# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Voices

Ministers like Gavin Williamson are just following rules when they propose something mad, stick to it despite opposition and U-turn on the basis that nobody could have possibly foreseen any issues

Imagine if any student wrote an exam paper in the way the government has handled the issue of marking the exams. They'd write "The main cause of the First World War was the Mona Lisa, which was written in 1985 by Catherine the Great." Then they'd insist this was "fair and accurate" following a "robust process", until 15 million people screamed it made no sense. Then the student would say it wasn't his fault because his computer was broken.

In the government's defence, how could anyone have worked out in advance that marking down students from a school because that school hadn't achieved such high marks before might be a problem? If a pandemic had happened in Beethoven's year, he'd have been downgraded from a predicted A to a C because Bonn Comprehensive didn't have any As the previous year.

If the Premier League hadn't been completed this year, Liverpool should have been given fourth place, because, in spite of them being 137 points clear at the top, that's where they normally finish.

Read more

This is so efficient, no students need to bother learning anything, they're just given the grades that school got before, so the schools can be turned into flats.

This should be the rule in every other area as well. So to make the justice system fairer, each town has to send the same number to prison every year. If Luton sent fewer this year than in 2018, the local council takes 40 random people out of Lidl and gives them all six years for armed robbery.

But the way they dealt with these exams seems to fit a pattern. Because this government had the same approach for increasing NHS fees for foreign nurses. A decision the prime minister might as well have responded to by saying: "I am sick and tired of foreigners coming over here and saving my life as a sneaky way of earning money off our health system. If they can't be bothered to pay for the privilege, they don't DESERVE to save my life."

Eventually, someone spotted a flaw in this proposal so they abandoned it, and replaced it by announcing an end to the furlough scheme, because we could no longer afford to let people stay at home and not work, just because they'd been ordered to stay at home and not work.

Boris Johnson was probably about to make a traditional Conservative speech, saying: "If someone has been put out of work because I've ordered them to stay at home, they should go and look for work somewhere else. Maybe there's a job in the toilet, or underneath the settee."

Instead, they abandoned that and announced instead that all schools would reopen in June, which would also be when the world-beating, game-changing track and trace would be ready, until they abandoned both of those.

So they announced there was no need to wear a face covering, as they made no difference, until they amended that slightly to "Everyone HAS to wear a mask". Then every minister said something slightly different, such as: "In shops you must wear a mask and play a flute" or "if you have breathing difficulties you must wear one over your arse."

So these people calling for Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, to resign are being thoroughly unfair. He was simply following the rules of his government, in proposing something mad, sticking to it despite the opposition of everyone, then cancelling it while saying no one could possibly have foreseen the thing that everyone foresaw.

But they seem to get away with it, so they'll probably carry on like this. Next week they'll announce prisons will be turned into aquariums, and long-term prisoners have to paint themselves yellow and orange and pretend to be tropical fish.

Then they'll abandon that, saying no one could have predicted the findings of a report that concluded prisoners don't have gills.

But never mind, because to save money on expensive training, heart surgeons will be chosen by the National Lottery, though you'll be restricted to liver transplants if you needed the bonus ball.

To save further public money through efficiency, the library service will be merged with the navy, and the romantic fiction D to H section will be used as an aircraft carrier.

A-level results: Students protest outside Downing Street amid growing pressure for Gavin Williamson to resign

And none of them responsible for these schemes will ever resign. Priti Patel could be filmed making balaclavas out of the Queen's corgis to sell to the Continuity IRA to raise money for the Campaign to Fill the Sea with Plastic and Particularly Poisonous Whale-Killing Mercury, and she'd say she'd done nothing illegal, and Johnson would say he'd drawn a line under it, and what the British people wanted was to see her get back to being an incompetent psychopath as soon as possible.

In spite of all this, they remain slightly ahead in the polls, as if around 40 per cent of the population has now forgotten there are any other parties. So you might as well ask them which moon they'd prefer to go round the Earth.

We're now run by a government that's the equivalent of a car mechanic where, when you take your car for a service, they tell you they're going to set it alight. You tell them that doesn't seem right, but they insist this is a well-thought-out policy, it's even been approved by Chris Grayling, and "we lead the world in repairing things by incinerating them". Then, one month later, when it's revealed there are three thousand charred vehicles blocking the entire town, they announce they're reviewing their policy, but it's not their fault, no one will resign, and in a poll, 41 per cent say they would still vote for them to carry on "fixing" their vehicles.

More about

The government's approach to exams is the same as everything else it does: make deranged choices and watch Britain burn

Ministers like Gavin Williamson are just following rules when they propose something mad, stick to it despite opposition and U-turn on the basis that nobody could have possibly foreseen any issues

Daily Coronavirus Briefing

No hype, just the advice and analysis you need

Sign up
Already have an account? Log in here

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mark Steel: The government's approach to exams is textbook: make deranged choices and watch Britain burn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Voices Ministers like Gavin Williamson are just following rules when they propose something mad, stick to it despite opposition and U-turn on the basis that nobody could have possibly foreseen any issues Imagine if any student wrote an exam paper in the way the government has handled the issue of marking the exams. They'd write "The main cause of the First World War was the Mona Lisa, which was written in 1985 by Catherine the Great."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"All political lives [...] end in failure," once said Enoch Powell.

He lived in different times, of course (the Windrush generation had not long arrived back then, instead of later being deported by accident.)

Now, political careers begin in failure, and thus they cannot be stopped.

Is Gavin Williamson going to resign? He was asked that question three times on BBC Breakfast, on each occasion the words of the interviewer seeming to be little more than a mild irritation in his own private one-player game of Mallet's Mallet, a random word association game of meaningless drivel.

Are you going to resign?

"I am going to be delivering the world's best education system. That's what my focus is on."

How do we describe that sentence? It can hardly be called a lie, because nobody could ever say in good faith that they were really meant to believe it was true.

An infinite number of chimpanzees with an infinite number of typewriters would type out the complete works of Shakespeare an infinite number of times. And it is, therefore, theoretically possible that left alone in a cave, Williamson might smear one of Hamlet's soliloquies on the wall with his own excrement, and thus it is equally theoretically possible that he will indeed deliver the world's best education system. But it is not a claim that anyone, not even Williamson himself, is surely meant to believe. They are just words, sounds, noises he is obliged, by convention, to make from time to time on television before going back to his easy life as a failure so stratospheric as to be rendered untouchable.

It would have made little difference if Williamson had dispensed with the language entirely. Asked if he was going to resign, he might just as well have emitted a series of strangulated growls and barks, a kind of political Papa Lazarou, a deranged wielder of power drawn from no one quite knows where.

It was interesting to note that Williamson admitted he became aware of the jaw-dropping scale of his own uselessness "on Saturday". It was "on Saturday" that it became clear to him that the A-Level results system wasn't fit for purpose. It just so happens that in early July, he was sent an Education Committee report that warned him precisely of what would happen.

But can Williamson really be blamed for not reading that? You can surely only be blamed for not doing what is expected of you? And what is expected of Williamson is to cock up absolutely everything he touches, so why should he resign?

Should Boris Johnson sack him? That would surely be grounds for unfair dismissal. As it happens, while Williamson spoke, Marks and Spencer announced it was cutting 7,000 jobs. That's a whole small town out of work, through precisely zero fault of its own.

In November 2017, when the safest pair of hands in Theresa May's government turned out to be not so much safe as wandering, Williamson recommended the owner of those mitts, Michael Fallon, be sacked. His advice was followed. He then recommended, as his replacement as defence secretary, none other than himself.

A year and a half later, he was sacked for leaking information from the National Security Council, thus rendering him a danger to national security. Williamson strenuously denied that the leak had come from him, even "swearing on his children's life" (oh, the dignity), but May did not consider these denials sufficient to overturn the very large amount of very overwhelming evidence that it had definitely been him.

So why should he quit now? For being incompetent? For not having a clue what he's doing? How can you sack him for that? It would be like sacking a mouse for eating cheese.

Naturally, the blame has already been shifted onto the top civil servant at the Department for Education, Jonathan Slater. At this point, one doesn't have to be a conspiracy theorist to wonder at the strategy.

He would be the third permanent secretary to be forced out in a matter of months, as well as the head of the entire civil service, Sir Mark Sedwill.

It is a kind of genius, really. You appoint the most useless cabinet that has ever been assembled, and one by one you purge all of the departments of their top administrators as they are conned into carrying the can for the staggering fiascos that, entirely coincidentally, have only happened once the Cabinet of None of The Talents showed up.

On they all go, the Carnival of the Clueless, burning down all before them. From sixth form colleges to care homes, cradle quite literally to the grave, they're coming for you.

When they find you and strip away either your life chances or your life itself, the important thing to remember is that it will always all be somebody else's fault.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tom Peck: Why should Gavin Williamson resign for being useless? It's why he was appointed

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"All political lives [...] end in failure," once said Enoch Powell. He lived in different times, of course (the Windrush generation had not long arrived back then, instead of later being deported by accident.) Now, political careers begin in failure, and thus they cannot be stopped. Is Gavin Williamson going to resign?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
24 * Northampton * Writer and race equality activist

I remember when Mark Duggan was killed by police. It was my generation's Stephen Lawrence moment

An event that I had a first visceral connection to was the London riots of 2011, when Mark Duggan was killed by police. It was probably my generation's Stephen Lawrence moment. Black people in this country are given the talk. I was eight years old when my parents gave me that talk; that one day, I might be stopped by the police. I might not have done anything wrong, I just happen to be black in this country and that's a mandate for suspicion. I don't know a black person who hasn't been stopped by the police. The London riots had an impact because I sort of linked it to when my parents gave me the talk. Being stopped by the police can result in someone's death. There are many that have lost their lives in police custody. I encountered racism day in and day out, and some of it was from my teachers. People called me savage, asked if my family lived in huts in Africa. Being black at private schools was very difficult, but if I can deal with racism there, I can deal with it anywhere. Middle-class and upper-class people talk in a certain way, where they could be saying the most horrible things about you but because they say it in such a way, with their accent and their pronunciation of words, how they were taught to speak the Queen's English, that when they do stuff like that, it sort of pads it down a little bit. When Boris Johnson goes on about Muslim women being letterboxes or black people with watermelon smiles, because he says it in that vernacular that is tied to the English private school system, it comes across in such a way that is less threatening than Tommy Robinson. Nothing like this has ever happened in my lifetime. When we protest in Northampton, we're lucky to get 10 people to turn up and we had 1,000 people attend the first Black Lives Matter protest. Northampton is a famously white town. The protest was led by young people. If I didn't go, I would feel guilty. I don't think you can be black in this country and not support the protests. People say that British racism is very subtle and covert. But nothing about the Windrush scandal was covert; it was very open, very honest. Grenfell as well.

18 * Birmingham * Singer and student

If I have to fight every day for the rest of my life, I will

The UK is not innocent and never has been innocent. I remember walking in town with my friends when I was 12, and two white girls were fighting and the police started threatening and ragging up all the black kids that happened to be there, while the white girls continued to fight. We ran home because we knew we would get arrested, even though we weren't part of it. I was flabbergasted. I thought, why just us? To be black in the UK is beautiful, especially now with so many black entertainers. I want to become a music mentor, but first I need to become a performer. I don't really fit the look you see on TV. I'm thick-bodied, thick-lipped, I've got big nostrils and my hair is curly. I have friends who are musicians and they're all slimmer, they have straighter hair, they even act a certain way. But I will always just be myself. I'm not sad that I'm black and I won't pretend to be something I'm not. Casting agencies and judges tell me I don't really "fit the criteria" or they don't think I'd be able to do this part because of "the way you look". They would never say anything about my talent and I'd think, why aren't you judging me based on my talent? When I saw the hurt on my brother's face over George Floyd, or, as he put it "the world", I thought, I'm going to London [to protest]. This can't carry on, we can't not go: this is my fight. The next day, I went to one in Birmingham, then London the week after. We cannot stop - if I have to fight every day for the rest of my life, I will. The energy that day was fire; that day my mentality changed to: "No justice, no peace". I realised I was fighting for me, for my brothers, for my parents, for my ancestors. I want to be able to tell my children: "I fought for you, I fought for your children. I went for us".

21 * London * Student

Being black, especially a black woman, is a political statement in this country

School in the UK was really difficult. I've tried to suppress and put in the back of my mind the traumatic experiences that come down to racism. I was experiencing racism at the age of eight. I was aware that I was being treated differently to other people. It was the end of the day and I really needed to go to the toilet. There was about 10 or 15 minutes of me having my hand up and you could tell I was really distressed. I was crying like I really needed to get to the toilet and then I wet myself. It just makes me really upset that I had to go through such a traumatic experience at such a young age because a fully grown adult didn't like the colour of my skin. I would never want anyone to feel one-tenth of what I felt when I was going to school. You have so much self-hate and you just don't really know how to deal with it. Looking at myself now, I couldn't have imagined when I was younger that I would have turned into this person. We went to France when I was in year 9. The teacher didn't know I was in the lift, I was at the back, and she said: "Oh, my God, all these black people are so annoying". Everybody in the lift turned around and looked at me and I just didn't really know what I was supposed to do. No one defended me. No one said anything, and you know from a really early age that you're on your own. My life has changed drastically within the last six weeks, since Aima and I first put that tweet out and organised the protest in London with All Black Lives. I didn't expect it to change me in the way that it has. Now, I wake up every day and I have purpose and I have something to fight for, and something that I know I can put my full self into that's changing people's lives. Being black in this country, especially a black woman, is a political statement. You've seen just within the past six weeks, how much more confident black people have been, how much more outspoken - they realise their opinions are valid.

19 * Shetland Islands * Student

I remember hearing black people with Scottish accents for the first time and thinking I'm not the only one!

The very first political event I can remember was Obama being elected as the first black president. I was seven or eight at the time. We were in Cuba, so me and my Cuban family, who are all black, were sitting on the couch watching it happen. School was hard. I was bullied mercilessly in primary school and it took me years to realise that actually happened. Just young kids not knowing that people have different skin colours and that is an OK and normal thing. There was a lot of being picked on and being grouped together with other brown-skinned girls or boys when we weren't even the same race. I think we have 1% of ethnic minorities here in Shetland. In primary school, I remember being the only black or mixed-race person and there were three Asian kids. Because I didn't realise I was being bullied, I never thought to talk to my teachers about it. I never sought the support I needed. But when issues did come to light, for the most part I was supported by my teachers. The earliest experience I have, and the worst one probably, is being in the playground and me and a Pakistani boy from my class were pushed together. All the other kids were standing in a circle around us, pointing and laughing, and saying that we were boyfriend and girlfriend just because we had the same skin colour. I went to the protest because somebody has to be the voice for black people in Shetland. Because it's so white-populated, it's hard to find somebody who is going to have the strength and courage to stand up and be that voice. So I thought if I don't do it, who is going to do it? It was really incredible seeing the amount of support. It's the biggest turnout for protests that we've ever had. It was really amazing seeing just how many people came out to support the movement. It was heartening to see. Growing up as a black person in Shetland was hard but it's definitely strengthened my character as a young woman today. I don't really identify with the Scottish side of my family; I would consider myself British more than I would Scottish. And I definitely much more identify with the Cuban side of my family. So amalgamating my black and Scottish sides is something I've not quite done yet. But it's definitely interesting. I can remember hearing black people with Scottish accents for the first time and thinking I'm not the only one!

21 * London * Student

In year 6, my teacher told me, 'When you're older, please don't join a gang'

I would say the first event I was actually politically inclined and knowledgeable about would be over the death of Mark Duggan. It was the first one that hit home. The anger and frustration that was happening within the black community, and just how the media painted him out to be this barbaric guy, when really, he was a human being just like me, who looked like me and my friends. School in the UK was probably the worst experience I've had in my life. The school system didn't understand me or cater to my needs. I got sent to boarding school in Uganda for a few years to study there instead because I felt so out of place in Britain. In year 6, my main teacher approached me and my friend, who was black, and said: "When you're older, please don't join a gang". I replied: "We're not going to join a gang", but it wasn't until I started growing up that I began thinking to myself, what did she actually mean by that remark? Why would she select two black males and differentiate them from their peers? The protests are about the injustices that we face here as the black community, especially with deaths in custody. Black people are twice as likely to die in police custody than any other race in this country. When it comes to disparities in the criminal justice system, it is one of the reasons why I felt I also had to take a stand and move with my brothers and sisters to forge a movement here. I remember the first time I got stopped and searched. It was a section 60 in the Stoke Newington area of London and I was 18. I was walking and a police car pulled up. An officer asked where I was going and I said: 'I'm going to eat'. I put out my hand and he handcuffed me. It was very shocking and traumatising. It fragments people like me from society, it makes us feel like we're not British. Being black in the UK is trying to fit in areas that you know aren't really built in your favour. But when it comes to black culture, everyone wants to copy it and not call it black. I love my culture, I love my heritage, I love what my community has to bring to civil society.

25 * Edinburgh * Student

Teachers refused to test me for dyslexia and instead told my parents to stop speaking other languages at home

I'm dyslexic and I've only just found out at the age of 25, while I was at university struggling. When I was in school, I had the same struggles that I'm going through now with my work, but the teachers refused to test me and told my parents to stop speaking other languages at home. My parents told them there was not a language barrier. My school was very problematic. I remember I got into a fight because this girl hacked into my social media. She made everything about slavery, claiming my family were slaves and put all the pictures as slaves in shackles. I didn't even see it until I got to school, and I remember everyone being really weird to me. I got pulled aside by the headteacher and a police officer into this meeting room. They told me something's happened on your social media and we talked about it. Then they took my phone off me. Afterwards, I had a PE lesson with the girl who did it. I'd never been so angry in my life. I remember blacking out and I went for her and we had a fight. We got sent home and a couple of days later we returned with our parents for a big meeting about it. I remember sitting there with my mum and dad, who said to the teachers: "What are you guys going to do? This can't keep happening to our kids." They were trying to exclude me for being violent. And my parents were like, 'That's not fair. She's obviously at a point where she can't take it anymore. Someone was racist to her.' It was a bullshit conversation. They didn't know what they were doing, but they were trying to do their best. And then halfway through the conversation the girl's parents used the comparison of their daughter being bullied for being ginger as the equivalent to racism. My mum and dad got up and left. I was in a team of people that were organising the protest in Edinburgh. It was overwhelming. I've been in Edinburgh for almost 20 years now and I didn't know there were this many black people here. As bad as the experiences black people have had, I feel like we have a uniqueness that we can laugh so much and we can always find happiness and peace within, despite the damage that goes on. There are things to celebrate in being black and being British, because there are not all bad things about British culture. I like a cup of tea and dipping my biscuits in it. Yes, we are more commonly first-generation migrants but be proud of us for adapting.

21 * Bristol * Student

Blackness means innovation. It means resistance. It means persistence

There were a lot of black and brown people at my school, which was great. I was able to find a group of black girls that I felt that I could find comfort in, friendship and solidarity. But that didn't stop us from facing racism in school. I think one of the difficult things was seeing a lot of kids being put in isolation, being taken out of lessons, being harshly graded, and not being given the same patience as the white students. We do have systemic racism here, and the police are violent towards black bodies. We have a history here, especially in Bristol, of a deep involvement with the transatlantic slave trade. When people say the UK is not innocent, this is what we mean. It's about being stopped and searched, it's about how you feel like there's going to be some kind of altercation every time you leave your house. If you see a police van, even if you've done nothing wrong, you risk the violence of being shot with a Taser stun gun and the violence of being hit with batons. I think it's amazing that there's such a strong black British culture. I love that there's so much influence from the Caribbean community - from the music people listen to, to the slang people use. There's such a heavy influence of blackness across the UK, which can be frustrating when we see that we're not being respected. It gives me a sense of pride because I feel that black people, wherever we go, are so innovative. And especially here in Britain, I think blackness means innovation. It means resistance. It means persistence. I'm from South Sudan and everybody there is very dark-skinned. As a black person, being dark-skinned kind of comes with its own issues that's specific to communities of colour, specifically the black community. I think it will be an obstacle moving forward, and that's paired with being a woman as well. I think it sets up a lot of things against me. But at the same time, I really wouldn't want to be anything else. I feel like being a black woman is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

17 * London * Student

I realised it's not because you're annoying, it's not because you're ugly, it's because you don't look like them

I just remember hating myself because I've always been in school with only white people. It gave me body dysmorphia. I remember feeling ugly as a child. I look back at pictures of myself as a child and I wonder why I felt that way. I had teachers who were racist and I was bullied. Teachers used to belittle me. I never found groups of friends, because they were all white, that I felt that I could slot into. I never felt like I could fit in. It was a traumatic experience and it just leaves you feeling quite socially homeless. I used to get left out and I would wonder to myself, why is this happening? When I was in lockdown, more and more the pieces started to fit together. I'm one of the only ones like this. I'm one of the only ones that are around these people. So then I realised, it's not because you're annoying, it's not because you're ugly, it's not because of this or that, it's because you don't look like them. I think that racism in the UK is so dangerous, more dangerous than people realise. I think for America, if someone doesn't like you because you're black, they'll say it to your face or they'll do it in ways that make it easy to identify. But in the UK, it's so subtle. And it's still systemic. It was my first response to go to the protest to be part of the movement here. It was exhilarating. Seeing streets full of people that look like me and were there for the same reason as me, it made me feel so warm inside. When you go on the train and someone sees your sign and they do the fist, that was stuff I had never experienced before. It made me very emotional. Being black in the UK means you have a very close connection to the cultures that you come from. But it also means you have to go through struggles that people pretend not to see or understand and don't want to fix.

20 * Buckinghamshire * Student

Somebody would cross the road because of coronavirus, but that's an everyday thing for black people

I think my school was very micro-aggressive. People would be like, "Oh, can I touch your hair?" I got a detention once because somebody stuck a pencil in my hair. I had an afro and people thought it was interesting and wanted to run their hands through it, but I'm not an animal. I'm just normal, but because you're unfamiliar with the texture of my hair, you think it's interesting enough that you want to pet me. I look back and I think, wow, I actually tolerated that and allowed that to happen, but it's because I didn't understand what it was. People don't know what Britain has done because we don't get taught it. We've been taught about Henry VIII and his six wives. Who cares? I don't want to know how he manipulated the Christian church so that he could get away with divorce. That's got nothing to do with me. I want to know about what Britain's been up to colonising the whole world; imperialism and the effects of it. I think it's important that we protest. I think there are issues in the UK. It's so important that we also take on America as well. It's interesting that you have people like Boris Johnson, who will happily sit up and say, 'What's going on in America only concerns America', but then what have we been doing in the Middle East for all these years? Coronavirus has given an insight into racism in the UK because when you're walking down the street now, somebody will cross the road because they think you've got coronavirus. But if you're black in the UK that's an everyday thing. It's me walking to school and a white lady walking towards me, clutching her bag, and crossing the road because she's scared about what I'm going to do. I'm going to school! That happens two or three times a year. Being black in the UK gives you a sense of belonging. There's a level of respect the black community gives each other. When you're walking down the street, it's like a nod or a smile. It's so encouraging to see that from whatever generation, whether it's old or young. We all kind of have that caring nature towards each other because we need to have it.

20 * London and Oxford * Student

At secondary school, the world is screaming very loudly that you're not wanted

I think going to school in the UK is one of the hardest things. I was recently talking to my friends about it, because the George Floyd protests have made people begin to re-analyse experiences at school. I think every black woman has had an experience that's jarring, of feeling like you're not pretty. I used to get told, 'You're like so blick', which is slang for being very dark. It has a profound impact. As you grow up, you go through a phase of forcefully trying to love yourself. But in secondary school, the world is definitely screaming very loudly that you are being rejected and that you're not wanted. It was really hard. The UK constantly points the finger at America and there's a complete misconception that the UK isn't racist. At one protest I attended in Oxford, one American woman stood up and spoke about what was going on in America, but then she went on to say that her family were really happy that she moved to the UK because this isn't a racist country. Everyone was outraged. I think our lived experience as black people is overlooked in the UK. As a result, it means the government doesn't have to do anything. My mum migrated from Ghana to England and I'm the first generation of my family to be born here. If you ask people who have just migrated, they identify with the country they just moved from. I don't think my mum identifies as being black British as much as I do. I love Ghana and my Ghanian heritage, but I think I feel more of a sense of belonging here. They came here at a time when Britain was still so racist, where pubs had the sign 'No blacks, no Irish, no dogs', and that would make you want to hold on to your culture more. With our generations, being black British is a mix of your heritage and a mix of being British. We've created a whole new identity. Look at Stormzy, Burna Boy, and Kojo Funds. Artists like NSG have these beats that are like Ghana highlife, a type of music in Ghana, and grime energy mixed into one. Music is a perfect example of what being black British is like, regardless if you're first generation or if you're fourth generation. It's a beautiful mix and fusion of different identities.

20 * Monmouth * Student

I could sense this was perhaps the biggest moment I've felt for black people during my 20 years of life

I remember the 2008 US presidential campaign for Barack Obama. It was good to see a man of a similar colour running for one of the biggest jobs in the world. Although I was comfortable going to school with people who were predominantly white, it was still reassuring when another black boy joined in year 6, and we're still really good friends. Hair was a big thing for me. I didn't understand certain people constantly wanting to touch my hair. It's just one of those things I let happen for a while, but when this other black boy joined, he just wouldn't have it. So I thought I should just be saying no. I then wouldn't let people do it. I felt privileged as well as I got to go to a good private school here. I think when looking at the problems to do with race, we should also be looking at class as well, because a lot of the issues come hand in hand. I could sense this was perhaps the biggest moment I've felt for black people during my 20 years of life. I hadn't been to a protest before so I asked my mum, who lived in Zimbabwe when it was Rhodesia, what they could achieve. I thought it was quite important because I knew a lot of people in Monmouth. It's quite a small community. I think it's got a population of 10,000. I felt very privileged in the fact that I was lucky enough to speak and convey my message. I did get quite upset at one point. I thought If I were lucky enough to have grandchildren, I wouldn't want to have to have the same conversations that my mum is having to have with me. So that's one thing that I think would break my heart. My parents have always told me to be proud of who I am and where I come from and never to forget that. There's a sense of togetherness in the community a lot of the time. I love going to Zimbabwean functions because you know you're always guaranteed good food, lots of singing, lots of dancing. I remember when the Dave song Black came out. It just resonated with me. I think the song was for those who weren't in the black community to see what it can be like to be black and British.

18 * Sunderland * Student

Being black is to be strong. But it's not an option, you have to be

The north-east is typically not a very diverse place, so school was difficult for me. I've had racial abuse from peers and stuff like people touching my hair and calling me names. After school I went to college to do music and I just didn't really fit in with anybody. It sounds ridiculous but it's a bit intimidating walking into a room and no one looks like you or has the same history as you, and just automatically being different wherever you go. The history curriculum is kind of ridiculous. They just teach you, 'Oh well there was slavery for a little bit and it was really bad but then the slaves got freed and that was that'. Martin Luther King did a speech and racism was over. A lot of it is very whitewashed. They try to make people like Winston Churchill a hero when he's not. It's only from reading material by black authors that opened my eyes and made me realise how much of my own history I was shielded from. I heard about the protest in Newcastle but it got cancelled and moved online after a backlash because of the pandemic. I was pretty outraged by that, so I started my own. It was kind of my first opportunity to speak about my struggles and the struggles of black people in the UK. It was like a moment of relief for me because I thought people were finally doing something about it. It's hard to succeed when you don't have confidence in who you are. How am I supposed to have confidence in who I am when there are people who literally hate me and want to see me down and think they're more superior than me because of the colour of my skin? Being black in the UK means to be different. It means to be silenced. However, hopefully in future generations to come, being black in the UK will be something to be celebrated by everyone. In the meantime, I'm always going to celebrate where I come from. I think black people should be proud. As a race, they've come so far in life and had so much success, even though they've repeatedly been squashed and dragged down by oppressors. I think being black is to be strong. But it's not an option, you have to be.

18 * London * Student

I just did not feel comfortable speaking about race in my school

I was absolutely disgusted, angry, but not shocked by George Floyd's death. I've seen this happen so much ever since I was a little girl. I've been so desensitised to it that I'm not shocked when it happens anymore. It's just like a normal daily thing. I was talking to my friend Natasha, who helped organise the London protest with me, and said: "We need to do something. We can't just be silent". This doesn't only happen in America, but also happens here. We posted tweets about the London protests and it just skyrocketed everywhere. I was just in shock that so many people came out in support. I remember we were walking out of the US embassy and one of the police officers came up to us and said there were more than 9,000 people still there, and another 10,000 coming to join the march. The amount of systemic racism in the UK is disgusting; and how normalised racism is, in this country, is just terrible. The UK needs to take ownership for what it has done in the past. I never learned about colonisation in the UK. I remember so clearly in year 7, I was in hi

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Young, British & Black: the voices behind the UK's anti-racism protests

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I remember when Mark Duggan was killed by police. It was my generation's Stephen Lawrence moment An event that I had a first visceral connection to was the London riots of 2011, when Mark Duggan was killed by police. It was probably my generation's Stephen Lawrence moment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hold Still - The UK Lockdown - in pictures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hold Still is a digital exhibition hosted by the National Portrait Gallery. People of all ages, from across the UK, were invited to submit a photographic portrait which they had taken during lockdown. The project aimed to capture and document the spirit, the mood, the hopes, the fears and the feelings of the nation as we continued to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Photograph by Sarah Lee.

Photograph by Sarah Lee.

Aryan Nair lives with his parents, Rakesh and Swetha, and younger brother in south London
I remember my parents talking to me when the virus was in China. When it began to spread to other countries, I was scared I was going to get it or that something else bad was going to happen, I don't know what.

Lockdown made me feel really sad a lot of the time during the week but there was loads of happy stuff at the weekends: we had a pretend birthday party, we went to the woods a lot and to the zoo.

My parents were working pretty full-time during lockdown. I had a home-working schedule stuck to the wall and I tried to do it but once the novelty wore off, after a month or so, I used to look at it and just think, "Oh no!" I began to feel really annoyed by it and so my parents said I could give it up. I just played with my Lego. That was OK. I played with my Lego for hours.

There were some exciting things about lockdown: I liked doing Joe Wicks every morning, I watched Newsround and had fun online lessons with Role Models. I got really good at art too. I never used to draw before lockdown but I did an online course and now I'm amazing at it. We made up games we played over the garden fence with the kids next door. But mainly I had to just sit with my workbooks.

Two of Aryan's lockdown drawings.

Lockdown got even worse after my little brother went back to nursery. I was really lonely then. It just didn't feel normal to be all alone like that. I used to go and peek into my parents' offices but they were always in meetings and it was really boring.

The day before I went back to school, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep. The actual day of going back to school was much better than I'd dared to hope. I was going to a new school and everyone was so nice. None of us talked about lockdown. We didn't even think about it. It was over.

I know that some countries have had a second or a third wave of the virus. I'm worried that we'll get a second wave too because if we have to lockdown again, I will be really, really annoyed. I know now that there's nothing to do during lockdowns and during winter, it'll be even worse. I wouldn't mind if it was after Christmas though, because I would have all my presents to play with. Although you get tired of presents after a while. Or they break.

Holly Ronicle, 10

Photograph by Richard Saker.

Holly Ronicle lives with her younger brother, Noah, between the homes of her father, James, and mother, Emma, in York
It was exciting but sad too, when school ended, because I wasn't going to see my friends. But it was fun doing home learning because it meant I could stay in my pyjamas all day. My mum is a teacher and my grandmother used to be a headteacher, so we got a lot of teaching. We had really full days with lots of projects. It was a fun way to learn but I missed school because I missed my friends.

My mum had a cough and we had to stay inside until she had been tested

I listened to the radio and read a bit of the newspaper if it was lying around. At first, I thought the whole virus thing just seemed so crazy: everything was affected by it. But then I got used to it and the fact that we had to stay in our house.

During lockdown, I started cycling round York delivering food parcels to people with my dad. It was really weird cycling along streets that are usually really busy. There were no cars and hardly any people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Generation Z and the Covid pandemic: 'I have pressed pause on my life'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Photograph by Sarah Lee. Photograph by Sarah Lee. Aryan Nair lives with his parents, Rakesh and Swetha, and younger brother in south London I remember my parents talking to me when the virus was in China.