“IS THIS man – or any man – worth pounds 450 a week?” the Daily Sketch demanded to know. I like the heavy stuff like Wagner, but I’d rather see Aerosmith.ANGELA HOMER, fashion design consultant: I’ve never actually been to an opera.. Why the arts, anyway, why not the sciences?BRIAN PATTEN, poet: It’s obscene to spend pounds 55m on the elite’s pet dinosaur when there are brilliant young companies like Opera Factory struggling to commission and perform new works for a new audience.GARRY BUSHELL, television critic: I’ve been thinking about taking opera lessons – I’ve got the build for Pavarotti already, if I can just get the voice right I’ll be quids in. Everybody’s judgement has been clouded over the pounds 55m – I watched a programme about it last night and people just wouldn’t listen to the fact that the small charities will not miss out. Also, people haven’t picked up on the fact that the pounds 55m isn’t going into rich people’s pockets, but to surveyors, architects and builders being employed over a period of years to develop the place.TIM MORE, estate agent: I think they should give the money to charity rather than the arts. I don’t think we want a flagship institution to be held in disrepute by the Pavarottis and Domingos of this world.
TOM AINGER, manager, the Hanover Band: I’m an opera fan; it’s not that expensive if you queue on the morning of the performance.

We will always be worried about that if we stay in Britain.”Dyannah Atkinson sympathises with the Tomlinsons’ plight. But, she points out, emigration is simply not an option open to most black people in this country. “We have to find a solution to our problems here in Britain.”She worries, too, that certain attitudes within the black community might make matters worse. “Many middle-class blacks are concerned about police harassment, but they are equally concerned about what they see as the criminal activities of black youth in the inner cities.

They go along with the idea that there is a big problem of black crime in the inner cities, and they worry that such crime is making it harder for black professionals to get accepted in society. So they are quite happy to see police action continuing against black youth on the streets or the estates, so long as they themselves are left alone.”I am sure that if Condon had worded his letter more tactfully, all those community leaders who are now up in arms would have backed the new stop- and- search operations he wants to introduce into inner-city areas. But the only result of such operations will be even more harassment and false arrests. So long as you accept the myth of black criminality, everybody in the black community will continue to suffer.”. LIONEL BLAIR, actor: I can’t remember what the last opera I saw was – I was bored out of my mind But then that’s me – I’m not a ballet fan either. I like musicals and plays but all these things are expensive. I’m not against the Royal Opera House getting the money, provided it’s used to bring ticket prices down, so people who love it but can’t afford it can get cheaper tickets.

JOAN BAKEWELL, television presenter: I’ve been a fan all my life. Opera combines drama, music, visual arts, dance, it’s the total experience – it’s sublime. The Royal Opera House needed the money because backstage conditions were the disgrace of opera houses in Europe. “But I worry more about what might happen if we stayed in Britain. I don’t want in two, three or five years’ time for Colin to be driving a lovely car around Brixton and to be stopped and beaten up again He could have died last time Next time he might. Many travel agencies now exclusively deal with black people wanting to emigrate Some are going where their parents came from Others are emigrating to such countries as the US or Canada.

Mr Tomlinson and his family will be joining this exodus when they leave for a new life in Florida in two months’ time.Do they feel that they will be better treated on the other side of the Atlantic? Angela Tomlinson worries that they may face similar problems there too. Growing numbers of black professionals seem to agree with him, and are simply packing their bags. Little wonder the police – and often the public – treat black people as muggers or robbers.”Colin Tomlinson believes that “there is no future for black people like us in Britain”. Just last week we had Nicholas Tate trying to foist upon us a notion of Britishness that is exclusively white and Christian, and we had Michael Howard announcing new legislation which will force doctors, nurses, and social workers to treat every black person as a potential illegal immigrant. “From almost the first day black people set foot in this country we have been treated as aliens,” says journalist Dyannah Atkinson “And it is an idea that persists today. “Many of the letters we receive are from respectable, hardworking, law-abiding families who are confused and disoriented when something like this happens to them.”Why is it that black people are automatically treated as if they are criminals? Many believe it is the inevitable result of a society that still treats black citizens as “immigrants”.