The claim by a former government minister earlier this week that parts of London and Birmingham with large Muslim populations are “no-go areas” has highlighted the enduring myth that there are UK neighbourhoods and towns unsafe for white people.
Paul Scully, the MP for Sutton and Cheam in Greater London, later retracted his suggestion that Tower Hamlets and Sparkhill were unsafe for non-Muslims to enter, made during a BBC interview about allegations of anti-Muslim sentiments within the Conservative party. But he also defended invoking the Islamophobic trope on the grounds that people told him they perceived there to be a threat.
Whole Northern towns seemed to be unsafew if you were white, female and teen.
How ‘no-go zone’ myth spread from fringes to mainstream UK politics
Notion of Muslim-controlled areas unsafe for white people has been promoted by rightwingers since the early 2000s
Nick Griffin made the claim live on TV, on Question Time. How everyone shrieked at him that it wasn’t true!
And, of course, it was true.
I’ve been told to “fuck off white” a few times around Glodwick in Oldham. I can attest that after a certain time of day no go zones do exist.
Paul Scully, the MP for Sutton and Cheam in Greater London, later retracted his suggestion that Tower Hamlets and Sparkhill were unsafe for non-Muslims to enter
Retracted out of fear.
Maybe it’s the terminology. There are parts of London and surrounding areas I would never go to. Am I forbidden? No. I’m just not comfortable there.
If we don’t call these ‘no go zones’ what else can we call them?
“Peaceful zones”?
Julia hits the nail on the head. Most of us understand no go zone to mean somewhere we don’t feel safe going in to and for good reason.
Of course the progressive left takes the literal meaning as that suits their cause.
It is absolute bollocks to suggest there are any no go areas in the UK.
Anyone can go anywhere at any time.
True, you will get murdered for going there – but that proves you went!
Checkmate, racists!
The local rag in Birmingham has published a number of articles about no go areas in that city.
See also Tommy Robinson regarding Luton. No-one has been punished more often than he for speaking the truth.
On a related topic, how wonderful civilisation in London must be to have avoided any suggestion of grooming gangs in our capital city.
Denying the existence of no-go zones while the government spends £30 million of taxpayers money on extra protection for MP’s and £70 million on extra protection for Jews.
Must be for no reason then…
Interesting how times change. In the 1940s/early50s Sheffield was a dodgy place to go – white knife gangs. In the late 50s (and probably before) Limehouse was a place to avoid, Chinese Triads
Can a virgin carrying a bag of gold walk across the country unmolested? If not, then there are no-go zones.
«Whole Northern towns seemed to be unsafe if you were white, female and teen.»
…and also living in a care home. Indifference to the fate of these girls by those in “authority” was least as much to blame as anything else.
asiaseen: The history of policing and gangs in Sheffield is fascinating. Essentially, it was stamped out by the Watch Committee recruiting a known bruser as chief of police and allowing him to turn the police force into a stronger gang. It shows the consummate skill they had that they then did not need to recruit a bigger bruiser to take on the police.
I’ve heard from ambulance crews there are places they aren’t comfortable going to without a police escort. Is it still gaslighting when the claims are so obvious the refutation is ludicrous
@jgh. The bruiser you have in mind would be Sir Percy Sillitoe, recruited as Chief Constable by the Sheffield Watch Committee to sort out that city’s notoriously violent gangs. His motto of ‘violence must be met with violence’ was enforced by the recruitment of numerous large, powerfully built, well-trained men armed with big sticks and per encouragement to use them on the right skulls. Having tamed Sheffield, he was head-hunted by Glasgow to deal with their violent sectarian gang warfare (cf. The Billy Boys) and the various razor gangs infesting the place. Using the same methods – he recruited mainly in the Highlands those under six feet tall need not apply – with the same results. He ended up as Head of MI5 for many years.
Anyone who claims there aren’t ‘no go areas’ should be given a walking map to follow.
Which would prove them wrong and also potentially eemove them from the debate entirely.
“ he recruited mainly in the Highlands those under six feet tall need not apply ”
There used to be a well worn path from the Guards, paras and infantry to the police and prison service. Now it seems you need a degree in grievance studies and preferably being on the weirder end of the alphabet soup of sexual preferences to stand a chance of being considered by the police.
On top of the risk of violence from the cultural enrichment types, I wouldn’t go into a no-go area because it’d take a month to get clean again.
“I’ve heard from ambulance crews there are places they aren’t comfortable going to without a police escort.”
Also firemen (sorry, firefighters). France has plenty of no go zones (for entirely the same reasons) – St Denis, for instance.
It all depends, doesn’t it. I don’t study the demarcation zones of no go areas because I’m not in a street gang, not an ambulance driver nor rainbow haired Met police officer.
If you’re on the front line it may be different. Perhaps Sir Mark Rowley would think twice before replying to a Saturday night dinner party invitation in Golders Green, where respect for the force of law and oder has somewhat declined recently.
I was born and raised in Solihull. My route into the centre of Birmingham passed through Sparkbrook and Camphill. I watched them change from a white working class area to something that looked like downtown Islamabad over a period of twenty years during the 60s and 70s. Would I care to travel that way again ?,discounting the fact that I am 12000 miles away in New Zealand ,no, I would not.
Johnd2008 @ 1.29, there was a reason for that:
“For most of my 33 years in Westminster, I was able to resist Sparkbrooks demands about the the great issues of national policy – otherwise, my first decade would have beed spent opposing all Commonwealth immigration and my last calling for withdrawal from the European Union.
Should I, in 1964, have called for what a clear majority of my constituents and undoubtedly, the country wanted – the repatriation of all Commonwealth migrants?”
Roy Hattersley, MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook 1964 – 1997. And a cunt.
But doesn’t “history” tell us the Commonwealth migrants were welcomed with open arms? London has a railway line named to celebrate their arrival. I am confused. Surely we’re not being lied to.
Fuck me sideways, no mention of my beloved hometown?!?
The diverse love us stupid whitey cleaning their shite up, but I wouldn’t walk 5 minutes from BD2 to BD3 after dark…
City of Culture 2025…innit bro!
@jgh – one of my old bosses in the Met (in the last flickering embers of it being a good force) Ch Insp Ian Kibblewhite got all the Haringey and Enfield gang leaders together in a courtroom and told them the Met was a bigger and more aggressive gang than any of them. Take us on and you will lose and probably die. Good guy