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Reform MP doubles down on ‘too many Blacks and Asians’ comment

On Saturday 25 October, Reform MP Sarah Pochin complained that there are ‘too many Black and Asian people’ in adverts:


Later that same day, Pochin ‘apologised’ — and by apologised, we mean she doubled down on her point while apologising for how she phrased it.

Make no mistake; she’s still adamant there are too many Black and Asian people on the TV.

Reform: The double down

Pochin’s comments read in full (emphasis added):

My comments on a Talk TV phone-in earlier today were phrased poorly and I unreservedly apologise for any offence caused, which was not my intention.

The point I was making is that many British TV adverts have gone DEI mad and are now unrepresentative of British society as a whole. This is not an attack on any group but an observation about balance and fairness in how our country is portrayed on screen.

A study commissioned by Channel 4 as part of its Mirror on the Industry project, found that Black people were featured in more than half of adverts in 2022, up sharply from 37 per cent in 2020 following the Black Lives Matter movement. By contrast, Black people make up around 4 per cent of the population in England and Wales, according to the 2021 Census.

Representation in advertising should reflect the diversity of modern Britain, but it should also be proportionate and inclusive of everyone. My comments were made in that context, and I stand by the principle that equality should mean fairness for all.

As we highlighted yesterday, the “diversity of modern Britain” diverges from place to place. An advert which reflected Runcorn would not reflect London; one which reflected London would not reflect Leeds, another which reflected…

You get the point.

What Pochin seems to be saying is the diversity across the advertising schedule of any one day should reflect the diversity of Britain as a whole.

Okay, so how do we achieve that?

Because really, we can’t say any way of achieving target levels of diversity without implementing…

…diversity targets?

And there’s a problem here, BECAUSE REFORM ARE OPPOSED TO DIVERSITY TARGETS:

Is she genuinely not smart enough to understand that demanding representation for white people is a diversity initiative? Because that’s what she’s calling for.

And how would she ensure it happens?

In a single business, it’s easy to track diversity figures; how do you achieve that over the advertisement industry — an industry in which different studios produce varying content for different clients?

We would need to implement some sort of government bureau to pre-approve all adverts in advance to ensure the diversity mix aligns with Pochin’s expectations.

And do you know what that means?

IT MEANS A BIGGER GOVERNMENT – SOMETHING ELSE THAT REFORM OPPOSE:

And people had further criticisms of her stance too:

Some highlighted that Pochin isn’t the only right winger who’s needed to apologise this week:


No idea

Reform politicians quite clearly have no understanding of their own policy positions. This is why councillors and mayors who got elected on an austerity platform are asking for more money and tax. It’s also why Pochin is making an argument which can only end with diversity initiatives and bigger government.

While Reform are doing well in the polls now, they’re going to struggle to maintain this momentum for the next four years when everything that comes out of their mouths is racist, hypocritical, or both.

Featured image via TalkTV

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.