Knife crime and gang wars were the reason for me taking this photo (above) in a windy parking lot in Hertfordshire. I met with Kevin who gave me the lowdown on the issues facing his community and what he’d like the Lib Dems to do about it.
Kevin has grown up in an area affected by gang violence and has managed to navigate his way around it sufficiently to have avoided much conflict and to establish a good life for himself and his family.
But he’s the exception, it seems.
Kevin isn’t a Lib Dem member or supporter (yet), but, as part of my Vice Presidency, I consider it crucial that we, as a Party, build connections within all levels of our local communities and become relevant to them before we share our politics.
If you’re interested in working with me on this or are already active in this field, please let me know so that we can be ‘joined up’ in our approach.
One thing I’ve learned since becoming Vice President is that there’s already so much great work being done in the field of diversity, but sometimes, we don’t always know who’s doing it.
*Note that Kevin has given permission for his photo to be published and that the location of our meeting was not in or near Kevin’s community.
Isabelle is on Twitter here.
* Isabelle Parasram is the Vice President of the Liberal Democrats.
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4 Comments
Isabelle an inspiring piece, a terrific approach.
I am interested in your work and publicly have given a real welcome to your appointment, online.
I am a member of the Liberal Democrat Campaign for Racial Equality and feel these issues are vital.
I am also a member, contributor, writer, at the Ustinov Prejudice Awareness Forum, which continues the legacy of Sir Peter Ustinov in this area of interest
http://www.ustinovforum.com
Fear is the driving force for so much violence. If we can focus on that and see that as the enemy we can achieve so much. We need to build confidence, courage and a love for humanity in all our children.
Lorenzo Cherin: thank you for your encouragement and support in the work that I am trying to do, which is to tie together the various strands of our Party who are all doing similar campaign work in this field, in an effort to pool resources and to avoid duplication of work.
I am glad to note that you are a member of the LDCRE (I believe we met at Spring Conference?) and would urge any member who wants to pursue race equality issues such as these to sign up – the LDCRE team is enthusiastic and focussed and would welcome new members like you.
Peter Hirst: You are absolutely right that fear is at the heart of knife crime. When I’ve spoken to those involved in gang wars, they’ve made it clear that, in their communities, if you want to be protected from someone with a knife, you have to carry one.
I made this point in my speech at Spring Conference on race equality.
But fear is just one of the issues, there is so much more to this subject – I am glad that the Lib Dems are working so hard on it.