Barking
| 13:23 UK time, Friday, 5 May 2006
I don't suppose the Â鶹Éç has done a lot of reporting from Barking, East London.
I know it rather well because I studied international law at the University of East London, which has part of its campus there.
Despite the fact that UEL cannot claim to have a glorious and ancient history - it was a technical college not long ago - it had a number of advantages for me.
Above all, its law department has a strong reputation.
And it was an ideal place to study international law because many of the students had fled from abuses of that law in conflicts around the world.
It brings a special quality and relevance to lectures on torture, for example, when more than a handful of your fellow students have lived through that kind of abuse.
It also helped that one of the lecturers had abandoned a well paid job in the prosecutors office of a large nation which proclaims its democracy because he got fed up with calls from 'the big man' to drop the charges against some crony or other, after months of careful evidence gathering.
Now Barking has made it onto the Â鶹Éç World Service because its voters have gone in large numbers for the anti-immigration British National Party.
The BNP has won 11 council seats in Barking and Dagenham, maybe 12 after further counting of the votes.
The BNP denies it is racist, anti-Semitic or linked to British Nazis. It does attract a lot of support from people who undoubtedly do take . (A firm repetition at this point of the standard Â鶹Éç disclaimer on external websites!)
Luckily, we can take a historical view of all this. East London has been through worse in the 1930s, including and even the Daily Mail running an article from its owner headlined "Hurrah for the Blackshirts".
Then it was poor Jews who had fled the intolerance in mainland Europe.
Now it's Albanians and Afghans, sometimes asylum seekers, sometimes brought in by people smugglers.
Pressure from immigration is East London's lot because it's cheap to live there. Historically, that's because it was near the docks and the stink of London blew that way in the prevailing winds.
These days it's probably because it's just unfashionable.
Resentment of incomers is not a problem unique to Barking. But Barking is getting more incomers than the more elegant parts of London, the local authority is able to collect less revenue from an area with a lower average income and some of the people feel abandoned.
Eventually, if history is a guide, the immigrants will work hard, make some money and move out.
Leaving space for a new population of impoverished strangers fleeing another conflict or crisis.
And the BNP will most likely go the way of its predecessors, into .
Comments
However understandable it may be, I think a proportion of the British population has to move away from an obsessive preoccupation with immigration, because that will interfere with the ability to address deeper, more fundamental problems. The United States too has been wrestling with immigration questions but does so in a less charged atmosphere, recognizing that it is a nation of immigrants.
Can you give us a definition for 'torture' ?
I'm sorry I jumped in to ask about torture so quickly, but if those in East London feel real anguish that their English way of life is disappearing all around them who is to say they are not being tortured and their present government is abetting it.
Lines have to be drawn. Migrants must understand they come to our countries to be Englishmen and Americans, not to remain what they were. Maintain your "culture" up to a point. Period. Or stay home.
Call those East Londoners anything you wish; we American Conservatives get called the same names and they mean nothing because they are not true. It just makes the name-callers feel good.
Loving our country does not mean we hate all others. But 9/11 and 7/7 changed things a lot both here and there. Some blind people cannot see the change and it has not yet been properly explained to them. Maybe the next 7/7 will do it when that Tavistock bus explodes its' women and children passengers in Islington.
If the good citizens of Barking have taken their grievances to the ballot box instead of the street they are a rather civilized lot, I'd say.
Your article on immigration was excellent. I had the pleasure of taking part in the May 1st Demonstrations in Miami Florida. It seems these people wanted to find work. While it would have been better if the protests were in the home countries, a lot of US Born Latins participated in the protests.
A worthwhile article.
My particular standpoint is that anyone with a point of view, has a right to say so and be heard.
I am not so lacking in brains that I need to depend on other people to decide for me, what is, and what is not !
Nor do I have such an arrogant self opinion, coupled with an arrogant contempt for others, that I feel that I should act as Judge and Jury on behalf of others.
I do not claim to have all of the answers to all of the questions.
Having said that, I am not satisfied that our self important establishment figures and their 'Politically Correct' supporters DO have all of the answers.
Free speech and openess do have their drawbacks, no system is perfect.
The opposite is 1000 times more dangerous.
Sean Bryson
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mentioned on this site. It's a gripping sport which targets the grip strength and the active mindedness of a player. American football and rugby league are also primarily collision sports, but their tackles tend to terminate much more quickly. For professional rugby, players are often chosen on the basis of their size and apparent strength and they develop the skill and power over the passage of time. In modern rugby considerable attention is given to fitness and aerobic conditioning as well as basic weight training.