It’s been seven months since the Daily Mail, through its venomous columnist Katie Hopkins, launched an attack on Creative Access (CA) – a British diversity charity that helps place people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds secure paid internships in the creative industries, such as publishing, broadcasting, journalism and public relations.
Sadly, it seems that Hopkins and her followers have won. This week it was announced that the charity has lost £2m in funding from the government and is facing imminent closure.
That is government spending.
And it really is just government spending too. They got, assuming I’m reading their accounts right, £4,500 in private donations. £300k or so in donations of services (presumably rent etc) and the other million was half of a two year government grant.
This is not, in any meaningful sense, a charity. It’s government spending.
It’s ethnic minority, not minority ethnic. Ethnic is an adjective, not an noun, minority is a noun, not an adjective. And black and asian people ****ARE***** ethnic minorities. The correct english is just plain simple “ethnic minority”.
The “publishing, broadcasting, journalism and public relations” industries are such bastions of right-on orthodoxy that the the idea of their needing a fake charity to get them to take on suitably qualified effnics is risible. They’d bite their hands off. So I assume when we look at cui bono, it turns out to be the Third Sector ideological bedfellows of the people who needed no sweet-talking in the first place. Nice little earner.
Fuck. Preview. Use it.
For any minister wanting to shone for the PM by cutting expenditure in his department “diversity.in the creative industries” almost defines the term ‘low hanging fruit’.
SHINE!
“the creative industries, such as publishing, broadcasting, journalism and public relations”: I’m old enough to find this use of “creative” both dismal and amusing.
I’m a software engineer. I probably do more genuinely creative stuff in a good day’s work than some floppy-haired Tarquin in PR does in a year.
black, Asian and minority ethnic
Eh?
I’m going to form a charity for dogs, cats, and animals.
I need to do some laundry: I’m running out of pants, socks, and clothes.
Our canteen serves meat, vegetables, and food.
@dearieme
“the creative industries, such as publishing, broadcasting, journalism and public relations”: I’m old enough to find this use of “creative” both dismal and amusing.
And both fucking annoying and unbelievable arrogant and narcissistic. Do any of them ever stop and think “when did I last genuinely create something new?”
@BiCR
Me too. Our ‘creatives’ just literally rip off the designs from other websites and make minor changes to not make it too obvious. They literally months on this process, when it should take days.
a British diversity charity
Or as Tim says, a glove puppet concealing government spending.
So that’s two battles in the culture war this morning. The police announcing all of their recruits must be graduates, and shutting down the funding of this glove puppet.
One loss, one win.
With this funding removed, ethnic minorities will have to go back and compete in the market of being close relations of the editors and senior employees of media organisations.
Perhaps that’s why this scheme existed in the first place, to get past the rampant nepotism of the Guardian.
Here’s an idea – if the Left thinks this organisation is vital, why don’t they set up a Trust and all contribute to it? The Guardian could chip in with half a million.
They might even earn some respect for doing something honestly for the first time ever.
Good. They can all take their degrees in Wayne Rooney studies and fuck off. And take Will Self with them.
No doubt credentialalisation would have provided a further & amusing chapter for Parkinson. If Parkinson had had to suffer significant numbers of university graduates.
Oops. Wrong thread.
A big chunk of the grant appears to have gone on “consultancy”.
The stupid cretin writing in the Guardian parrots the 14% minority thing – what percentage of the adult population are minorities? A lot bloody less.
In a time when there appear to be many more homeless people on the streets and social care is in crisis, the UK should refuse to spend on this type of nonsense.
To be fair, Tim, I’ve been in some canteens, and what they call “meat” and “vegetables” doesn’t really pass for “food”.
There’s an interesting comment under that article – that the first Fleet St rag to employ a staff journo from an ethnic minority was the boo hiss neo Nazi Daily Mail. And the last was the Guardian.
Anyone know anything about this?
also as an aside, I see the Spudmonster is continuing his spiteful personal vendetta against the late lamented @fcablog
Well, Brendan O’Neill memorably dubbed Poly Toynbee “The Whitest person in Britain”.
He has talent, that lad.
There’s an interesting comment under that article – that the first Fleet St rag to employ a staff journo from an ethnic minority was the boo hiss neo Nazi Daily Mail. And the last was the Guardian.
As Bananarama once sang:
It’s not what you do, you just have to say it
It’s not what you do, you just have to say it
It’s not what you do, you just have to say it
To be fair to the Guardian, it is difficult to recruit ethnic minorities when you base your recruitment on hiring the sons and daughters of existing senior staff.
Flatcap Army
I noticed that as well – Tim – it’s the opening blog in TRUK – might be wort a look….
It is however all too typical of the man – remember his continual attacks on Judith Freedman of the Oxford Center on Business Taxation over Twitter which led to her blocking him, and him as a result frothing over with indignation – I’ll try and find it – it’s quite entertaining!
remember his continual attacks on Judith Freedman of the Oxford Center on Business Taxation over Twitter which led to her blocking him, and him as a result frothing over with indignation – I’ll try and find it – it’s quite entertaining!
Perhaps these days she could get a restraining order?
To spin back to the beginning and jgh’s comment, I thik we are missing a comma. Shouldn’t it be
black, asian and minority, ethnic ?
as in the Army’s description of Garibaldis
biscuits, dead fly.
BiCR,
“The “publishing, broadcasting, journalism and public relations” industries are such bastions of right-on orthodoxy that the the idea of their needing a fake charity to get them to take on suitably qualified effnics is risible. They’d bite their hands off.”
Well, actually.. these people like to talk about how much they like Brown people, and they’ll have their tokens and put on a strong face (like Cbeebies having 50% non-white presenters) but actually, they’re very white. It’s not really that they’re racist, it’s more that they’re like private clubs where pals of someone at a magazine, or in the BBC gets a job.
I suspect most of these “schemes” are just about token jobs, to cover up the fact that these industries are full of people feathering their own nests.
BiW
Even the charity is full of people feathering their own nests – of the 1.8 million spent in 2014 and 2015, consultancy costs were 386,000, intern mentoring was 169,000 and 970,000 was grants for the hiring of interns.
Run by a Labour donor
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/nov/11/celebrity-agent-cash-ethnic-minorities
Why did Cameron keep giving taxpayer money to these people?
Foster did at least put in 200K of his own money in 2014.
To be fair, Tim, I’ve been in some canteens, and what they call “meat” and “vegetables” doesn’t really pass for “food”.
Fair point. I’m spoiled: our staff canteen is in all likelihood the best in the world.
Well, Brendan O’Neill memorably dubbed Poly Toynbee “The Whitest person in Britain”.
He has talent, that lad.
If you like podcasts I can recommend the Spiked podcast. He’s a sound lad young Mr O’Neill and once a month Chris Snowden’s on talking about his favourite subject.