Round-up

1. The only two black women in the British lower house have complained of racism in the mother of parliaments. Dawn Butler, at 38 one of the younger MPs in the House of Commons, said she had suffered explicit racism from politicians, lobbyists and police. Although, perhaps unsurprisingly, she can't give any examples, except for this:

"In one incident of alleged racism recounted by Butler, a white MP - David Heathcote-Amory of the opposition Tory party - questioned her presence at a members-only section on the terrace."

Gasp! That's racism if ever I heard it! And from one of the evil bigoted Tories, too!

2. The president of an Australian football team, Jeff Kennett, has slammed a proposal for anti-racism announcements at footy games, calling it another sign of the AFL's "thought police".

The idea was suggested by Football Victoria chief Peter Schwab, a former Hawks player and coach, who proposed pre-game announcements promoting the message that racism was unacceptable and encouraging crowd members to dob in spectators who racially abused players.

"Now there's going to be some announcement before football matches, I can't believe this is right, telling us all how crowd members should refer to players on the ground, in case there's any racism and bad language," Kennett said at a pre-fame function ahead of the Hawks' clash with Adelaide in Launceston today.

"The thought police from the AFL are telling us what we should be thinking during a round of football."