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Some Spice in readers' lives

Two national newspapers covered themselves with glory yesterday. Neither The Guardian nor The Daily Telegraph published a picture of Victoria Beckham on its front page. Otherwise, with the inevitable exception of the Financial Times, every other paper's front had a colour photograph of Posh Spice in either hot pants or flamenco-style red dress as she made her first foray down a catwalk in the London fashion shows.

The only difference between the broadsheets and the tabloids was that the former showed her in the dress, which was marginally more modest, while the latter with the one exception of the Express used the hot pants picture, which gave the greatest exposure to her rippling thighs. No, that's not quite true. The Daily Star published the hot pants picture but did not show the hot pants or the thighs. Instead, it zoomed in for a close-up of her breasts. Each paper knows its audience, I suppose. I was not surprised by The Times' obeisance to the cult of celebrity, but I was a bit by the Independent's. This is a newspaper whose principles do not allow it to run a photograph of a member of the Royal Family, unless perhaps one of them has been shot, but has no such scruples about glorifying a pop star who has decided to dabble in modeling for publicity purposes....

Alexaner Chancellor in his column, `Gone to press', `The Daily Telegraph', February 18

Not enough is being done to stamp racism out

This week marks the first anniversary of the publication of the Macpherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence, whose murderers were never brought to justice. What progress has been made in implementing the report's 70 recommendations? Sadly, the picture is a grim one, littered with broken promises, inaction and reticence.

Sir William Macpherson and his inquiry panel stated ``we hope and expect that implementation of our recommendations will ensure that the opportunity for racial thinking and root and branch action is seized. Nothing less will satisfy us, and all those who so passionately spoke to us during our hearings.''

But there has been very little feedback from the government about what steps they are taking towards implementation. There are working parties, advisory groups and, even for that matter, a task force involved. Yet so far, no public report has been issued. Surely, at very least, the public is entitled to know how many targets have so far been achieved?

The core finding of the Macpherson report was that of ``institutional racism'' defined as ``unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people''. The commissioner of the metropolitan police, Sir Paul Condon, staunchly and steadfastly resisted this conclusion. But on the back of this finding the inquiry recommended ``that the full force of the race relations legislation should apply to all police officers.''

The panel plainly wanted the ``full force'' to apply to indirect systemic racism as much as to direct, overt racism. The race relations amendment bill, however, did not do this until the very day on which the home secretary was faced with defeat in the House of Lords. The government's attitude thus far does not sit well with all its heartfelt declarations about race...

Excerpted from Michael Mansfield's comment, `White on black', `The Guardian', February 17