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Prime Minister, Tony Blair's comments that the Black community "…need to be mobilised in denunciation of this gang culture that is killing innocent young Black kids…" is a kick in the teeth to five generations of the UK's Black community and the countless foremothers and forefathers who fought for our freedom.

In the absence of statutory provision Black voluntary, community and faith organisations had historically stepped up to the challenge to provide vital grass-roots self-help organisations so as to meet the needs of our vulnerable children and young people and challenge inequality and racism.

During the Thatcher years, these community based resources, including ‘Supplementary' and ‘Saturday Schools', were attacked, the ‘carrot and stick' funding was withdrawn and we slowly saw their depletion over time.

The Black community has long campaigned for sustainable resources and support and an involvement in the decision making of grant giving bodies, the response has been slow and patchy. Despite years of government inner city regeneration, those that have benefited have been invariably white, including large multi-national contractors, private equity groups and building companies.

Black communities historically, have not been part of mainstream provision; the Prime Minister's comments are in danger of continuing this marginalisation.

It has been the Black community that has continuously campaigned for change and led the focus on tackling crime. The UK's own British Crime Survey over successive years for a number of decades have highlighted what we have long suspected that it is Black communities that are more likely to be victims of crime - from race hate crime, burglaries and theft through to homicides and murders - the Black community has certainly not been silent in its condemnation and fight against the UK's history of violence.

Indeed in London, in 1996, it was the Black community - so fed up with the police use of government sanctioned criminal informants whom terrorised our communities - that established the Operation Trident Independent Advisory Group. We operated with very little support and resources in our attempt to tackle the gun crime that was disproportionately affecting our communities.

Even then it wasn't until 2000 that the Police and the Home Office agreed to the establishment of a dedicated police resource unit, too late for some of our young people. We radically transformed the way in which the police conduct their work towards real community collaboration, engagement and partnership. Operation Trident is a clear example of community mobilisation and our preparedness to stand up to the ‘men of violence'.

The Prime Minister is wrong to assert or imply that this is a ‘Black problem', the bullet does not discriminate in its effect and neither is the Black community responsible for the manufacture, supply and importation of dangerous weapons.

It is also, as much the problem of those celebrities, businessmen and city workers and their corporate institutions that are trading for drugs on the doorsteps of our estates and neighbourhoods.

The Prime Minister's message, whilst delivering the Callaghan Memorial Lecture in Cardiff contradicts the government's own findings from its recent OFSTED inspection report, published this week entitled "Narrowing the Gap", which following a review of children and young people services identified continued failing in particular localities where vulnerable children and young people were falling through the net.

The report in criticising statutory services highlighted that a significant minority of vulnerable children and young people, a disproportionate number of whom are black, were suffering from negative outcomes and outputs and endure high levels of exclusions and that service provision was not good enough.

It called on local authorities and local councils to do more to address this "inequity". It revealed that in respect of children services "…the most vulnerable and underachieving children and young people continue to be let down".

The report concludes by highlighting that local authorities need to do more to engage in targeted, integrated, well coordinated, multi-agency services based on real partnerships. The problem it would seem is that the government and local authorities have focussed on providing, albeit to a high standard, broad universal services, which have not been able to address particular needs. Vulnerable children and young people from mainly black communities have simply continued to miss out.

The Prime Minister's "…Not in my backyard…" speech to a willing audience of mainly white faces will only fuel separatism and yet, as the government's own report states "…the biggest challenge continues to be narrowing the gap in opportunities and outcomes……"

Claudia Webbe