vbfg wrote:No, you're wrong. What Bradford highlights is the way in which modern societies become fragmented and alienated from themselves. Many people have chosen to view this through a race coloured lens when looking at Bradford, and frankly I say these people are idiots without the wit to point out which parts of the country aren't like this. I have had many arguments with friends about the nature of segregation in Bradford in the wake of Make Bradford British. They mostly divided neatly into two camps - those who take the "they don't want to be British" line (of whom I know mercifully few) and those who take the "segregation? we're not segregated!" line. They're both wrong. Their world views are segregated from each other along class lines, family history lines, personality lines, money lines, cultural lines, general outlook lines and many others, including race and religion. It's not about "they". There are hundreds of nationalities in Bradford, and even those non-white backgrounds that seem homogeneous because of their country of origin are divided along those same class lines as everyone else. There's a big difference in upbringing between people whose families came from mountain villages and those from urban areas, as well as those from higher born castes and those from lower.
I have lived everywhere in this city, from old houses with a mixture to all-white estates to the very centre of the Bradford West constituency. It's a city made up of old villages that rapidly merged into one, and it never lost that flavour. It is full of self contained communities that were always isolated from each other. Those parts of the city that aren't old villages are now old all-white housing estates which might as well be villages. The whole city was like this long before you say we became a failed experiment in multiculturalism. It's nonsensical jibberish to say it's a new phenomena and it's all their fault, and it's even more nonsensical coming from a foreigner like you.
When I lived on Buttershaw (an all-white estate) I very definitely wasn't one of them, and they let me know it[1]. When I lived in Great Horton I received christmas cards from my neighbours for the very first time. The lady who currently rents my house there from me set up a community farm on some abandoned land there. This currently has several hundred active volunteers from every background who are growing cheap food on unused lands for the benefit of everyone. This is right in the middle of Bradford West, which would be one of the areas you claim is monopolised by people who do not want to belong.
If you want to decide what's wrong with Bradford then come here and look at it.
[1] I should point out that I'm a Bierley lad, another all-white estate. Buttershaw was a culture shock because it didn't have herds of wild horses roaming around it.
You don't describe the Bradford I live in and have lived in on and off for 50 years. Bradford is city which had a thriving manufacturing base, wool, metal casting and some assembly. Wool disappeared along with the likes of Crofts, Hepworth and Grandage and Metal Box disappeared and the likes of Pat Wall drove Bairds and English Electric out. The lack of large scale manufacturing has left a huge vacuum in the city.
The lawlessness of the Pakistani/Bangladeshi communities cannot be tackled due to race card issues,the race riots of 2001 set the precedence for what the police can and cannot do. The brutality of the tribal stuff of the eastern europeans is impossible to control. If you want an example of lawlessness check which post codes have the highest instances of uninsured vehicles in Britain? Drug dealing in this city is now endemic and openly transacted - if you want to see it in action take a walk down Leeds Rd any time after 4pm.
As the Asian community continue to breed at such a rapid rate - in 2009 the Pakistani community represented 20% of the total but accounted for 50% of all new births - it is having an effect on the population balance of the city.
The city centre has one of the highest instances of empty shops including a the huge Westfield hole at the bottom of the city where a failed development left its mark. The Asians understandably shop in their own shops especially the ladies and the whites go to Leeds as variety of shops are greater. The city centre is a virtual no go area at night.
Large quantities of the white population live in ghetto like council estates like Holme Wood - where horses out number cars, Ravenscliffe, Swain House and Buttershaw where lawlessness is equal to if not greater than that experienced in the areas populated by Asian/EE. The lack of work or desire to work has driven a culture of benefit abuse, drug consumption, general apathy but an anger based on racial bias.
Galloway saw an opportunity to expose this rift - the constituency had 40% Muslim catchment excluding the Uni - he knew the Imams were the key to success and he worked on their ego - they told their flock to vote for Galloway and they delivered the Muslim vote. The community leaders told everyone to vote for the Labour candidate purely because he was a Muslim - yet another illustration of where the power in the city really lies.
Bradford is close to a tipping point and Galloway's meddling for his own ends has probably accelerated this position. The idea of a bigot white MP being carried through the city on the shoulders of a group of Imams - Iranian stylee will not help matters.
