We have to be careful that a sound argument and analysis of the plight facing Bradford does not descend into racism or xenophobia. so here is my tuppence worth:

Bradford centre, and some of the surroundong areas, have always been a place where the latest immigrant populations live. as they become prosperous, they move to the suburbs, leaving the cheapest (or most undesirable properties open, whichever way you want to look at it).At least for the last 150 years or so anyway. Irish Catholics came to the city during the great famine. they brought the Catholic CHurch back to Bradford and lived mainly in the slum areas. Look at where ST MAry's, St PAt's and St Joseph's churches are. now mainly asian areas and two of them no longer used as churches.

The german traders came over at the height of the textile trade adn therefore we have a German church and a synagogue located near the Alhambra, and Manningham respectively. Both are threatened with closure, as people have dispersed. between the wars and immediatley after the war, people fled the Soviet communist threat. Peoples from Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and HUngary came over, worked mainly in the mills in Manningham and other industrial areas. they built churches and social clubs, which are just about surviving as their numbers fall as the first generation pass away and their kids move away.

People from commonwealth nations were invited here after the war to rebuild the countries economy, so we have large communities from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, from the Caribbean etc... again, ing on industry in the poorest housing in the least desirable areas, and building their places of worship and cultural centres.

this cycle continues today as people flee Iran and Iraq. and our involvment in the EU allows unlimited numbers in from other states. The poorer EU country's citizens are now here, Czechs, Slovaks and Rumanians. the only problem now is that the jobs for these people do not exist, and the black market method of trading and illegal activity is rife. Have a look at courtfile in the T&A and you will see that most of the cases dealt with by the magistrates courts involve non-indigenous people and cars. be it no license, no insurance or wahtever. Times are changing indeed, but blaming it on the asian originated population (most Bradford Asians were born in Bradford, or at least the UK) is wrong.

Wakefield's christmas market run by the same company as the one in Bradford has also been closed early after claims that it only sold utter tat and wasn't German at all. It seems to me that CB Productions have a flawed approach to these markets. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west ... 405412.stm

Wakefield's christmas market run by the same company as the one in Bradford has also been closed early after claims that it only sold utter tat and wasn't German at all. It seems to me that CB Productions have a flawed approach to these markets. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west ... 405412.stm

I was in town on Saturday. I thought it was quiet for what is supposed to be the peak shopping day before xmas.

It was more like a normal saturday really.

The main problem for the market I think was simply the lack of numbers of shoppers in the town centre. That is because half the shops have closed down and most of the goods ones are long gone.



I was in Greenwich yesterday and on a wednesday afternoon it was jam packed with shoppers and the little market there was doing a good trade. I know it's London and so obviously busier but even mid-week it was way better than we will see in Bradford until we get some decent shops

Agreed Andrea. That`s why, though I`m as exasperated as the next person, I really hope the Westfield scheme eventually comes to fruition. The odd new shop, however good, isn`t going to generate the level of business to be sustainable, simply because there isn`t the footfall to create profit. Even worse, the footfall that is there is largely looking for the first `pound shop` to re-incarnate as a 99p shop. A big new centre, with all the publicity that is certain to surround it, will give the rest of the city centre a chance by bringing new shoppers with (hopefully) new attitudes.



Sadly, it will only be of use if the current traders take the opportunity (if it ever arrives, and there must be serious doubt there) to collectively up their game. Sad to say, but years of simply trying to sell tat a bit more cheaply than the next trader tends to become ingrained in both shoppers and traders.

Was in London yesterday and on the Thames embankment there was another German market next to the London Eye and it was utterly heaving (bloody pricey too!!) I bet they will be glad they didn't choose Bradford or Wakey then..



Bought some good stuff, but way too expensive...

Once again though note the differences in response between Wakefield and Bradford..



Wakefield quite happy to close it down and complain about it and give honest opinion.



Bradford council paper over the cracks and blame it on the weather.

I agree just look at what the krauts have driven us to. We have enough markets dyeing out in Britain without importing foreign ones!!!

i ddislike der Schnitt Ihres Gib



war der Markt zwar Müll

...and apologise.

To be fair you've got your own back. You nicked the entire city of Danzig off them!

Treaty of Warsaw says otherwise init!

Presumably the treaty doesn't say it wasn't nabbed, it just seeks to legtimise it.



On a procedural point - are we allowed to drift off-topic within the confines of an off-topic post?

It might mention that it was called the Royal Polish City of Danzig for several hundred years prior to Germany's existence.

Gdańsk (not "Danzig"icon_wink.gif always was and is essentially Polish. Danzig is a decent group and the eponyomous lead singer has a good rock voice.

Supported Metallica in Bradford in the late eighties. They were bottled off.



The Misfits, on the otherhand, were awesome.

Not quite true. Danzig or Gdańsk, however you wish to spell it, was part of the German empire from the later 19th century until the end of the second world war, when it was given to Poland as part of the reparations. Sadly (?) I`ve not heard the group so can`t comment!

Is that a paradox?



Back to the german market why didn't they have it in Little germany?