"[30], In August 2017, following the conviction of 17 men and one woman in Newcastle for child sex abuse offences Phillips wrote that the description of the men as simply "Asian" was an injustice to the majority of the UK's Asian population, including many Muslims. Sir Mark Trevor Phillips OBE ARCS FIC (born 31 December 1953) is a British writer, broadcaster and former politician who served as Chair of the London Assembly from 2000 to 2001 and from 2002 to 2003. Jon Stewart jokes he wasn't waiting for Energy Department report that Vile moment baby is given a vape to inhale by her laughing mum - who lashes out on Facebook slamming anyone who King Charles is 'evicting Harry and Meghan from Frogmore Cottage leaving them without a UK home - and offering How Mark Wahlberg was responsible for a string of violent race-hate crimes including two drug-fuelled attacks on 'I'm glad the contract expired': Heston Blumenthal's fury as Waitrose ends 12-year partnership with him 'after Fury as SNP plans to hold leadership hustings to choose Scotland's next First Minister BEHIND CLOSED DOORS after Theatre issues trigger warning for production which 'involves the handling of a cooked egg'. [41] The EHRC also had the role of promoting and defending human rights, and secured recognition as the national human rights institution for England and Wales (alongside separate commissions in Northern Ireland and Scotland). He is a Vice President of the RTS. [13] Livingstone ran as an independent and won. "But while they cannot judge a candidate purely on their grades, I think it's important that they should look at every part of the application.". In March 2015, Phillips was appointed as the President of the Partnership Council of the John Lewis Partnership for a three-year term. "We might seem to be out on a limb but we are not. Among his student associates where Peter Mandelson, who went on to become the architect of New Labour, and Charles Clarke, later Education Secretary. "So-called Muslim leaders", he said, were "overly defensive". Labour MP Khalid Mahmood defended Phillips saying the "charges are so outlandish as to bring disrepute on all involved in making them". What young black men need, says Trevor Phillips, who stepped down as chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality this week in preparation for taking over as the top man in a far bigger quango, is better role models. Conservative Member of the House of Lords Sayeeda Warsi responded that "Phillips cannot treat Muslims as a homogenised group when it suits him, then later deny they are racialised". [21], Phillips has spoken on the need for free speech to "allow people to offend each other". Phillips met his former wife, a child psychologist, as a student, and the couple have two grown-up daughters, Sushila and Holly. It's politics. And if some of those are economic then I think it's our business to say to government, whatever government it is, if you really want gender or race equality it won't be enough to give them remedies against discrimination, you have to remove some of the structural biases in the system.". His critics say the movement is more profound than that. Trevor Phillips was first married in 1981 to Asha Bhownagary. Phillips entered public life as a student radical. Education: Queen's College, Georgetown, Guyana; Imperial College, London (BSc, ARCS), Career: President, National Union of Students, 1978-80; London Weekend Television: researcher, 1980-81; producer, Black on Black, The Making of Britain, 1981-86; reporter, This Week, Thames TV, 1986-87; London Weekend Television: editor, London Programme, 1987-92; head, current affairs, 1992-94; presenter: London Programme, 1987-2000; Crosstalk, 1994-2000; The Material World, 1998-2000. . All I would say is: it's not an automatic option. [17] Phillips replied that his views had been "well documented" and "well supported". This is an opportunity to bring about change, instead of bleating on about it, which is what parliamentarians specialise in. If Phillips is sometimes misrepresented or maligned, it is probably unsurprising, for he has to negotiate an inherently delicate line. ", Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. The family of nine lived in a two-bedroom house in Finsbury Park until Phillips' parents moved to New York in the 1960s to improve their quality of life. "Well, I can't not, because people keep asking me about it. He was chairman of the Runnymede Trust, a charity concerned with race issues, from 1993 to 1998. "I know I'm always on a hiding to nothing when I get technical about equality and discrimination, because people like them to be grand religious phrases." He said Muslims' attitude could trigger violence worse than in the riots in the north of England five years before. Mr Phillips, 49, was born in Islington, north London, and went to school at White Hart Lane school in Tottenham, a grammar that turned comprehensive while he was a pupil. And this big gorilla? "But nobody here in this organisation is addicted to rushing around getting into other people's business. Just as I'm leaving, though, I ask if he'd ever consider standing for election again. [53], Phillips was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours for services to broadcast journalism. Under his leadership, six of the body's commissioners departed after expressing concerns about his leadership and probity and others were reported to be considering their position. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. [14], In March 2020, Phillips was suspended from Labour following allegations of Islamophobia. He has won three Royal Television Society (RTS) awards, including Documentary Series of the Year for Windrush in 1999. [3] His parents emigrated from then British Guiana in 1950. I do know what it feels like to have to pin your teenage child to the floor of a speeding car to prevent her throwing herself out of the door, he wrote. Mr Phillips, 49, who was born in London to parents from Guyana, is a former president of the National Union of Students who has spent most of his career in television, rising to become head of current affairs at LWT. Their longest marriage has been 28 years to Asha Bhownagary. The eldest daughter of former broadcaster and politician Trevor Phillips has died after a decades-long battle with anorexia. [4][5], Phillips worked initially as a researcher for London Weekend Television (LWT), before being promoted to head of current affairs in 1992, remaining in the post until 1994. Not to get people who are trying to make a living, and haven't got time to worry too much about the 116 pieces of equality legislation." They don't just need footballers or musicians, they need, well, people like Trevor Phillips. Mr Phillips heads his own production company, Pepper Productions, and Ms Veale owns Outline Productions, which specialises in reality TV shows including the Jade Goody documentary Living With Jade, which covered her dying days. Mr Phillips met his wife, who is a child psychologist, as a student and the couple have two grown-up daughters. They have two children. He has been married to Asha Aline Francine Bhownagary since 25 July 1981. Click to reveal He presented Trevor Phillips on Sunday, a Sunday morning talk show on Sky News, from 2021 to 2022. But it is hard to deny his declining popularity among ethnic-minority organisations as he takes over at the new Equalities Commission. And that's why I'm here', Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Photograph: David Levene/Guardian, The G2 interview: Decca Aitkenhead meets Trevor Phillips, he head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was sitting in the back of a taxi, half listening to the radio, when something caught his attention. He and Tony Blair exchange Christmas cards. ", 'The task today is not to shout for black people or women, but to break the grip of white men who went to public school. The radical trio went to Cuba and condemned the Soviet Union as reactionary - though even then, one contemporary recalls, Phillips was a smooth operator who behind the scenes would rather seek "consensus than conflict". Multiculturalism: disagreements with Ken Livingstone, Comparisons between Britain and the United States, Jones, Sam; Sturcke, James. He ended up as head of current affairs, and launched his own production company, Pepper Productions, which made him a lot of money - though, like all rich folk, he describes himself merely as "comfortable". "Yes," he says, "but as we've seen, they don't always know what their own commercial best interests are." Actually I've no interest in that. Phillips was married to Asha Bhownagary for 28 years. Obama's the messiah - but there had to be a John the Baptist for there to be a messiah." At LWT he worked again with Peter Mandelson, who was best man at his 1981 wedding to Asha Bhownagary, a Parsee child psychologist. ", THEY SAY "Trevor's weakness is that he assumes you are achieving your job if you're in the newspapers all the time. Help us build our profile of Asha Aline Francine Bhownagary! A neighbour of the Phillips family said: We hardly see Trevor so we assumed he had moved out. It was as a student that he met his wife, Asha Bhownagary, from whom he is separated. She went peacefully, in her own bed, in our mums arms. Phillips was served as chairman of the Runnymede Trust, a think-tank promoting ethnic equality, from 1993 to 1998, and as a commissioner for a number of other charities. She said: "Bristol has been dominated by private school students in the past, so in a way we had further to go than other universities. He is a producer and writer, known for Britain's Slave Trade (1999), Windrush (1998) and National Treasure: Kiri (2018). [2], Mark Trevor Phillips was born in Islington, London, the youngest of ten children. Personally, I tell him, I'd find it thrilling. [46], Phillips completed his second term of office in September 2012, which, together with his term at the CRE made him the longest serving leader of any UK equality commission. Sushila Phillips, 36,a freelance journalist, died peacefully in her own bed in our mums arms, according to her sister, Holiday, 33. Other Works Trevor Phillips's income source is mostly from being a successful Producer. Phillips described Livingstone's offer as "patronising" in a response that was seen as an accusation of racism, though Phillips later denied this. The extension of flexible working hours for parents, for example, was attacked by business leaders as unaffordable, despite Phillips' assurances that it would work to their advantage by making their staff more productive. Prof Patricia Broadfoot, the pro-vice chancellor of Bristol University, defended the admissions policy that has seen the proportion of private school undergraduates fall from 42 per cent in 1998 to 39 per cent. He raised the possibility of the EHRC legally testing the legislation by judicial review. Contribute. This year the English department rejected 78 per cent of independent school applicants and 85 per cent of state school applicants. Mr Phillips, a New Labour supporter, had been heavily tipped to win the job. Although he apologised for his presentation of research by the Australian academic Michael Poulsen of statistics on levels of segregation, which had led to some controversy, he welcomed the focus on integration of different communities after the launch of A Commission for Integration and Cohesion. So what? He is a producer and writer, known for Britain's Slave Trade (1999), Windrush (1998) and Kiri (2018). Mr Blunkett said: "As chair of the commission, Mr Phillips will play a vital part in bringing about real and lasting change, providing the leadership and vision to help achieve race equality across the UK. "I was so small that I couldn't see over the parapet. Discussing the Oxford Union's invitation to BNP leader Nick Griffin and Holocaust denier David Irving, he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "As a former president of the National Union of Students, I'm ashamed that this has happened. But we have moved an incredibly long way on the anti-discrimination front. Trevor's first wife was the interesting Parsi Indian Asha Bhownagary, another crackpot leftie who self-describes as a 'psychotherapist, author, lecturer, mindfulness teacher, lover of meditation, neuroscience, pilates, chi qong, dancing, Beatles, chamber music and Rafa'. [40], Phillips became head of the Commission for Racial Equality in 2003, and on its abolition in 2006 was appointed full-time chairman of its successor, the EHRC (initially called the Commission for Equality and Human Rights), which had a broader remit of combating discrimination and promoting equality across other grounds (age, disability, gender, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation and gender reassignment). "I can't remember what the topic was, but they were having a phone-in. Phone-in callers may regard Phillips as a member of the thought police, but others object that he's not bold enough, and earlier this month the former head of the Commission for Racial Equality condemned his silence over the Carol Thatcher "golliwog" affair. Phillips's supporters discount such attacks. Mr Phillips, 63, was prompted to write about his daughters illness in the Times last month after Meghan Markle recounted her own mental health issues in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. He spent his childhood partly in British Guiana, and partly in Wood Green, north London; he attended Wood Green County Grammar School (which became Wood Green Comprehensive in 1967) on White Hart Lane, but took his A-levels at Queen's College in Georgetown, Guyana. If I go into a shop, they know I've come from England because I start looking for the queue. If I have something to say," he says slowly, grinning, "I do want it to be heard. But Phillips regards these conventional categories as only one dimension of his remit - and not even its most important. He presented Trevor Phillips on Sunday, a Sunday morning talk show on Sky News, from 2021 to 2022. he said. [10], As a student at Imperial he became president of its students' union. In terms of views on homosexuality, religious devotion, and the role of women, Oborne said "Phillips could have carried out a similar poll of Conservative Party activists, of Roman Catholics, of orthodox Jews, or many other religious minorities and come up with something roughly similar. Help us build our profile of Trevor Phillips! [24] Phillips was responding to the growing uproar surrounding proposals to amend counter-terrorism legislation to permit 42 days' detention without charge. Trevor Phillips, the broadcaster and London assembly chairman, is to be the new chairman of the commission for racial equality. But in January he called for an end to the use of the term "institutional racism", weeks before new research - 10 years on from the Macpherson inquiry - found evidence of continued racism in the Met police. He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1999 Queen's Honors List for his services to journalism. Talking from his family's home in Highgate, north London, Mr Phillips said that Bristol's rejection of his daughter - who has an outstanding academic record - had shocked family and friends. So we took the fattest book we had in the house, and I watched my first football match standing on a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin." On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. His long-standing friendship with Peter Mandelson (who worked with Phillips at LWT and was best man at his first wedding) brought him close to the New Labour project and he became friendly with Tony Blair. He briefly became Labour leader on the London Assembly, before being appointed by the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, to the 94,000-a-year job as chair of the Commission for Racial Equality in 2003. He would have been the first non-politician in over half a century to be convicted of contempt of Parliament, but the Lords Committee found that the allegations were "subjective, and that no firm factual evidence is presented in their support; nor are they borne out by the submissions by individual members of the JCHR. "Look, I'm spending 70m of public money a year, and I want that 70m to be spent on getting bad people. And a caller rang in and said, 'They'll send that Trevor Phillips round, won't they, to put us in the nick.'" [18] Phillips has subsequently cited recent work by, amongst others, Professor Eric Kaufmann of Birkbeck College, London showing that white and non-white segregation in London and Birmingham has increased during the census period to 2011. He prefers to use terms like "systemic bias" rather than institutional racism - but what exactly does he mean? Trevor Phillips was born on December 31, 1953 in London, England. Phillips was the President of the Partnership Council of the John Lewis Partnership from 2015 to 2019 and was the first external appointment for the role since 1928. The exemplars offered to black teenage boys in school are part of the problem, Phillips told Teachers' TV News yesterday. " At present she works privately, seeing children, families and couples. 'Maybe I'll become a footballer, and I don't need to read to become a professional footballer,' " he said. Britain was "sleepwalking towards segregation". Members of the House of Lords should also, he proposes, be subjected to fixed terms of 20 years. Amanda Perthen, Mail on Sunday Reporter. "We are extremely surprised that she did not receive an offer. 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