Club’s demise

Published Thursday 20 March 2008 at 12:40

In respect of Harry Venning’s TV review of Last Orders (March 13, page 18), an episode running as part of BBC2’s white season, about the declining fortunes of Bradford’s Wibsey Working Men’s Club.

The following comment was written: “There is no shortage of racial tension in Bradford, quite apart from a multitude of other social and economic problems, but the one thing the Muslim community cannot possibly be blamed for is the slow death of Wibsey Working Men’s Club”.

On the contrary, Mr Venning. I live and work in the entertainment industry in east Lancashire. The town I live in and many adjoining towns are heavily populated with the Asian, Muslim community. Many years ago, Working Men’s Clubs thrived amongst the population of local white people who lived locally in their terraced houses. From the sixties onwards, following the influx of Asians to work in these towns, those terraced houses were bought by the Asians and the white community moved away to the outskirts. Those white people that supported the Working Men’s Clubs found new places to drink and socialise within distance of their new homes. Asian Muslims don’t frequent or support these clubs and I believe this is why the BBC programme featured the angle of Muslims affecting the decline of this particular club and I’m sure this is the reason lots of other clubs, including many that I personally know of, have suffered the same fate.

Name and address supplied