MAYOR OF LONDON SLAMS EQUALITIES REVIEW
(2 June 2006)

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has slammed the Interim Report of the Equalities Review Panel, which was invited by the Prime Minister to 'provide an understanding of the causes of disadvantage that need to be addressed by public policy'. The Mayor is arguing that its approach would undermine equality policy and fail to tackle discrimination. In the light of all the deficiencies in the report, the Mayor is calling for the Review Panel to be scrapped and for a body that is inclusive of equality movements and expertise to restart the process.

In his response to the review, the Mayor says: ''Inequality is not random. It will not gradually disappear. It is the result of institutional imbalances in power, prejudice and discrimination. It is bizarre that a report meant to examine the causes of inequality barely mentions discrimination and comes close to implying people choose to be unequal or that their culture somehow holds them back. The negative attitude of the report to equality movements is also a real cause for concern. Equality movements have played a vital role in the fight for equality in this country. This report is a travesty and should be withdrawn.'

'This review blames the victims of discrimination for their fate, saying 'a true attempt to remedy an unjust equality may appear to be the action of self-interested groups to close gaps for which they in part are themselves responsible'.

In addition to the Equalities Review, the Department for Trade and Industry is undertaking a review into the future of UK equality laws - the Discrimination Law Review – and the Equalities Review was supposed to broadly inform that work. The whole process is intended to inform the framework for the new Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, about which the Mayor has already expressed serious concerns.

The Mayor believes the review glosses over inequality in society. For example, it states that people may "by choice and talent, travel life's road more quickly or slowly than others [and] some individuals, and some groups disproportionately, are forced along a tougher, less direct path, from which it becomes hard to rejoin the main road. We may all still be travelling in the same direction, but some of us much more slowly."

Other criticisms include:

• The Equalities Review presents equality movements as part of the problem rather than central to the solution
• It ignores the impact of discrimination and suggests choice and culture are to blame for inequality
• It ignores the clear evidence of patterns of structured disadvantage and institutional discrimination
• It fails to understand the full social, human and economic cost of inequality and is far too cautious on the economic benefits of equality policies and interventions
• It misunderstands public attitudes and sets out a course to follow rather than lead public opinion, suggesting that campaigning on specific issues, such as black and ethnic minority or disability rights, might lead "even those most well-disposed towards, say, ethnic minorities or disabled people to consider all Asians or wheelchair users as somehow deficient and one-dimensional, defined entirely by the one aspect of their lives"
• It dismisses existing approaches to analysing inequality and discrimination and argues for analysing inequality and determining priorities for action by identifying: 'vulnerability' plus a 'trigger episode' in a key field. It appears to suggest that, in almost all cases the disadvantage stems from a particular life event, such as the birth of a child or preschool experience, for example. This approach fails to consider the possibility that supposedly chance and discrete events may be linked through structural disadvantage and patterns of discrimination.

The Mayor joins a broad coalition of equality groups that have strongly criticised the report's analysis of inequality and the lack of inclusion of representatives of equality movements on the Review Panel.

After representations from equalities groups were rejected at the review panel's London consultation meeting, David McFarlane of the National Coalition of Black-led Organisations and the National Black Police Federation, said: 'I just can't understand the scathing attack on groups like ours.'

Ju Gosling, Chair of Regard, the national organisation of disabled lesbian, gay and bisexual people, said: 'The report warns that single strand equality politics encourages us to battle each other for resources, and that the best organised cause wins the day. But in the past 20 years of equality campaigning I have never found this. Rather I can think of countless examples where different interest groups have come together to share experiences and expertise.'

The Equalities Review Panel is chaired by Trevor Phillips. Other members are Sir Robert Kerslake (Chief Executive, Sheffield Council), Carol Lake (JP Morgan) and Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas DBE. A fifth member, Nick Pearce (IPPR) resigned before publication of the report. For more information go to: www.theequalitiesreview.org.uk.

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