April 22, 2008 - By Simon Bennett

Regular readers will recall how we revealed at the weekend that Bradford’s St. George’s Day pageant had been cancelled on alleged “health and safety” grounds by the local authority/police. Indeed, one police spokesman maintained that the parade organisers had not given the police sufficient notice – this despite the indisputable fact that said organisers had been working with the police on this very event for the previous nine months and that St. George’s Day falls on April 23rd EVERY year!

A report in the Sunday Telegraph records this, just the latest assault upon one of our cultural events. Note the reference to “a shorter route that avoided two streets at the centre of race riots in 2001” which is, of course, entirely reminiscent of Belfast and provides, we believe, a telltale clue as to the real reason behind the cancellation.

We quote: “A parade to mark St George’s Day through an inner-city area where race riots took place seven years ago has been cancelled after police warned that it could put children at risk.The event in Bradford, involving thousands of schoolchildren, was due to take place on Wednesday.But police and council chiefs told organisers a few days ago that the parade could not go ahead as planned for “health and safety reasons”. They offered them a shorter route that avoided two streets at the centre of the race riots in 2001, and an alternative date for the event on July 1. As a result, organisers called off the event, at which 10,000 people had been expected.

The Rev Tony Tooby, the chairman of governors of St Philips Primary School, said he was saddened that the event had been cancelled “We wanted the route to include where some of the riots had taken place to educate young people,” he said.

“The police and council just kept telling us the reason for their objection was ‘health and safety’. They proposed another route which was ridiculously short. The march would have been over before it began.”

The only reasonable inference that can be derived from the above report, as explanation for the cancellation of the City’s St. George’s Day parade, is that the sight of hundreds, if not thousands, of St. George’s flags (the “Crusader flag” to some) – would be deemed as offensive by a certain element, leading to public order problems!

Yet despite this explanation, an explanation widely and resentfully acknowledged by Bradford residents – the local newspaper, an organ not known for a pro-BNP stance – published the following:-

“Here in Bradford, a large number of the area’s youngsters were set to mark the day with a parade through neighbourhoods of the city in an event which was, it seems, initiated by the police. Now, however, that parade, intended as a multi-ethnic show of unity, has been postponed, leaving hundreds of children disappointed.The reason given for this about turn seems to be that popular catch-all, health and safety, though it is not immediately clear why a parade on St George’s Day would be inherently more risky than one held a number of weeks later, as now proposed. The explanation is sketchy at best and it would be much better for all concerned if the authorities could be more forthcoming about the decision to cancel. All those who have put their efforts into the parade deserve nothing more. It is well known, for example, that extremists are always keen to hijack national symbols for their own ends and there may well have been concerns that others would seize on a St George’s Day parade through certain areas of the city as an opportunity to promote their own, entirely different agenda, especially so close to local elections.”

Can this ‘paper seriously be suggesting that the reason the parade was cancelled was because of fears that it would be hijacked by “extremists” as some sort of pre-election stunt? Who are these unnamed “extremists” we wonder and where is the evidence that such an act has even been contemplated?

But even if this were true – which it certainly is not – why would that justify the cancellation of the City’s St. George’s Day pageant?

The truth is, as much as the newspaper concerned appears determined to conceal it, that the most likely explanation is that it was  cancelled for the very same reason that parades in Ulster have been cancelled – fears of sparking inter-communal violence!

Such are the consequences of unwanted and enforce multiculturalism.

Yet despite being responsible for the very immigration and colonisation resulting in this sorry state of affairs, this curtailment of a celebration of our culture, the pro-immigration Lib-Lab-Con parties in Bradford have the nerve to ask native-British voters to support their programme of national dispossession at the ballot box!