Benjamin Zephaniah Airbrushed From ‘Yes’ to AV Leaflets

Okay, so this is pretty disgusting. The Conservatives do not do well on race relations. In the past they have been plagued with a vicious racism, as evidenced in Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. In modern times they seem to be a self-serving vehicle to resist previous comparisons, for example David Cameron’s cringe-worthy TV Debate quote, ‘I met a black man...’ This is of course suggestive of the fact that this had been a previously rare occurrence for the Prime Minister.

Even the Labour Party has had its race-related problems. Phil Woolas ran a disgraceful race-riot-inducing election campaign, which ended with his subsequent dismissal from Parliament. Taking into account their political perspective and appeal, the Liberal Democrats should do much better. Here they are, however, on leaflets for one of their flagship (almost only) policies, in which they have sanctioned the elimination of a famous black literary celebrity. Zephaniah has been retained on leaflets sent out across London, but not areas of the country with a smaller race differential. He has been replaced with a white celebrity whom the Liberal Democrats presumably assume might ‘play’ better to audiences in Sussex and Cornwall. Naturally, this massively underestimates the people in those counties. This is pretty despicable of the Liberal Democrats who should be fighting this kind of conduct – not embracing it. It is the kind of tactic we might expect the Tory Party to employ. The Liberal Democrat Party under Nick Clegg really are the new Tories. Unbelievable.