St Helens’ Reform leader is at it again

Yesterday, my eight year old son came home from school with news he was bursting to share.

He’d been learning about some really important figures from history, among them a lady whose story had a real impact on him. Her name was Rosa Parks.

In 1955, Rosa Parks, a Black American woman, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Her arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted more than a year and became a defining moment in the American civil rights movement. The boycott helped bring about the desegregation of Montgomery’s buses and propelled Martin Luther King Jr to national prominence.

My son had been watching a video in school about the bus boycott and insisted we sat down and watched it again together. He was shocked and disgusted at the way people were treated differently on the basis of their skin colour.

Afterwards, we had a long chat about racism, the history of the civil rights movement in America, the UK’s own history of racism and how these issues persist to the present day.

During that chat, he said he was really glad he’d found out about Rosa Parks. ‘What she did was very important,’ he said.

Now, I’m not sure whether he was watching that video in school as part of Black History Month or not. Either way, I can’t imagine a scenario personally where I would think it was wrong for him to have observed it, and I welcomed the opportunity it created to talk about racism in society and the importance of actively opposing it.

Just a few hours after that conversation with my son, however, I was left wondering how it was this eight year old seemed to already have a greater understanding of the importance of learning about Black history than the leader of an entire local authority.

In case you hadn’t guessed, today’s story is about an announcement made by St Helens’ Reform leader, Cllr George Woodward, last night that he has instructed St Helens Council not to ‘observe’ Black History Month because, according to him, it was ‘racist’.

Now, I’m not going to repeat all of Cllr Woodward’s statement on the matter. That’s available for anyone who’s looking over on his Facebook page, where he tagged in all his followers in case anyone might have missed it.

Amongst the claims he made in the statement were a number of issues about which we’ve asked both St Helens Council and Cllr Woodward for comment.

Readers may recall that back in the summer, Cllr Woodward was talking about cancelling council involvement with a couple of other events that usually sit within the municipal calendar – Pride and Refugee Week.

It turned out in both cases that there was a gap between the highly controversial proclamations made by the leader and the directives actually issued to St Helens Council.

In the case of Pride, the council wasn’t a funder of the event anyway (or at least in previous years had only contributed small amounts, if at all), and mostly what transpired from the leader’s directive involved moving some books and a library display. In the case of Refugee Week, it was a similar situation, although it also meant that money earmarked for Refugee Week events went to other refugee support projects instead.

So, given this recent history, the obvious question was - aside from making a controversial political statement and potentially alienating people in a pointed manner, what does Cllr Woodward’s latest proclamation actually mean in practice?

We asked both St Helens Council and Cllr Woodward what not observing Black History month meant, specifically what directives had been issued to the council and what any of it translated into, in terms of council activities, communications or funding around Black History Month.

A council spokesperson told the Monitor: ‘Black History Month events have previously been delivered as part of the Arts Council England funded Arts In Libraries programme. Officer time and resources have been previously used to deliver them in the context of the wider events programme.’

We asked whether an equality impact assessment had been carried out on the ‘policy’ and the council spokesperson said: ‘The decision not to participate in Black History Month is a political direction, which does not require a formal assessment.’

Cllr Woodward said in his statement that the use of officer time on Black History Month events was a ‘poor use’ of resources. A St Helens council spokesperson, however, stated: ‘the decision will not result in any staffing reductions.’

It’s certainly all a stark change from just a year ago, when St Helens Council published an article by its then deputy mayor, Cllr Bisi Osundeko, explaining the importance of Black History Month, her own experiences and what it meant to her. The council also held a Black History Month celebration at the town hall.

Former deputy mayor Osundeko said that for her the importance of Black History Month locally was ‘so that the next generation in St Helens can see that no matter where you start, your dreams are valid, and your story matters.’

We have asked St Helens Council for clarification on whether its leader’s latest pronouncements on social media has any implications for what happens for that next generation, specifically in council-run schools during Black History Month. Although we’ve yet to receive a response to that query by time of publication, we will let you know what, if anything, we find out.

The leader’s latest move has sparked backlash from many, including representatives of other political groups in St Helens. St Helens Greens released a statement earlier today calling Cllr Woodward’s proclamation ‘divisive’ and an attempt to spark ‘culture wars’ in the borough. Local Labour MP David Baines has also spoken out of his anger at Cllr Woodward’s statements. They of course are not the only ones who have spoken out in condemnation.

Cllr Woodward’s Facebook post has by time of publication attracted nearly two thousand comments, and while some appear to be applauding his stance, many are questioning the motivation, basis and reality of it.

We put some of these points to Cllr Woodward and also asked him and the council for clarification on one of the statements made in his proclamation.

Cllr Woodward had written: ‘We don’t care if you’re black, we don’t care if you’re asian.’ We asked him to clarify this statement and whether he extends his argument to people of other ethnic backgrounds. We have not received a response from Cllr Woodward by the time of publication.

My son didn’t come home from school this week thinking people should be treated differently because of their skin colour through learning about Black History. He came home having learned something about what happens when people are, and why somebody who stood up against it deserves to be remembered. He thought that was very important, and clearly here at the Monitor we agree.

What is less clear is what Cllr Woodward’s announcement actually means in practice. Once again, there appears to be a gap between the political rhetoric and the administrative reality.

Beyond generating controversy and alienating many, feeding division within the borough he has been elected to serve, it’s far from certain what Cllr Woodward’s latest proclamation has actually achieved.

You can find out more about Black History Month here.

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