Features
Who is making all the money from carnival?
CARNIVAL BRINGS in 93 million (GBP) a year. Those are the official figures. It funds a lot of households who rely on the takings from their little curried chicken and curried goat stalls as \'supplementary benefit\' to see them through to next summer. At a time of unprecedented austerity, Britain needs the carnival, which I suspect is why last week the police were engaged in dawn raids at the homes of suspected gang members planning on turning the Carnival streets into a Gaza \'strip\'. The Chan
Are black folks benefiting from diversity awards?
LAST WEEK I was on the judging panel of the National Council for the Training of Journalists Diversity Award, which hands out bursaries to students who want to pursue a career in the industry. The only people who are not entitled to the award are white middle-class men who, let's face it, are over-
Police overkill at Notting Hill
LOOK OUT, Operation Razorback is about! I am referring here to the ways and means of the Metropolitan Police in the two weeks leading up to carnival, and on the carnival days in Notting Hill and its surrounds. Readers of this column will remember that in my last Vex in the City, I outlined the se
Diamond Daze
AS THE world’s most famous ‘dumb blonde’ Marilyn Monroe once sang, diamonds are a girl's best friend, and at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the world's most famous supermodel proved what Patrick Augustus wrote in the opening lines of his bestseller Baby Father – ‘get a woman diamonds and sh
Why I nearly sent back my MBE
I WAS this close to sending my MBE back to the Queen last week. This close – because there really is no point in being a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) if the Queen embraces the racists who deny me my rights to British citizenship. I'm talking about the British National Party
Why the vuvu is here to stay
AS IF they didn't have any problems of their own to worry about, England's premiership teams have gone on the attack against the humble vuvuzela, the plastic trumpet that every kid wants for Christmas. The vuvus, of course, provided a very unique soundtrack to the World Cup last month. So, if
- Giant leap that mankind ignored
- Another pointless murder that hit close to home
- It's a bad Week without Abbott
- VAT's typical of politicians