The Londoner: Barnes still master of the left-wing

John Barnes, the former Liverpool and England footballer, was at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool yesterday and announced that he is writing a book on race, discrimination and society.

“It’s going to be called ‘Understanding Racism’,” he said. “I’m writing it myself and I’m not being a journalist — it’s going on forever. I’m not an intellectual but I’m above average intelligence and I can actually write, so I’m doing it all myself.”

Barnes was capped 79 times for his country — then a record for a black man playing for England. Since hanging up his boots he has carved out a career as an anti-racism campaigner.

As a player, Barnes faced racism himself and once back-heeled a banana off the pitch — the offending fruit had been thrown on by fans during a Liverpool-Everton game in the late Eighties.

Barnes announced his book project at a fringe event for Show Racism the Red Card at the Labour conference, which also featured Len McCluskey, secretary-general of Unite, on the panel.

“I’m still in awe when I share a platform with one of my great heroes, John Barnes,” said McCluskey as the audience broke into applause. Barnes cheekily motioned for them to increase the volume.

“We’ve got a long way to go to deconstruct the idea of race, of racism and the idea of discrimination,” Barnes told the audience, as he explained that he was interested in “the moral and intellectual equality of the soul".

“We’re not always going to be equal. There are certain genetic facts that make other people more apt in certain things.”

He added: “I start off all my talks by holding my hand up and making everyone feel comfortable and say ‘I am an unconscious racist’.”

Labour versus the BBC in Liverpool

Such is the hostility to the BBC at Labour conference that reporters are being targeted directly. When Laura Kuenssberg sat down in the Pullman Hotel restaurant, the group at the table next to her rose in unison and moved. It turned out to be Jeremy Corbyn and his family. Later Nick Robinson was almost thrown out of a taxi by a Corbyn fan who joked about “not picking up people from the Tory BBC”.

“After we got in,” Robinson said. “I said to him, ‘It’s worse than you thought: I’m a f***ing Manc and a proper Red too.’”

---

Emily Thornberry MP was the highlight of this week’s Irish Embassy event. “The Irish ambassador is a bit down at the moment, what with all the Brexit stuff. I said I’d cheer him up and sing a song,” she tells us. Diplomatically, he kept a straight face. “I sang my song and I told him... ‘Labour always keeps its promises’.”

---

What happened to the rule that there are meant to be no flags in the conference hall? There were no EU flags at the Brexit debate, according to some asked to put theirs away. But Palestinian flags were everywhere; one speaker even wore one as a top. A source says: “Banning them would’ve caused too much of a ruckus.”

Ashley’s a real smoothie while Bonnie cuts a dash in 42nd Street

The Sky Garden played host to a wrinkle-free crowd last night, as cosmetic brand Olay hosted a party for guests including Strictly Come Dancing’s Ashley Roberts.

Then, from Fenchurch Street to 42nd Street: actor Bonnie Langford celebrated her new role in the revived musical, in which she plays Dorothy Brock, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The EastEnder and former Dr Who companion takes over from Steph Parry, the understudy who got the top job when her 104-metre dash from Drury Lane to the next-door Novello Theatre to provide cover for the lead in Mamma Mia! hit headlines earlier this year.

Langford, however, is clearly capable of such a dash. Last week she sped across town in full costume for an interview on The One Show. With the cameras still rolling, she jumped back into a car to make it to the evening performance. Brava!

SW1A

Yvette Cooper proclaimed her favourite place in her constituency yesterday: the Haribo factory in Pontefract. “If I talk too long I’ll start talking about Haribo again: they are so nice at letting me help with the quality control testing.” Cooper clarified that her favourite Haribo option is Starmix.

---

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, is angry that anti-immigration has hit the mainstream. “We understand that sadly something that was confined to the fringes, the National Front, the extreme of the Conservative Party, we have allowed to infect all political parties,” he said yesterday. “And I am ashamed for some of what was done in the name of my own party. Putting things like ‘let’s control immigration’ on our mugs.

---

Caroline Flint’s “Hello Manchester!” call wasn’t a gaffe: someone in the crowd asked her to project so Flint “did a theatrical call out which could [be] heard in Manchester. It was a joke”.

John McDonnell's Bolshevik moment

Before shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, had a fun time at the Mirror’s conference party last night, he addressed 500 activists at Labour’s sister festival The World Transformed in Liverpool. He modestly compared his and “Red” Ken Livingstone’s takeover of the Greater London Council in the early 1980s to the Bolshevik revolution in St Petersburg, 1917. “We opened up every room and everyone could come along,” he said, describing the moment they took the keys to County Hall. “It was like the Winter Palace actually.”

---

Back in London, Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson caught up with Treasury minister Liz Truss yesterday. Davidson is due to give birth in a month: “From the Barnett formula to baby formula, we’re on it!” says Truss.