Why I'm quitting - councillor

I would also like to thank the people, not least of all several members of Bradford Council's Labour Group, who have expressed their support for my point of view.

I should make it plain at the outset that I haven't resigned from the council, all I have said, so far, is that I will not be looking to stand as Labour candidate in Keighley North when my present term of office expires in May 2002.

On June 16, just after the Bradford riots and shortly before the publishing of the Ouseley Report, Bradford Council's Labour Group met at City Hall.

The final item on the agenda was an emergency resolution, moved and seconded by Pakistani councillors representing Bradford wards, which deplored Ann Cryer MP's suggestion that it would help matters if the current practice of Pakistani and Bangladeshi families of importing non-English speaking partners, through arranged marriages, should be curtailed.

It called for an immediate public withdrawal and apology for her comments, asked the Labour Party general secretary to investigate whether she was in breach of the party's rules and ethos, and called for an open debate on the issue.

Only just over half of the Labour members were present when the resolution was debated. Despite there being several other Keighley members among that half, I was the only member who spoke and voted against the resolution.

It was carried, with some members abstaining on the rather odious grounds that to pass it would make a martyr of Mrs Cryer.

The Labour Group was next due to meet on August 17 when I, and others, expected the "open debate" to take place. Consequently, I wrote to all members saying that I thought there was a sad parallel between Northern Ireland in the 1960s and Northern England in 2001.

Then, the intemperate reaction to a demand for civil rights by the Catholic population led to the reinvention of the IRA and on to the present hiatus.

Now, the growing involvement in crime and hooliganism by a minority of mainly Pakistani young men has led to the reinvention of the National Front and BNP and riots in our streets.

Ann's "crime" was to put her finger on the crux of the problem, which is educational under achievement and resultant unemployment brought about by a poor command of the English language.

This comes about because a majority of arranged marriages are with a non-English speaking partner.

Her suggestion was moderation itself, being that if after five years little progress had been made in persuading Pakistani and Bangladeshi parents to arrange marriages with English speaking partners from this country, then a language qualification barrier be imposed, as is already the case in America, Canada and Holland. Hardly the stuff of Mein Kampf!

However, she was instantly vilified by people who call themselves socialists but who behaved as self-interested and sycophantic supporters of an ethnic minority which has big problems needing urgent attention.

The new buzz word of the politically correct, Islamophobia, was employed and her name was even linked to Nazis. I was absolutely disgusted and feel that any member who supported or sat and mutely listened to such clap-trap should be ashamed.

What about the "open debate"? It didn't happen. The given reason being that the matter is with the national party.

Lest anybody should think this is just a Labour Party problem, I should add that both major parties seem to be held in the thrall of the Pakistani community, perhaps because both parties have a minority of Pakistani members.

This was abundantly plain the following day when the full council debated the Ouseley Report.

It has already been reported in the KN that executive member and Worth Valley councillor Kris Hopkins got into trouble with the Tory leadership for demanding to know why two highly critical accompanying reports to the main Ouseley Report were not tabled.

These were by Ram Singh and Graham Mahoney, the former chief race relations officer to the council, and were much blunter about the problems in Bradford district.

I applaud Kris for raising the matter, but wish he'd stuck to his guns. Instead, he made a short, embarrassed and embarrassing speech which said nothing of note.

Nothing really sums up the debate.

It was simply amazing and appeared as if the whole council lived in a parallel universe where none of the events of the last few months had taken place.

All that came from it were vague calls for further reports and woolly promises to throw more money at the problem.

The only person who emerged with any credit was Cllr David Ward, former Lib Dem leader and current executive member for education. Although having no new suggestions for dealing with the problem, he did at least remind the council that all that was being said had already been said after the '95 riots. That I can vouch for.

In fact, the only person nationally or locally who has made any positive suggestion is Ann Cryer.

Unfortunately, due to the vicious way she has been treated and the failure of most Labour MPs and councillors to openly support her, Ann has reduced her stance to suggesting that sponsors be responsible for the teaching of English after the partner has entered the country. This would open not just a can but a bucketful of worms and be largely unworkable.

I see no reason, especially in the light of recent events, why her original suggestion should not be implemented immediately, without a five-year, lead-in period.

What's good enough for countries with long and generous records of accepting immigrants, such as America, Canada and Holland, should be good enough for Britain.

One thing I do know, the host community cannot throw enough money at the barricades to knock them down. Only the people who put them up can take them down.

The answer lies with the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, and it lies in integration not separate development.

Why the urgency? It cannot have escaped the notice of anybody who lives locally that, riots apart, a minority of mainly Pakistani young men are taking part in an ever-widening tide of crime.

I have seen this problem develop over the past 25 years, first as a teacher, then as an officer at Keighley College and finally as a councillor.

Over the past few months we have seen an assortment of muggings, assaults and sexual assaults, even an attempt to steal somebody's car at Steeton traffic lights at 8.30am! All this has finally culminated in gang warfare and murder.

A disproportionate amount of this crime goes undetected and unpunished, probably due to a fear of stringent criticism of the police in case they be labelled racist or provoke a Bradford-style backlash.

The host community is rapidly coming to the end of its tether with such behaviour and the goodwill that has been built up between the communities could quickly slip away.

The Pakistani community has major problems which they need to address urgently. Government and police action can help but the ball really is in their court.