With this in mind, it’s worth looking at the current composition of Manchester City Council.
Manchester City Council has 96 councillors [2]. All 96 are currently members of the Labour Party [3]. Labour has historically enjoyed solid support from the ethnic minority population of the city.
Lets look at more numbers.
- The population of Manchester is approximately 500000 [4]
- The ethnic minority population is roughly 30 percent of this [5]
- Of the councils 96 representatives, 16 are from non-European ethnic minorities. Its about 17% of council body. [6]
- Of these 15 are of ‘Asian descent’ and there is a token African Caribbean member
The Manchester City Council decision making body is the Executive Committee.
It has 9 members and of these, all are
English (White) European [7]. (Interestingly enough the half of the Executive
Committee 'assistants' are councillors of Asian decent.)
Whilst this is not necessary an issue, its notable that
there is little discussion of how the large changes that are occurring through
devolution will affect the ethnic minority population.
Take the £300 million housing fund [8]. At the moment its almost exclusively being used to support commercial property development. Given that BME population in the city are
likely to be in lower socioeconomic brackets it means they are less
likely to benefit from the fund.
Health devolution [9] was discussed at a public networking
meeting recently, a health strategy officer presented. When pressed, the
officer admitted that if the devolution plans didn’t work, that BME communities
are more likely to bear to bear the brunt of any negative effects as they are
already at a disadvantage in the health system. It is projected that the
devolution health budget may have as much as £2 billion pounds deficit [10].
As for Greater Manchester Police and policing, ethnic
minorities are more than twice as likely to be stopped and searched than the
majority population [11]. Whilst there are actions that can be done to address
this locally, very little effective action seems to be forthcoming the police or its Crime Commissioner.
These serious issues barely raise a ripple because
1) There is a lack of diversity on the Council. There are more people called Murphy on Manchester City Council's select Executive Committee than there are African Caribbeans on the whole council.
2) What
representation there is - is whipped
into obeying the local Labour party line.
Its worth noting that no councillors voted against the
budget cuts this year and you will be hard pressed to find one councillor to have votes against any cuts within the past five
years. [12]
Representation and diversity.
Find a Green local council
candidate.
Vote for them.
Notes
- http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/first-ever-black-minority-ethnic-11201544
- http://www.manchester.gov.uk/councillors/name
- http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-local-election-results-labour-9220024
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester#Demography
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester#Demography
- http://www.manchester.gov.uk/councillors/name
- http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/200033/councillors_democracy_and_elections/3195/the_members_of_the_executive
- http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/300m-housing-fund-designed-unlock-9570783
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-31615218
- http://clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/2015/11/helping-to-understand-health-and-social-care-devolution-in-greater-manchester/
- http://www.stop-watch.org/your-area/area/greater-manchester
- http://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/branches/north-west/3882-lf050215
