To Francis King

In the Guardian of Thurs 15 May there were contributions from eight prominent historians commissioned by the paper, presumably following the barbarian Charles Clarke's dismissal of history as irrelevant, on how they think Blair will be remembered. And very splendid they are, most of them suggesting that he will not be very highly regarded.

However there are a number of ways in which the contributions might have been better. First, all the historians were white, and secondly none of them introduced the main defect of Blair's 'New Labour' administration. That is his racism, which has projected the British National Party into prominence and revived racism and Powellism, the last of which we feel very strongly in Wolverhampton.

This indicates that the very best of our people are not yet attuned to thinking RACE FIRST in every activity in which they take part.

I should hate to think our Socialist History Society suffered from this fatal defect, particularly in view of the criticism of the CPGB concerning the treatment of Claudia Jones made by Marika Sherwood in her book Claudia Jones. Marika is a major player in the fight for the empowerment of ethnic minority people and race equality, and she will receive a copy of this email.

George Barnsby