• Cameron's Policy Chief Oliver Letwin apologises over 1985 comments about black communities
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[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35192265?ocid=socialflow_twitter&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=twitter[/url] [QUOTE]David Cameron's policy chief has apologised "unreservedly" over remarks he made about black communities days after the 1985 Broadwater Farm riot in north London. In a newly-released memo, Oliver Letwin - then adviser to Margaret Thatcher - blamed unrest on "bad moral attitudes". He also dismissed plans to encourage black entrepreneurs, saying they would set up in the "disco and drug trade". Mr Letwin said parts of the private memo were "badly worded and wrong". His statement came amid mounting calls from senior Labour figures for him to apologise. The party's deputy leader, Tom Watson, said the comments were evidence of "an ignorant and deeply racist view of the world", while MP Chuka Umunna said attitudes in the memo were "disgusting and appalling".[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]"The root of social malaise is not poor housing, or youth 'alienation', or the lack of a middle class... Lower-class, unemployed white people lived for years in appalling slums without a breakdown of public order on anything like the present scale; in the midst of the depression, people in Brixton went out, leaving their grocery money in a bag at the front door, and expecting to see groceries there when they got back. Riots, criminality and social disintegration are caused solely by individual characters and attitudes. So long as bad moral attitudes remain, all efforts to improve the inner cities will founder... David Young's new entrepreneurs will set up in the disco and drug trade; Kenneth Baker's refurbished council blocks will decay through vandalism combined with neglect; and people will graduate from temporary training or employment programmes into unemployment or crime"[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]They argued government should place "young delinquents" in "good" foster homes and create a new "youth corps" to promote "moral values" and encourage "personal responsibility, basic honesty" and respect for the law from an early age. In a follow-up paper, Mr Booth attacked plans for a £10m communities programme, suggesting it would do little more than "subsidise Rastafarian arts and crafts workshops".[/QUOTE]
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