Patrick Vernon OBE is social commentator and political activist. He runs his own social enterprise promoting the history of diverse communities, and is founder of Every Generation and the "100 Great Black Britons" campaign. 

Patrick led a successful campaign for 22nd of  June to be recognised annually as Windrush Day,  which was officially backed by the British government in 2018.  

But as well as celebrating the contribution of the Windrush generation of migrants from the Caribbean, more recently he has been fighting for compensation for the victims of the Windrush Scandal.

My guest this week is social commentator and political activist Patrick Vernon OBE.

Patrick led a successful campaign for 22nd of  June to be recognized annually as Windrush Day, a national day acknowledging the migrant contribution to UK society, which was officially backed by the British government in 2018.

But as well as celebrating the contribution of the Windrush generation of migrants from the Caribbean, more recently he has been fighting for compensation for the victims of the Windrush Scandal.

August 2021 sees the 10th anniversary of the police shooting of Mark Duggan on the streets of Tottenham and the nationwide riots that followed.

But what is it about Tottenham? Over the last four decades, more than any other area of Britain more than St Pauls in Bristol, more than Toxteth in Liverpool, more even than Hackney or Notting Hill or Brixton in London, Tottenham has become synonymous with violent clashes between the police and the Black community - violent clashes that often spill out onto the rest of the country.

And community activist Stafford Scott has been there through all of them. As such he is a living part of Black British history.

So we are honoured to have him join us as our guest.

In this episode he takes us through the history of Tottenham and their struggles with the Met Police, from the Broadwater Farm Riots in 1985, to the shooting of Mark Duggan in 2011, to the tasering of his own brother in 2020.

CRÈME is an acronym – it stands for Communicating the Race Equality Message Effectively.

In each episode we will be interviewing a representative of one of the organisations fighting for racial equality in Britain. But this will not be just a dry discussion on policy – this is about the people behind the campaigning, and the experiences that shaped them.

August 2021 sees the 10th anniversary of the police shooting of Mark Duggan on the streets of Tottenham and the nationwide riots that followed.   

But what is it about Tottenham? Over the last four decades, more than any other area of Britain more than St Pauls in Bristol, more than Toxteth in Liverpool, more even than Hackney or Notting Hill or Brixton in London, Tottenham has become synonymous with violent clashes between the police and the Black community - violent clashes that often spill out onto the rest of the country.

And community activist Stafford Scott has been there through all of them. As such he is a living part of Black British history.

So we are honoured to have him join us as our guest.  

In this episode he takes us through the history of Tottenham and their struggles with the Met Police, from the Broadwater Farm Riots in 1985, to the shooting of Mark Duggan in 2011, to the tasering of his own brother in 2020.