Thursday 3 October 2013

The EDL in Bradford: a suggestion...

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Next weekend those lovely people, the EDL are popping in to visit Bradford. Not for a spot of shopping and certainly not for a curry but for that most un-English of pastimes - marching down the street waving banners.

Not surprisingly the Council and the cops are in a bit of a funk over this - last time this charming bunch of neo-Nazis visited the city, we rolled out 1,700 policemen to welcome them (not sure how many came but is was fewer than 100).

It is a self-evident fact that laying on massed hordes of policemen and making their visit the top of every agenda and every news broadcast delivers precisely what the EDL want - publicity. Plus of course that other bunch of nutters - the anti-democratic left - will turn up. Sadly George Galloway and the EDL deserve eachother - they are cast from the same unpleasant mould.

I do however rather agree with Dave Green (this is not a common occurrence) when he says:

...stay away from a protest by the far-right English Defence League (EDL) and any counter-demonstration in the city later this month.

I would go further and say to those who are tempted to go and shout (or worse) at the EDL as they shamble past dragging their knuckles on the flags - don't bother. Do something more practicable - take the kids to the park, go for a walk along the canal, watch football on the telly, pop into your local pub, have a McDonald's,  sing folk songs in the garden, climb a tree, play board games, wash the car, fix that dripping tap you've been meaning to fix... Anything but go into Bradford and indulge the EDL's power fantasies, anything but pretend there is any value of purpose in having a "peaceful multicultural celebration" right in front of this bunch of mindless thugs. That is just plain stupid, is bad for Bradford and simply reinforces the views contained in the EDL's brain cell.

Ignore the EDL march. Don't grace them with the attention they crave. Don't provide them with justification for holding another march. Don't pretend you can face them down. Don't take it on yourself to "confront" their evil message. Just ignore them, treat them with the disdain they deserve. Do something else.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Simon,

I am a white, working class, married Father of two (which in some 'Left-Wing' quarters would be enough to categorise me as a racist homophobe).

If I am concerned about mass, uncontrolled immigration (which was NEVER included in any party manifesto to the British electorate), with no way of knowing how many illegal immigrants are here or flooding into England this year. Or, if the rise of Islam extremism continues without being challenged in my Country, (and certainly NOT by the Muslim community), how can I speak out or protest without being labelled a racist ?

I would actually be too afraid to attend an EDL protest for fear of being attacked by the friendly UAF.

I saw a video on YouTube of a UKIP Conference being hijacked by 'Members' of 'Unite Against Facism', (who are themselves the Facists) purporting to be UKIP supporters, just so they could try and prevent Nigel Farage from speaking.

Is this the sort of democracy that you want to live in ? Perhaps if you lived in one of the inner cities, like me, you would have a different view.
Instead, people like you sit in your Ivory Towers in your white, leafy suburbs, preaching about the non-existent virtues of multi-culturalism. I don't see you moving to Sparkbrook in Birmingham any time soon, do you ?

The 'Question Time audience' does not reflect the feelings of the white working classes, who have been completely marginalised and made to feel like second class citizens in their own county. No wonder white English boys are the biggest under-achieving ethnic minority group.

This is a recipe for disaster and I really fear for the future of this country and it's people. Perhaps we can speak again in 5-10 years to see how things are 'progressing' ?

Kind Regards

Paul

Simon Cooke said...

@Paul, Just a couple of explanations - I've been a Councillor in Bradford since 1995 and was a member of the executive at the time of the 2001 riots. I'm not sat in a ivory tower but have a real understanding of the issues here. I also have some sympathy with your concerns about being able to raise issues around Islakist extremism and immigration without being condemned as a racist.

What I do know is that marching, confrontation and the language of violent nationalism is not any sort of solution.

Anonymous said...

Simon, I think that 13 years of Labour has harvested a culture of fear and being afraid to voice concerns on Immigration and Race.
It is they who have admitted that they presided over a deliberate mass immigration policy that was uncontrolled.

Communities seem more isolated now than ever. We may all live in the same city, but separately. We may happen to work at the same company but we do not 'mix' and we do not 'integrate', we just 'tolerate' each other and 'stick to our own kind'.

I hope I am wrong but over the coming years, I think we are hurtling headlong towards disaster and major civil unrest throughout our inner cities. The EDL are not necessarily the problem, they are merely a symptom of a situation that has been allowed to continue unchallenged for many, many years.

It's the white elephant in the room. We can all see what's developing but most people, including me, are too scared to speak out or try to do anything about it.

We've heard it all before haven't we "...the Poles and Eastern Europeans have a great work ethic and the lazy white English working classes don't want to work..."

As for Muslims, One in four young people in Britain distrust Muslims and think the country would be better off without them, a new poll has shown. (Source:- http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/25/muslims-islamophobia-young-britons_n_3987677.html

25% !! Well those are the ones who felt able to tell the truth at least ? We can't just blame the Daily Mail for everything. But there is the crux. Nothing will be done, because of fear (as already mentioned above). It's too late.

Kind Regards

Paul

Ryan said...

'Watch football on the telly"??? Really? Watching it at Valley Parade isn't an option that Saturday...thanks to your ilk not willing to stand up to the the real hooligans of the UAF x

Radical Rodent said...

You have a valid point, Simon, but so does Paul – the white population are getting seriously disaffected as they perceive their rights and aspirations being subsumed by aggressive immigrants, who insist that their culture be installed over that of the natives. Whether that is true or not, it is what many perceive, and many feel that the EDL (an organisation with no declared political inclinations) are giving them the voice that others deny them. There is a growing pressure in society, as the native majority feel themselves being ground down by some pretty unsavoury characters.

I have lived and worked with Islamics; most were very broad-minded, though that might have been because of the particular industry; still, some danced with glee as the twin towers fell.

All that said, I have a hypothesis that it is the country that makes the people, not the people that make the country – this was demonstrated the last time this country had untrammelled, hostile immigration. The only trouble is, it does take time – the last bunch took nearly two hundred years to accept that they were English, and no longer French!