A VICAR has defended the police and teachers against charges of "institutional racism".

The Rev David Ashforth, vicar of St Leonard's Parish Church, Balderstone, said they should be commended for their efforts to combat racism, not "heaped with guilt and blame".

In his parish magazine, Mr Ashforth compares the accusations levelled against the police and teachers to the unfair trials faced by Jesus.

He said: "Whole professions, the police and the teachers, have been branded as guilty of 'institutional racism', a charge carefully formulated to exclude the possibility of any defence.

"The evidence is against it. Home Office statistics show the police spend 64 per cent more resources and devote 35 per cent more officer days to solving murders if the victim is black rather than white.

"It works too. The clear up rate for all murders is 25 per cent. If the victim is black the clear up rate goes up to 41 per cent.

"The Metropolitan police made a public mess of the Stephen Lawrence case, but the Home Office evidence refutes the charge that the police in general are indifferent to crime when the victim is black." He said the the statistics from the Department of Education showed children from Chinese and Indian backgrounds did better in exams than those from white Anglo-Saxon families.

"If children from Caribbean, Bangladeshi and gypsy backgrounds do less well, maybe we should look for causes in the outlook and lifestyle of these cultural groups, rather than accuse their teachers of 'institutional racism'," he said.

He added that the way to meet racism was to get to know people from other cultural groups - something which the churches, mosques and temples of Lancashire had taken a lead in.

"Schools, including church schools, teach sympathetically about other people's cultures and beliefs," he said.

"Nobody has worked harder at improving race relations that the Lancashire Police.

"Police, teachers and religious leaders deserve to be commended for their efforts, not heaped with guilt and blame."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.