Rising Above It All By John Mair

'I am proud to have Jamaican ancestry. The island has had a big impact on the world's culture, especially re arts, music, cuisine, sport'. Lord Taylor of Warwick

London, August 2002: June 1993 : John Taylor stands in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire as Conservative candidate for the safe Parliamentary seat. He loses.
Between the two events lies a history. John Taylor is an enigma.He is a Peer and black, a 'Tory ' and black. It has not always worked in his favour. He is British born and bred, though his parents came from the West Indies to earn to the UK to earn a crust as he told 'Carib Voice':
'My father, Derief Taylor, was from Kingston. My mother, Enid, was from St.Thomas. Dad played cricket for Lucas, Jamaica and Warwickshire in the 1940s, 50s. He was a coach at Warwickshire(County Cricket Club) for 25 years. I visited my father's birthplace in Text Lane recently with my wife and children'
John, born in 1952, went to grammar school in Warwick then Keele University, studied law and practised as a barrister at the London bar before returning home to build his own practice in the Midlands.
In 1990,he was selected as Tory candidate for the Cheltenham(the heart of white Middle England) safe seat, but then was then promptly described as a 'bloody nigger' by local party member Bill Galbraith and faced a vote of no confidence from the local Conservative Association. Taylor lost the seat: the ugly row prompted Tory reforms to encourage ethnic minority members.
The Tories have attracted some British Asians(and have several Parliamentarians who are of that stock) but their record amongst Afro-Caribbeans has been less than spotless as Taylor himself recognises; 'If you asked Conservative Central Office what reggae is, they'd think you were talking about one of the Kray brothers' (Reggie Kray; well known gangster of old). He has since had several high ­profile disputes with the Conservative Party nationally on the race question. Last year, he threatened to resign the Whip over the racist remarks of a Tory M.P.
But, denied by race a seat in the House of Commons, he was ennobled by the Major government and took his place is the House of Lords as Lord (John) Taylor of Warwick. He has survived the Blair reforms of the second chamber and is today a working peer with a special interest in Caribbean Affairs:
'I am on the National Committee of SCAR- A Sickle Cell Anaemia Charity and I am President of WISCA- West Indian Senior Citizen's Association'
But it's his role as President of ACWI- African Caribbean Westminster Initiative that he is most proud. He chose the launch site with care:
'I deliberately launched the initiative in the House of Lords, because I wanted an inspirational setting. Many of the guests - black employers from all over the country - had never been to such a grand place before. A beaming Jamaican bakery owner had travelled down from Manchester. His name was announced, in a booming tone, by the top-hatted Lords' redcoat. The visitor shook my hand as he entered the magnificent Attlee Room - named after a previous prime minister - and went straight out again. Ten minutes later, the guest came back. The redcoat, forgetting the man had already been introduced, went through all the formalities again'.
The rationale for the ACWI is fairly simple; 'I started it two years ago, because I know how difficult it is for black business people to attract funding from mainstream financial institutions. After all, with all that sport and singing at which blacks excel, how can we possibly be any good at business as well?'
But whilst the first and second generation of migrants may have financially bedded down, or nearly so,he has high hopes for the new children of the diaspora: 'The new entrepreneurs, I want to see that the potential of the black led church matures into powerful leadership and produces more Martin Luther King Juniors ' But he also shares the fears of that community 'Underachievement, becoming part of the IT underclass and dominating the prison population'
It has not all been an uphill trajectory in Lord John Taylors' life and career but he has learned from experience(good and bad) and put it to use in his outlook. In his own words 'My advice for future John Taylors is 'Don't get bitter, get better!!'