UK commentary Left,Right and Burnage

Abstract

On 17 September 1986, 13-year-old Ahmed Ullah was stabbed to death at Burnage High School, Manchester, by a white schoolmate. The local education authority commissioned an inquiry, under Ian Macdonald QC, but refused to publish its findings on grounds of defamation. In April 1988, some of its conclusions were leaked to a local paper. These included, among other things, a strong criticism of the way the school had applied its anti-racist policies. And it was this aspect of the report alone that was seized upon by the right-wing press to mount an attack on anti-racism.