An edition of the Tyne Tees Television current affairs programme ‘Briefing’ that this week looks at positive efforts being made on Tyne and Wear and Cleveland to improve race relation between the majority White British population and the increasing numbers of ethnic minority communities who now consider the region their home. The programme also includes a discussion on the new Police and Criminal Evidence bill currently going through parliament with Stanley Bailey, Chief Constable of...

An edition of the Tyne Tees Television current affairs programme ‘Briefing’ that this week looks at positive efforts being made on Tyne and Wear and Cleveland to improve race relation between the majority White British population and the increasing numbers of ethnic minority communities who now consider the region their home. The programme also includes a discussion on the new Police and Criminal Evidence bill currently going through parliament with Stanley Bailey, Chief Constable of Northumbria and Gordon Bagier Labour MP for Sunderland South. Title: Tyne Tees Title: Briefing In the Tyne Tees Television studio in Newcastle presenter Ian Breach introduces this week’s edition of Briefing. In the second part of the programme a look at the issues that have arisen from the current Conservative governments attempts at enact the controversial Police and Criminal Evidence Bill. However, the programme begins by looking at a piece of law passed by the previous Labour government, the Race Relations Act 1976 and how a single piece of legislation rarely settles problems once and for all. A selection of newspaper headlines relating to a recent House of Lords decision to overturn a Newcastle headmaster's ban on a Sikh boy wearing a turban to school, declaring it discrimination against an ethnic group. The exterior of two Newcastle city venues, Tuxedo Junction nightclub and 42nd Street Bar, both of which have come under the spotlight for refusing entry to Sikh’s. Back in the studio Ian Beach explains the acceptance and integration of racial minorities is as much a matter of culture and education as it is of legal judgements. He introduced the programmes filmed report on positive attempts to breakdown barriers between the regions 30,000 ethnic minorities and the white majority. Inside the West African Cultural Association centre in the West End of Newcastle, children from both White British and West-African communities dance together to pop music. In a restaurant kitchen South-Asian chefs cook and prepare different foods and curries. Close-up of variety of curries in metal catering dishes in the kitchens. In the dining area White-British customers tuck in to South Asian food including chapatis and curries. Floral flock wallpaper lines the walls. In Newcastle’s Chinatown the local community celebrate the Year of the Pig with a traditional Dragon dance. Drums and cymbals are banged as the dragon passes crowds standing along the pavement. The procession passes at the end of Thornton Street, junction with Westgate Road, led by a young Chinese girl carrying a yellow Chinese banner, and English members of a local Kung Fu club follow, also holding banners. A band of Chinese musicians playing cymbals and drums follows the dragon dance performer. A man and his young daughter peer out through the window of a Chinese restaurant door, with “open” sign displayed. The dragon dances to the doorstep of the restaurant. Inside a local Chinese restaurant, a celebratory meal with the Lord Mayor of Newcastle seated alongside dignities from the local Chinese community. A Chinese man stands on a raised platform in the restaurant in front of a table with white tablecloth and vase of flowers, and addresses the guests from a microphone, welcoming them to the celebrations. Waiters move around him in the room. Inside a local Hindu Temple members of the local Indian community take part in a religious service that features several young women in sari’s sing while holding diya lamps. Back in West African Cultural Association centre boys of both White British and West-African decent sit along a bench sharing a can of Lilt soft drink. Lawrence Koranteng from the West African Cultural Association pulls into the driveway of a business, Tyne Home Window. He get’s out and looks around before being interviewed about the creation of a cultural centre that he believes will foster understanding between communities from different cultures and ethnic groups. As he continues to talk about some of the activities the association would like to arrange, children from White British and West-African backgrounds have fun playing a game of musical chairs watched over by some of the West-African mothers. Lawrence finishes by stating that he believes if children from different ethnic backgrounds can play together, this can help breakdown racialism. Inside a large sports hall a multi-racial youth club run by Tyne and Wear CRC [Community Relations Committee] with young people playing table-tennis and badminton. Interview with Tarsem Chopra, Chairman of the Community Relations Committee Youth Panel, about setting up the youth club to encourage integration between different ethnic groups and organising a programme of cultural events as an introduction to different ethnic communities’ celebrations, including those of, for instance, Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus. A series of posters for some of the said celebration that Tarsem Chopra is referring to including Eid Al-Fitr, the festival following the end of Ramadan, and for Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light. In a police meeting room, Hari Shukla, Senior Community Relations Officer for Tyne and Wear (Director of Racial Equality Council from 1974 to 1994) addresses uniformed policemen and women in the Northumbrian Police and Communities Relations Group. In the living room of a Bangladeshi family two small boys sit at small desks working while their mother sits on a sofa with a trained volunteer from the Tyne and Wear CRC learning English. The tutor tips out coins from her purse as away of teaching the Bangladeshi woman about English currency and denominations. In a restaurant kitchen a South-Asian chef plunges chicken tikka on a skewer into a deep-frying pan or oven. Another chef at the cooking range fries food in a pan on a hob. A woman gets onto a bus where a South-Asian driver takes her fare changing to a montage of Tyne and Wear Transport double-decker buses travelling along various local routes. Another South-Asian driver speaks with a customer about his route before departing the stop. A clip from an edition of Yorkshire Television’s ‘Calendar’ programme about South-Asian bus drivers in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Following buses arriving at a depot or station South-Asian drivers taking part in an industrial language training unit session by the West Yorkshire Language Link. They conduct a session about dealing with passenger complaints. The interior of a textile factory changes to an interview with Keith Bailey, Production Designer for Smith Bulmer Mills who explains that while they do try to employ people who can speak English this isn’t always possible. He explains that some of his most stilled workers don’t speak English and it is these people who gain the most from the classes such as those run by West Yorkshire Language Link. Returning to the Tyne Tees Television studio, Ian Breach speaks with Jim Gordon from the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) Adult Training Branch about setting up similar industrial language training unit on Tyneside and Teesside and why it hasn’t been done so already. Reading from prepared notes he explains that there are plans for one in the next financial year. Sitting next to Mr Gordon is William Bell Community Relations Officer for Tyne and Wear CRC who is asked how much of an impediment is language to real equality? He explains that whole communities are trapped within certain industries due to language, he gives as examples of China and Bangladesh workers in restaurants similar to those featured in the film. Bernard Storey, Employment Worker for Cleveland Council CRC is asked if enough is being done to carry out both the spirit as well as the letter of the Race Relations Act 1976. He is also asked if enough is being done for young people from ethic communities coming into employment. Taking the programme into a break, a discussion is had with all three guests with regards the points raised. Title: End of Part One Title: Part Two The second part of this edition of Briefing returns to the filmed report and a mosque in Middlesbrough and s roe of boy’s shoes lined up outside a classroom. Inside Muslim boys sit at low-tables reciting scriptures from the Koran in Arabic as part of an after school lesson, one boy stares intently at the camera. At a separate table the Imam reads a passage from the Koran and the three boys around him copying him. In another room Muslim girls in brightly coloured head scarves reciting from the Koran, a woman sits at the back of the classroom watching over them beside a blackboard with Arabic writing on it. In the classroom at a local school two women employed by Cleveland Council’s Education Department as teachers of English as a Second Language (E2L) instruct two groups of children of different ages and ethnic backgrounds. On the table in front of one group five ethnic or folk dolls in national costume which are being used as a training props. In a classroom at Brookside School, Head of E2L Prim McLoughlin is teaching another group of secondary school aged children English. She explains the work she does that will help them go on into mainstream schools. She says they are delightful to teach as they are motivated to learn. Interview with Cleveland County Education Officer Alan Calderwood about the different educational, religious and cultural needs of children from non-English ethnic backgrounds. He is posed against a school display of books and photographs aimed at the different ethnic groups in the region. In another classroom a group of Pakistani girls (in bright red cardigans) and boys at their desks, being taught Urdu by a South-Asian teacher. The session is part of a pilot programme of “mother tongue teaching.” Interview with one of the girls about the importance of learning Urdu. The Centre for Multicultural Education on Victoria Road in Middlesbrough, inside interview with Team Leader, Ted Jackson who talks about E2L teaching and the Home Liaison Service which provides links between schools and parents as well as advise and interpretation services and the creation of community link. Four South-Asian children run down a terraced street in Middlesbrough, the door into one of the properties is open. Inside Perveen Ahmad, the first Home Liaison Teacher in Cleveland, talks to two Asian parents about their son who sits across from them. The parents are looking for advise on his future when he leaves school in August. She speaks with the parents in both English and their native language watched by both their son and his younger sister. She speaks with the boy about wanting to become a policeman. As she continues to talk about their son, in voiceover Perveen provides details about the work she does, especially for women, describing herself as like being like a ‘Muslim social worker’. As Perveen speaks about the East-West Playgroup based at the Centre for Multicultural Education in Middlesbrough, children at the pre-school playgroup playing with water, funnels, milk bottles and Sunlight washing up liquid bottles, multi-coloured Lego type shapes, and sand, accompanied by bi-lingual and multi-lingual female adult assistants and mothers. The children are from a range of ethnic groups including Chinese, South-Asian and White British backgrounds. At the back of the room Perveen Ahmad speaking with Ted Jackson. Interviews with three mothers of Chinese-Asian, South-Asian and White British decent about the playgroup and what they and their children get out of the service. One woman hopes her child will learn to make friends as well as learn better English while another understands the importance of teaching her child to mix with other children. At the International Women’s Group in Stockton women from a variety of ethnic backgrounds watch a cooking demonstration by a group of South-Asian women. Interview with the Cleveland Council’s other Home Liaison Teacher Mina Nurbhai who founded this group. She talks about immigrant women’s lack of social meeting places outside the home. One of the women in the group talks about why she comes, to learn Urdu and knitting and to socialise with others over a cup of tea. As she sits at a table knitting, an older White British woman believes the women at the centre are eager to make friends and mix with English people. Around the room a group of women learning Urdu including an English woman. Returning to Mina Nurbhai she explains that the women who attend the group are learning that they have something to teach others. In the assembly hall at Cromwell Road Primary School at South Bank in Middlesbrough a multi-ethnic group of children practise a traditional Sikh dance dressed in a variety of traditional Sikh costume, which include Kurta Pyjamas and turbans. Interview with Headteacher Brenda Morris about the positive impact of this cultural exchange has had on her pupils. As the pupils continues their dance around the hall with one pupil being carried on the shoulders of two others, Alan Calderwood explains that he is relatively pleased about the degree of racial harmony in Cleveland which he sees happening because of a sympathetic appreciation of both the ethnic minority and the attitudes of the indigenous majority. The film ends on a young South-Asian girl in a sari dancing on her own, other pupils and Brenda Morris sit on the floor behind her watching. Returning to the Tyne Tees Television Studio Ian Beach previews the next part of the programme, a weekly look at politics in the region. Title: End of Part Two Title: Briefing Politics Following a brief introduction to this part of the programme by Ian Beach the camera switches to Kevin Roundtree sitting at desk who gives the rundown of political news storues from around the region including stores on safety concerns at Teesport and efforts to save north-east shipbuilding. Returning to Ian Breach, he leads a discussion with Stanley Bailey, Chief Constable of Northumbria and Gordon Bagier Labour MP for Sunderland South on the new Police and Criminal Evidence Bill asking the central question of how to you protect people while retaining their freedoms? Credit: Presenter Ian Breach Film Camera Fred Crone Film Sound Ed Gray Film Editor John Louvre Research Lynne Petrie Associate Producer Bob Duncan Political Editor John Sleight Director Paul Dickin Producer Bob Farnworth End title: Tyne Tees Colour. © Tyne Tees Television Ltd. MCMLXXXIII