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Black votes campaigner Lord Simon Woolley to lay bare 'uncomfortable truths' about race equality in Ealing

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date21 December 2020
Date21 December 2020
Publication titleMyLondon (England)
Lord Woolley, who has spent decades campaigning to improve ethnic minority representation and empower communities, agreed to take up the top role in leading the borough’s review of understanding racial inequalities and how to tackle them.

Ealing cabinet member for community safety and inclusion Joanna Camadoo-Rothwell will serve as vice-chair, while a further 10 commissioners to drive the investigations are yet to be announced.

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Lord Woolley previously was advisory chair to the government’s Race Disparity Unit from 2018 to 2020, and was awarded a knighthood for his services to race equality in 2019.

In taking up his new role as Ealing’s chair, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “This role came about after a Black Lives Matter conversation with local authority and staff, and they wanted a fiercely independent chair who they thought cared about making the difference in this space, and so I feel honoured and privileged to be in that role.

“I said to the leadership...this is an opportunity for us to be a beacon in this space...what we’ll probably find is uncomfortable truths, race inequalities, but if we are honest, and bold and brave enough, that we can deal with them and find long-lasting solutions."

And he said: “Throughout this awfulness of COVID-19 and George Floyd, it has given us greater impetus to put the long-standing inequalities right.”

The commission will focus on themes such as education, employment and housing, and will reveal its findings in a report to council in May 2021.

Lord Woolley is also keen to focus on well-being and values in the borough, and of the council, and how that translates to multicultural Ealing.

Youth participation is seen as key to the review due young people’s futures being “disproportionately hit” by the pandemic.

Lord Woolley added: “I’m driven to make this as meaningful as we can and I think anybody that knows me knows I'm fiercely independent...Being independent means I will be...

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