Sir: Dhiren Bhagat is a bit late in catching up
with the rest of the right-wing media in their attempts to discredit Sivanandan and the Institute of Race Relations. Half of his article reads like a schoolboy essay. 'Read the first ten pages of Chris Mullard's book and summarise.' The rest is a fairly un- pleasant personal attack on Sivanandan, written in a quaint 'mystery and suspense' style. 'He does not know I will be writing it for the Spectator. . . . If he had known that, he would not have told the full story. . . . I have them all on tape. . . and so on.
In between are careless mistakes. The old Institute was at 36 Jermyn Street, not 59. And 'Racial Awareness Therapy' is presumably Racism Awareness Training (of which, though one would not know it from the article, Sivanandan is the most vociferous critic). But what do little mis- takes matter when one has unearthed a great conspiracy? I have no idea who Dhiren Bhagat is. I have known Sivanandan well for 22 years, and I find this kind of personal abuse, based on one interview, extremely poor journalism. Unfortunately, it is not un- typical of much current right-wing polemic in the Spectator and elsewhere. Perhaps you should take Paul Johnson's advice on survival to heart in the same issue, and 'cease to be predictable'. No- thing is more predictable than the current spate of attacks on the Institute of Race Relations. Readers who want to know what the Institute thinks would do better to subcribe to its excellent journal Race and Class.
(The Revd) Kenneth Leech
Race Relations Field Officer, Church House, Dean's Yard, London SW1
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