THE ELEPHANT IN THE TOWN
HALL
(A discussion document for UKIP Bolton Branch)
An issue which has been
bubbling under the surface finally showed its face at last week’s meeting of
the Planning Committee.
The Application before the
Committee was for the construction of a 700 place Islamic boys school in Wolfenden St.
This would be a Free
school, a Faith school and a Single Sex school.
In the absence of guidance
from higher up the UKIP ladder, I effectively had to make up Policy on the
hoof.
There was a speaker ‘For’
the application and one ‘Against’ the application. The lady who spoke against
the application, apart from highlighting the traffic issues , emphasised her view that a single sex faith school which
could set its own admission policy and not be liable to admit pupils of
different faiths would be Socially Divisive.
Starting off the debate,
Councillor Cliff Morris stated that if the applicant said they would admit
pupils of other faiths then we had to take their word for it.
Councillor Peel admitted
that in the case of a Free school, the Local Authority had little or no say in
how the school was run. He had issues with Free schools (They are against
Labout Party Policy). However in relation to traffic issues he said
“The money
being offered is very welcome, because if there was no financial offering for
dealing with the highways, then this application would have been on dodgy
ground.”
My contribution was next.
Although my main argument was on the matter of traffic issues, I prefaced my
remarks with something along the following lines.
“Thousands of young men
would be educated in isolation from young ladies of their own culture and boys
and girls of other cultures. This would be Socially Divisive. We are going in
the wrong direction - away from Social integration.”
At this point the Chairman
intervened saying that these were not planning matters (correct) even though
both Cllr Morris’ and Cllr Peel’s remarks were equally about non-planning
matters.
I then pursued the traffic
issues and left it at that.
Subsequently Conservative
Councillor Bob Allen (who has something to say on every application) said :-
“As the planning committee we are here to judge
plans on technical grounds — that doesn’t include issues of faith or gender and
I want to distance myself from such comments.”
The debate continued and
in spite of the Highways Officer’s remarks on traffic the application was
delegated to the Director (ie – passed by the Committee)
I abstained.
It is obvious once again
from all of this, that any mention, let alone criticism, of the onward march of
social division between the Muslim culture and everybody else in the town is jumped upon and slapped down.
This I could understand
from the Labour members in pursuit of their client vote, but it seems that the
Conservatives either from cowardice or their own cultivation of the Muslim
vote, are taking the same stance.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The issue for UKIP (in my
view) is this.
A brief history of Asian
immigration in the town is as follows. I lived on Daubhill in the mid to late
60’s when significant numbers of Asians began to arrive in Bolton.
These were colloquially
referred to as Pakistanis although for all we knew then they could have been
Indian. Reputedly they were all on National Assistance and living twenty to a
house which was probably untrue anyway.
Although they no doubt
subscribed to the Muslim faith this was unnoticed – there were no Mosques and
no Muslin dress either for men or women.
Over the following decades
they established and built up their businesses and broadly speaking everybody
rubbed along with each other.
It is only in the last ten
years or so when their religious identification overtook their Nationality
identification – they were now noticeably Muslims as opposed to ‘of Pakistani
descent’.
Encouraged by the Labour
Party’s Multiculturalism experiment (failed), integration into the traditional
British way of life seems to have been abandoned and more and more emphasis has
been placed on Muslim identity - particularly
in matters of dress.
We are now probably
heading into the third generation of people of Asian origin. They are superbly
organized along religious lines and several prominent Mosques have been
established and built.
Although the census
indicates that the Muslim population of Bolton is only some 11%, their concentration into particular areas of the
town gives the perception that there are many more than this.
Many Muslim parents seem
to have the imperative that their children do not become ‘Westernised’, (although
inevitable a significant proportion do). To ensure this there seems to be a
movement to establish educational facilities (including out of school) where
the children do not mix with others of different cultures.
All this has recently led
to the perception amongst the indigenous white population that parts of the
town are becoming ‘Islamified’.
A perfect example of this
is the triangle between Halliwell Rd, Blackburn Rd and Wolfenden St/Astley St.
This triangle will shortly
contain the Mosque at the bottom of Halliwell Rd, the existing Mosque in the old Congregational
Sunday School on Blackburn
Rd
adjacent to the soon to be built Super Mosque, the refurbished All Souls Church now a Community Centre and now the 700 place Islamic Boys school.
The now vociferous ‘Silent
Majority’ of the indigenous white population on the fringes of this area have
thus been prompted into a protest organisation.
Their principle means of
communication seems to be the ‘Stop the Asley Bridge Mosque’ Facebook page.
Inevitably and sadly, a
forum like this attracts many far right contributors as well as the moderate
people with legitimate concerns who set up the page. Equally, many of the posts
are extreme and anti- Islamic. (I avoid using the term ‘racist’ as its overuse
has rendered it meaningless)
What is clear, however, is
that most contributors lay the blame at the feet of the Labour controlled
Bolton Council and many see the solution as the voting out of Labour
Councillors next year by the means of voting UKIP.
The danger for us is that
although there are many hundreds of votes to be picked up as a consequence of
this issue, we have to avoid being associated with most of the sentiments
expressed by these people.
They are indeed right to blame
the Labour group on Bolton Council which has for years patently and obviously
block voted Muslim friendly applications through the Planning Committee as well
as directing millions of pounds to so called ‘Deprived’ areas which seem to
coincide with areas of high ethnicity.
What the Labour group fail
to realize is that whereas their antics in the past have been a political game
to massage their client vote, to persist in this will only inflame anti-Islamic
sentiments amongst many of the majority population and in the final analysis
could even result in a complete breakdown in community relations and possible
disorder on the streets.
As I have said privately
in certain quarters of the Town Hall, this is going to get worse before it gets
better and they can’t keep relying on GMP to calm the situation.
This is not Bolton and mustn’t become Bolton.
UKIP Bolton, whilst
perhaps taking advantage of the votes on offer as described above, must make it
clear that we are not anti Islamic but we will promote Social Integration and
we will not subscribe to anything that is Socially Divisive.
This is the Elephant in
the Town Hall and we must be the ones to talk about it.
Paul Richardson
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This document was distributed at the Branch meeting on Thursday 2nd October 2014 for discussion at the Branch Meeting on 6th November.
Prior to that meeting Kath Kavanagh e-mailed her response to the Branch Chairman which is as follows.
Regarding
Councillor Richardson’s report, ‘The Elephant in the Town Hall.’
He
reports on the Planning Department’s meeting regarding the Faith School.
I
thank him for his views but have to say he gives a personal critic, which is
not what is required when reporting of the workings of the planning department.
I
thought the objective of his report was to give UKIP members an insight of how
he as a UKIP councillor contributed to a Planning Department meeting. However what I read is an attack on his
colleagues and the functioning of the planning department. The content of his
report is mainly a subjective personal history of the Asian community in Bolton?
The
comments he makes are not directed to the correct department. Planning meetings
are not the right place to air these views. Planning meetings are precisely
that...Planning. In his rambling report his concern appears to be what he
conceives as unfair financial distribution to certain sections of the Bolton community. He should
direct these questions to the Executive who are better able to act upon these
matters.
He
says the Asian community are given more finance being a ‘Deprived area’ He
should direct the question to the Executive,
'Is the Asian community really
deprived when they can afford vast amount of cash building Mosques? Where is
the money coming from to build these Mosques and why should Tax payer’s cash be
used to fund areas when there seems to be a surplus of cash in most Asian
areas.’ (KATH KAVANAGH’S WORDS –
NOT MINE)
Upon
reading Paul’s report I thought I was reading a BNP publication. It is a rant,
it rambles incoherently in parts and criticises the planning department, and
his council colleagues. Quite frankly, it is a diatribe and bears no place in a
Council Chamber and is not worthy of a UKIP Councillor.
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Putting aside this response which was the cause of the row in the meeting, the considered view of the other members resulted in the adopted Policy as follows.
