- Photo by Nichola Rich
British-Jamaican Member of Parliament, Dawn Butler.

Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter

"I exist!" exclaims Dawn Butler, one of two black female members of the British Parliament, both of whom are proudly Jamaican (the other being Dianne Abbot, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington).

The 35-year-old daughter of Clarendon parents, Ms. Butler has been MP for the culturally diverse constituency of South Brent in North London, home to Britain's largest Jamaican population for little over a year, following her 2005 general election success.

It has been tiring, she admits, just the day before a tabloid newspaper reporter had smuggled a fake bomb onto a train of nuclear waste travelling her constituency.

Ironically she is head of the citywide 'Safe Stations' campaign and not very pleased at the news.

On what seems an unusually hot July day - hot enough to pass for Kingston - she un-reluctantly mingles with constituents at the One Stop Jamaican restaurant on Harlesden High Street, her 'unofficial office' as she calls it.

Finding solutions

In particular, one local Jamaican-British nightclub owner appears to have the answer to the problems for youth crime; apparently he is also making a documentary about dons in Jamaica.

After a long monologue, one of his two cellphones rings. And so his MP is freed up.

She sighs.

"One of my rules," she explains, "is that when anyone of my constituents comes to me with a problem at one of my surgeries then they also need to come with two solutions to that problem, for I already know what the problem is!"

Ms. Butler is particularly keen to work more closely with Jamaica, part of the wider diaspora movement evidenced by the conference held in Kingston earlier this year, which she also attended.

"Before the diaspora most (of the delegates) had never heard of me. Going to the diaspora was quite good so that I could introduce myself and start that relationship," she said.

Previously reported by The Gleaner she, together with Dianne Abbot, to make this more permanent by establishing a parliamentary group within her party, the governing Labour party.

Such a 'Labour Friends of Jamaica' group would be modelled on other influential national lobby groups such as those representing Israeli and Indian interests.

Issues for consideration

She wants to take British MPs on a fact-finding trip to Jamaica to sensitise them to national issues and take a tour of an inner-city area, where she said.

Other issues to consider would be the skills drain from Jamaica to countries like Britain, as well as youth and the ubiquitous crime problem, which afflicts her own constituency.

"I think we need to act as a conduit for Jamaica and to inform politicians here (in Britain) about areas of joint interest and cooperation such as Kingfish," she said.

She also believes that second and third-generation Jamaicans in Britain who maintain a proud interest in Jamaica need to be reached out to by their motherland, a logical extension of the nascent diaspora organisation.

"We also need to promote Jamaica as a destination for investment and not just tourism. There are a lot of young people from a Jamaican background who either have skills and want to work here or start a business, however, they want to know 'how' that can be done and also to be able to avoid any red tape."

She is one of two daughters and six sons of parents from May Pen, Clarendon who immigrated to London in the 1950s, where they run a bakery in which she used to help out.

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