Having just been nominated and elected to the London Advisory Board of the Commission for Racial Equality (last Friday) I have found that the very first meeting is today. Slightly bad timing from my point of view as my Thank You party for helpers during the election begins at 6.30pm in my house – and now I won’t be there until 7.30pm. But duty calls.

Am delighted to have got this position because it fits so well with my work on Stop & Search and other issues I have been involved in over recent years.

This first meeting contains a couple of presentations – one on the Governement’s proposals to combine job centres with benefits offices – ie rationalise and streamline their system – the other on the Government’s White Paper on creating a single equalities commission called the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights combining the existing Equal Ops, Racial Equality and Disabled Commission.

In the first instance, I think that the ‘rationalisation’ will probably lead to less services for the public and see it more as a money-saving proposal that will result in both job losses and jobs leaving London. This will impact on ethnic employees – but the presenters are in train of doing an impact assessment on this – so we will wait for that.

In the second case, although Lib Dems support the principle of a Single Equalities Commission – given the Government appear to have no intention of bringing forward legislation for a Single Equality Act – I think its a case of putting cart before horse for financial and political reasons. I also think there is a real danger that the three commissions will lose identity and force if merged – particularly without the resources and powers to accompany such a merger.