Indian communities, the ‘Sus’ law and the use of Special Patrol Groups in community policing.

- Several articles cover the various Community Relations Councils across the country, in terms of staffing problems and funding cuts.

- There are numerous reports on cases of discrimination, mostly in employment, but also in housing, schools and nightclubs.

- There are some reports on initiatives aiming to promote racial harmony such as community centres and job schemes.

- There is some coverage of an anti-immigration speech by the Conservative MP, Harvey Proctor, and the general reaction to it.