Brexit process

[kenneal - lagger]

From my experience of Ireland there are two communities belonging to two different political parties which only shop in shops owned by fellow party members, who only go into bars owned by fellow party members and who only use taxis owned by fellow party members. I don't recall that ever happening in the UK anywhere.

[UndercoverElephant]

From my experience of Ireland there are two communities belonging to two different political parties which only shop in shops owned by fellow party members, who only go into bars owned by fellow party members and who only use taxis owned by fellow party members. I don't recall that ever happening in the UK anywhere.

Something very similar to that is happening in places like Bradford, except the two communities are Islamic and non-Islamic, rather than political. Although even that's a blurred distinction, given that the Irish situation is itself rooted in a religious conflict.

[johnhemming2]

I cannot comment about Bradford, but Birmingham is quite mixed.

[UndercoverElephant]

Video emerges of Theresa May (before the referendum) stating that leaving the EU has to lead to a border in Ireland.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 34766.html

[fuzzy]

I cannot comment about Bradford, but Birmingham is quite mixed.

Birmingham is strangely mixed. As a person of 6+ years in the W midlands, I find it unusual vs other mixed regions. Visit the ghettos in Smethwick, Handsworth, Redditch etc and it seems quite functional. Any explanations? Of course, it still has employment.

[UndercoverElephant]

My experiences of it are consistently poor. I have visited it a couple of times via narrowboat, and found the people extremely unfriendly compared to the canalfolk I'd been around until I got there and after I left. You ask them where something is, and they look at you as if you are mad. But I also spent some time in a long-distance relationship with a Mexican girl studying a PhD in economics. She lived in Selly Oak and was regularly subjected to verbal attacks for being "a Paki", which she found quite bizarre given she was (very obviously, to me at least) of native American descent and an atheist from a Catholic country, so neither central asian by race nor muslim by faith.

[kenneal - lagger]

From my experience of Ireland there are two communities belonging to two different political parties which only shop in shops owned by fellow party members, who only go into bars owned by fellow party members and who only use taxis owned by fellow party members. I don't recall that ever happening in the UK anywhere.

Something very similar to that is happening in places like Bradford, except the two communities are Islamic and non-Islamic, rather than political. Although even that's a blurred distinction, given that the Irish situation is itself rooted in a religious conflict.

I was referring to southern Ireland not the north. The split is entirely political and not based on religion.

[emordnilap]

From my experience of Ireland there are two communities belonging to two different political parties which only shop in shops owned by fellow party members, who only go into bars owned by fellow party members and who only use taxis owned by fellow party members. I don't recall that ever happening in the UK anywhere.

Something very similar to that is happening in places like Bradford, except the two communities are Islamic and non-Islamic, rather than political. Although even that's a blurred distinction, given that the Irish situation is itself rooted in a religious conflict.

I was referring to southern Ireland not the north. The split is entirely political and not based on religion.

With immigration and younger generations, it's not that common these days but it does happen - and sometimes it happens because of sport! Gaelic games are tribal.

[johnhemming2]

I live in Birmingham on the edge of what would be called the inner city (either just outside or just inside) and know a lot of the city. It has had its stresses, but I wouldn't see it as being as described by others in this thread.

[RenewableCandy]

I cannot comment about Bradford, but Birmingham is quite mixed.

Birmingham is strangely mixed. As a person of 6+ years in the W midlands, I find it unusual vs other mixed regions. Visit the ghettos in Smethwick, Handsworth, Redditch etc and it seems quite functional. Any explanations? Of course, it still has employment.

Nail on head.

Employment, and the money & sense of 'belonging' that come with it, relieves the tensions.

[vtsnowedin]

Dose the UK have any of those "NO GO" areas A. Merkel admitted exist in Germany the other day?

[kenneal - lagger]

We used to but I don't think that they exist now to the same extent. The police are very careful around minorities now though and I think that in many cases those minorities get a different level of tolerance to the rest of us. The many recent cases of Asian men grooming and raping vulnerable young girls was a case in point as it was not politically correct to think that anyone, especially Asians would do such a thing. It wasn't just the police to blame either, but social services as well.

[RenewableCandy]

Britain has none. I walk happily everywhere.

However, were I to take a stroll from Shankhill to Falls (in Belfast) I might prefer to be Islamic: that way both the Loyalists and the Republicans (the Irish variety, not trump et al.) would leave me in peace.

[vtsnowedin]

It is a problem of our times. How to give civil rights to children, especially girls, when their parents religiously and culturally regard them as property. And how Germany can go on without bringing the law of the land to every street in Germany is a tough question, as is Los Angeles USA having 54,000 homeless living on the streets in tents and cardboard boxes.
I'm not seeing any leaders stepping up with any workable solutions.

[Little John]

Britain has none. I walk happily everywhere.

However, were I to take a stroll from Shankhill to Falls (in Belfast) I might prefer to be Islamic: that way both the Loyalists and the Republicans (the Irish variety, not trump et al.) would leave me in peace.

Oh yes it does have no go areas.

One of my sons continues, for the moment, to live in a part of Newcastle that he initially rented in because it was cheap while he completed his degree. It is almost entirely Muslim in the streets where he lives. He lives with his girlfriend. So, that makes her safe.

However, for the non-muslim girls who live in the adjacent, predominantly white, working class estate, they have been far from safe. Over 700 of them have been groomed and then hideously sexually abused by gangs of Muslim men who are concentrated in my son' s area. Literally in the streets that surround him and what is true in my son's area is mirrored in towns with large, lower class Muslim populations across this country.

Additionally, my son's girlfriend has gay male friends for whom it would be quite impossible to come and visit them unless their homosexuality was completely hidden. I don't say this in some trivial or abstract sense. I believe their actual lives would be in grave peril if they did not hide their sexuality.

Finally, whilst I have said that my son's girlfriend is safe - and this is true - this does not stop both my son and his girlfriend being openly spat at, on occasion, by old Muslim men when they walk out together in the summer months. Presumably on the basis of their skin-colour or presumed lack of Muslim identity or the fact that they are not married or, finally ,the fact she goes out without total body coverage - which is the "norm" for this area for women.

My son now has very well paid job - thank God - and they are both saving like mad to get a deposit together. for their first house. This looks likely by mid-summer and I am counting the days.

You do not know what you are talking about RC. Your post is a textbook example of nice, polite, white, petit-bourgeois, cultural self-delusion.

Sorry to be so blunt, But, there it is.