ippr north

Equalities combined...

Today sees the launch of the Equality and Human Rights Commission which combines the work of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) into one.  The new commission also takes responsibility for strands on sexuality, religion and age, better to work the differing ‘strands’ into one integrated approach.

This is of particular interest to me as earlier this year I chaired a seminar in conjunction with them (as part of a wider review involving ippr) looking at the challenges they face (ippr north also held two events in the North West looking at the equalities agenda on gender and local government).  For me there were two elements to the seminar discussion which stood out, both difficult, but due consideration.

Firstly, tackle the media head on and really challenge the seemingly constant stream of messages attacking the Human Rights Act.  It is not a ‘terrorist’s charter’ or ‘political correctness gone mad’. Speaking of PC, one seminar attendee made the very good point that we need to come up with a message or slogan as inherently positive and strong, as PC is now (wrongly) tarred with negative connotations.

Secondly, we must challenge the dynamic that it is up to the minority to ‘fit in’ with the majority.  A key element in securing this may well be the idea of a seventh strand which ensures everything is mainstreamed through HR, thereby strengthening their work.  We wish it well.

CCTV and Big Brother

This, my first blog, aims to continue the debate we had at a recent cafe politique event on whether Britain is becoming a surveillance society, around 70 people turned up to discuss the pros and cons of cctv and surveillance. We are keen to look also at the impact it is having on young people.

The facts tell us that there are now 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain, one for every 14 people, and the average person in Britain is caught on camera 300 times a day. Our speaker, David Murahami Wood, from Newcastle University edited the recent Information Commissioner’s Report ‘A Surveillance Society’ which spells out the dangers and the trends in Britain today.

One such trend, is that, increasingly, teenagers are becoming the stars of CCTV. Newspapers are becoming increasingly dominated by YouTube and surveillance images of hoodies creating havoc, if you are a regular reader of the Evening Chronicle you’ll have seen this.

Apparently, many young people see ASBOs as a badge of honour too. A recent ippr report - Freedom’s Orphans - shows that British teenagers ‘hang out’ with their mates more than almost any other industrialised country while they are also more likely to get drunk and get into fights than their counterparts around Europe. Is this all down to, as the right-wing view suggests, the fact that we live in a ‘permissive society’ and that a return to the golden era of deference would solve these problems?

The reality is that it’s not about having too much or too little freedom, it’s that many teenagers are being set up to fail. Rates of youth unemployment may be falling, with investment in education and training rising, but for a significant group born into families with fewer opportunities and living in deprived areas life chances are limited.

So don’t blame young people, there’s nothing genetically different about British teenagers, they just get brought up differently. CCTV doesn’t teach them about the values of the adult world, it just keeps an eye on them while their parents work some of the longest hours in Europe.

In Britain, we may have different problems but CCTV can only ever be part of the solution. Sixty-five percent of Germans, 52% of Spanish and 50% of Italians would be willing to intervene if they saw a group of 14 year old boys vandalising a bus shelter, compared to just 34 % of Britons, who fear violence, reprisals and verbal abuse. Are we relying on CCTV to police fellow citizens rather than society as a whole taking responsibility?

I have a teenage son and am all too aware that ‘youth policy’ can’t be something solely for the politicians. This is one for all of us. If adults retreat behind their net curtains and rely on CCTV to keep order then we can blame no one but ourselves for the state of ‘kids these days’.