Stereotypes? We've Got 'Em!

It is amazing how the well-meaning last century left can be almost as bad as the far-right when it comes to sterotypes and inaccuracies.

I have only just got round to listening to the Stop The War Coalition's 2002 Peace Not War compilation CD. One absolute stinker on there is the track "Woody Guthrie" by Alabama 3, which contains the truly dreadful line "while the BNP scare refugees senseless up in Oldham town".

The 2001 riots in Oldham were noticeable for their entirely British character - the violence being between white and Asian Britons in Oldham. Indeed the town had no significant refugee presence in 2001, and has not gained one since.

Instead, Alabama 3 simply saw violence, saw the presence of racists, and assumed they must be attacking refugees. Which to me is almost as lazy, and indeed as wrong as the far-right's conduct.
If the 'left' cannot even recognise the problems in the north (and other areas) around integration, Islam, gang violence and long term racial division, it really is part of the problem, not the solution.