I agree with all of those. But what do any of them have to do with the success or failure of multiculturalism in Bradford?



Then I can only say that you're blind. Especially so if you think the Pakistani / Bangladeshi part of the city is one when it's as fractured as everything else.

You've really never come across people who've never left the housing estate they grew up on? I grew up with people who were proud to say that.

You've never met the Pringle jumpered Volvo driver who hasn't been into the city for years?

Would you be also telling me that you've never come across professional middle class people from Asian backgrounds? Are they all Indian or something?



You really are blind.



I don't think such a thing does exist. It's one of the reasons I haven't said it does. What I have said is that Bradford highlights the way all modern society is segregated and alienated from itself, and that race and religion are just two other means by which that happens. There is nothing unique about the problems Bradford has except perhaps degree.

I did give examples of where people from different backgrounds but with similar outlooks work together, if that's what makes you think I do believe it exists. Here's another. I work at the university. We have the highest proportion of students from the same city of any in the country. I see thousands of young people from this city with similar outlooks in life integrating just fine.

In all the places I have lived I have also seen it happening, and that includes Manningham and Great Horton. I lived in the latter for ten years, right in the middle of BD7 - the worst of the post codes you mentioned. I've also seen it not happening in those places, as well as the estates I grew up on, and it's always the mouth breathers with no idea of what they could be other than what their parents were. We have many of those of every stripe and it doesn't matter if your parents conceived you in a Kashmiri mountain village, a middle class suburb of Lahore, Ilkely, or under the pool table in the Holme Wood Bound.



There are plenty where schools are allowed to discriminate on the grounds of religion, if that's what you mean. I think it's disgusting, fwiw.



For just shy of forty years.

I'm not claiming it's a paradise. I'm saying if you look at things through a race coloured lens then race is what you'll see. It's *way* more complicated than that.

I saw that tweet and guessed it can't be him, although apparently it is. O M G

We aren't saying Galloways thick now are we? He's maybe made a geuine mistake or perhaps it wasn't him? For the many of us who saw him disseminate and destroy that American Congress Select Committee then stupid would be a bad call....Whether you disagree with everything he spouts, eloquence and a fine command of the Scottish language are not his problems.

Interesting to hear from some of the young inspired activists who were out supporting Respect during the campaign on the Politics Show. Didn't realise that the Lib/Dems had lost their deposit. They'd best get used to that me thinks.

[url=http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894819-new-bradford-mp-galloway-in-twitter-slip-celebrating-victory-in-blackburnYes, it was him.[/url

Being a prick and being stupid are two different things.

Ah well, he'll have to live that little faux pas then....Being a victor, it's always easier for other people to live with your mistakes...Your right about the difference mind. Go and watch them yankee senators questioning him. Now they really were more like your definition of stupid.

I've seen it. Yes, he destroyed them, but that wasn't really hard to do given the gross idiocy he was confronted with. He's a lot of things, but he's certainly not stupid.

Seems to me that most of these posts are missing the point. Galloway's personality is not a 'non-issue' here but neither is it the main issue.

The reality is he was elected on a two-pronged political approach, against war and austerity, which had massive resonance across [iall sections[/i of the constituency.
In the predominantly white middle class area of Clayton, for example, Galloway got 900 votes against Labour's 40!

Nor is it a given that Galloway will automatically pick up the Muslim vote, however much he courts it. IMO he should be congratulated for breaking the 'braderi' networks that have corruptly tied much of the Asian community to Labour for decades.

Mintball's accusations would be funny if they weren't so rabid. The reality is that Galloway himself has moved away from a traditional catholic position on gay rights towards a position (and one that he has stated many times in public) that homophobes should 'Get over it' Incidentally, one of Galloway's 2 key advisers is himself a well-known gay activist.

The accusations of anti-semitism are also nothing new. They are typical of a blurred distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism...a blurring which is particularly prevalent among pro-zionist pseudo lefties such as the one Mintball directs us to.

Feel free to use actual facts to dismiss what I described in terms of campaigning that went on down the road from where I live.

I look forward to it.

Disseminate?



That would have been worth watching.




When have you heard him speak Scottish?

Could have been worse. He could have inseminated them. I think I'm going to be sick.

1. Disseminate - I had a Sunday morning hangover.

2. Scottish is the national language of these fare Isles mate. Didn't you know ?

Actually, no, bollox, I'm sticking with disseminate. 'Scattering widely - Especially the sowing of seeds'.....Let's look at that logically? He did go all the way to the US of A, and he did give them a royal shafting....Are you getting the analogy?

As Chief Stinkwort pointed out, that would more properly be 'inseminate'.

And now I'm off to try and scrub that mental image out of my brain.

It was the definition of disseminate that I looked up. Anyway, like it, lump it, or I'll set fc baldy on you. Ha.

Much as I hate to dig up a quote from the last Tory government, the one about the dead sheep immediately springs to mind.

Again your view of Bradford and mine are polarised - what you see in university - which you seem to hold much store by - is hardly representative of the culture as a whole. Do you honestly see a raft of cross culture marriages?

The fact the city centre is dead suggests issues of access i.e. one culture simply will not use it - as a result the whole suffers especially as those that will not use it gain in numbers - integration it is a fallacy. In Bradford you do not see retail cohabitation - it either all white or all Muslim - take Leeds Rd, why is their no white-owned shops from Thornbury to town and no Asian shops in Saltaire/Baildon?

I would suggest there are no issues with the Indians - perhaps their numbers - approx 8k - are too small to notice the issues they may cause. Although I do think they feel integration is important whereas the P/B Muslims see domination as the key.

The fact the council pays for and allows Feversham girls college is a tangible example of how integrated Bradford really is? It would be interesting to see what might happen if Carlton Bolling banned girls and Muslims?

For me you are oblivious to the real concerns of certain sectors of the community - how successful have the Bulls been in attracting a multicultural audience?

It doesn't help that the white population has a chip on its shoulder and large elements of Holme Wood, Ravenscliffe etc have generations of families where maximising benefit monies is an art form.

As I said we must agree to differ - I see the race/religion as a huge issue in this city you dismiss is blip and that the city is a model of multicultural integration - as you say you see everywhere you look.

Nowt wrong with Geoffrey the Mogman. Zzzzzz

Don't worry. Trots wear out decent young people very quickly.

Ah well, that's where you (with your anti-Semitic, anti-union, anti-worker avatar) show your ignorance. I have never been - and cannot see being - a member of the Labour party. There are reasons for that.

If you'd paid a modicum of attention, you'd be well aware that I have never given much support to the current Labour party. Christ - if you'd kept your eyes open, you'd actually KNOW that I've been slagging off the PLP for years! Have you not being paying attention?

If you paid a modicum of attention you'd know perfectly well my stance on Afghanistan/Iraq from before the invasions.

I have also lead a winning strike where the Trots actually acted as scabs - so kindly don't tell me what I know or do not.

I may be wrong, but I very much doubt that you have anything like comparable experience.

But hey - what would you know about such real actions that could screw your career chances? And, indeed, as far as I can gauge with limited proof, have screwed at least one specific job?

BTW : when are you going to change that avatar, given your previous comments about symbols? Not a hypocrite, are you?

BTW: I forgot - 'One solution, revolution!'

Subtle stuff.

So subtle that entryism is de rigeur.

Oh - and though Cronus and I might not agree on much, on this he's right.

I will see your hearsay and trump it with a whole host of videos of Galloway discussing or railing about homophobia on a well-known video sharing site.

All of which (and I do speak as a TU steward whose union activity has held back career advancement on many an occasion) makes me wonder how such a working class hero could end up so bitterly and twistedly sectarian.

p.s. Your tirade against Giant's avatar amuses me. Disney was a particularly nasty and bigoted piece of capitalist crud...as far as I can remember Mickey Mouse wasn't. TBH it would be much easier to describe your avatar as sexist than it is his.

So you do not have any proof that he did not shed women's and LGBT rights for the political convenience, in the Tower Hamlets election, then?