There
are several photos like this circulating on Social Media right now, all slightly
different. It is as if
some MPs are playing musical chairs so that each of them can momentarily take
pride of place. Some are of white men.
Each is accompanied by a similar caption such as “All across Erith and
Thamesmead and the UK are welcome to join me as I observe a minutes silence
alongside my Parliamentary colleagues at 11am, in honour of George Floyd.”
So my MP is not protesting against racism but she is honouring a criminal who
thought nothing about putting a gun to the stomach of a pregnant woman.
Is it any wonder that my Inbox this evening contains references to barricades,
revolutions and civil war?
If the Mayor of London, Cressida Dick and Labour MPs don’t stop stoking up
racial tensions then those forecasts might just come true. And where is Boris Johnson?
I think I only encountered racism once. I was called “white vermin” by a black
woman while silently pulling ivy from a wall. It was my wall and it was my ivy but
apparently she liked ivy.