London’s new Mayor will need to do more than spin rhetoric about reducing crime, particularly among young people.

I cannot pretend to be surprised at Labour’s crushing defeat in the local elections last week and if the truth be told, after its performance in government over the last decade, it was a defeat I felt was deserved.

For a political party that was once associated with socialism and equality, since Tony Blair replaced the steadfast John Smith as leader of the Labour Party following his untimely demise in 1994, former Prime Minister Tony Blair turned New Labour into a clone of the Conservative Party with all the socialist values that the old Labour Party stood for dying with the principled John Smith.

Enter Tony Blair with his presidential style of leadership and bags of charm and charisma and he soon had the electorate eating of his hands – a feat that was not too difficult, given that the Conservatives who had had one sorry leader after another were considered out of touch and unelectable. But what goes around comes around, as the famous saying goes. Guess who’s out of touch now?

As I stated in my commentary Racism and Resistance in East London last November; under the Labour Party, Britain has become more divided than ever along racial, religious and class lines. In its attempt at reviving the notion of Britishness within a multicultural society by trying to impose ‘community cohesion’ amongst different groups of people; it has failed to promote the necessary ingredient for natural cohesion – mutual understanding and respect. This cannot be gained by wilful coercion or by bribery through funding for so-called ‘community cohesion projects.’

During Labour’s tenure in government black communities in Britain have been problematised – portrayed as having negative qualities and characteristics that hinder a country that is still clinging to its past role as imperial rulers of the world. This has resulted in a highly racialized environment where institutional racism exists in every public sphere of society. If the government was serious about promoting mutual understanding and respect it could start by de-racialising a Eurocentric education system that completely excludes global histories.

But quite apart from its dire record on race, there is a widespread belief that Labour no longer represents or has time for the ordinary, hard-working men and women in the UK, but is more interested in keeping its rich corporate Party donors happy, who are rewarded with tax concessions and Honours.

The final nail in the coffin for Labour was the worst decision ever – to scrap the 10p tax band – at a time when Britain is drowning in a sea of debt and the credit that people have been living on – in the wake of rising prices has been reined in by the banks – and when falling property prices mean that people have little or no equity in their homes to get them out of trouble.

In my Racism and Resistance commentary, I also stated that Labour’s stance on immigration had “paved the way open for the BNP, who have capitalized on the divisive impact of the government’s policies which have all but normalized and made acceptable once unacceptable right-wing views.” Is it any wonder then, that the BNP has just won its first seat on the London Assembly, whilst Ken Livingstone has been ousted as London Mayor?

But the Conservatives have no reason to be smug – the election results are more of a protest vote against Labour than a sign that Britain embraces Conservative values. After all, one could barely distinguish New Labour from the Conservatives in terms of their policies. And in an increasingly celebrity-obsessed culture, Gordon Brown heavily lost out to David Cameron in the charm stakes – he was never going to win on that front.

But London’s new Mayor will need to do more than spin rhetoric about reducing crime, particularly among young people. Punitive measures are not the answer – Johnson needs to tackle the social, economic and environmental factors that are causing young people to turn to crime in the first place and I believe that he’s neither interested nor up to the job.


Colourful's editor Deborah Gabriel is author of Layers of Blackness: Colourism in the African Diapsora and is a qualified lecturer and trainer in journalism and media.