This month I attended an awards ceremony at the House of Commons in which black youngsters were celebrated for their achievements. There was the Nigerian author who had become the youngest person ever given a book deal by top publishers Faber & Faber. There was the young man who'd achieved six A*s and two As at A-level ? four of which he'd taught himself outside school ? and was now an organ scholar at Oxford University. And there was the Cambridge student who's also an award-winning community poet.

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