Subject: Express & Star boycott of FRIENDS OF BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE and all writings of Dr.George Barnsby
We believe your paper is foolish to ban all correspondence from the FRIENDS, and any writings whatsover from Dr.George Barnsby in the hope that the real reasons for the closure of BCC can be permanently withheld from public scrutiny
You will know that the main reasons given for closing Bilson Community College (BCC) was that it owed many millions in debt, was the worst college that the Further Education Funding Council had ever inspected, and that it had systematically defrauded the government. All of these charges have proved to be false and when the Serious Fraud Squad of the West Midlands Police cleared BCC of any fraudulent actvity the writing should have been on the wall for most thoughtful and ethical people. Instead, the Learning & Skills Council, who took over the assets of BCC and were given the task of winding up the FEFC, took the same institutionally racist position as the FEFC.
Since then support for the closure of BCC has been sustained by racists, institutional racists, conservatives, and partisans of Wolverhampton City College (WCC), which never should have been opened. They hope that something will turn up, or that the FRIENDS will go away, or they ignore the question altogether by refusing to answer correspondence addressed to them. This will be much the same position as your paper is taking if it continues with this boycott.
Unfortunately for those who wrongly closed BCC and therefore improperly opened WCC, despite being given about £50 million in extra funding, have not been able to meet modest targets for the training of 16-19 year olds. An enquiry into the training of this age group has now been ordered by OFSTED (the exams agency) but Bilston Community College challenged its inspection of Wolverhampton City College on the grounds that it might have been carried out by some of the inspectors who falsely claimed that BCC was the worst college they had ever inspected and therefore guilty of institutional racism. The racism endemic in the education service, as in every public service in Britain, has recently been exposed by the racism of OFSTED inspectors at the Woodberry Down Primary School in London
In fact the only way to meet such educational targets is the Bilston way of allowing communty groups to arrange their own education on their own premises and thus empower ethnic minorities to be equal. Indeed, the Learning and Skills Council has learned some lessons by allowing the victimised staff of BCC to use their expertise to prepare courses and syllabuses. The wheel has gone full circle.
Finally, the Express & Star must understand that the days of deceit, trickery and spin are over. The days when the FEFC could claim that Wolverhampton City Council approved the closure of BCC when what it called 'consultation' consisted of a threat that if it did not approve closure, all classes then running at the Bilston site would be closed, are gone. The majority of informed people now understand that Bilston College was deliberately and vindictively closed. The longer the culprits delay admitting their guilt the greater will be the damage to their careers because the Bilston case is a landmark in Race Relations history in Britain.
Beginning with Blunkett, all those both nationally and locally who participated in the closure of BCC will be brought to book. They will either apologise for their institutional racism in closing the first multicultural college in the country or if their egoes, racism and anti-working class feelings are such that they refuse to do this they will find that no post of authority will be available to them within the public service.
We again ask the EXPRESS & STAR to consider the impossible position they would be in if they found (a) that they had supported an incorrect and racist general position and (b) adopted methods of virtual coercion to prevent the true case being heard.