Guido Fawked - Birmingham No-Go Idea Is Guff

After Jeanine Pirro had allowed self-styled terrorism “expert” Steve Emerson to tell viewers of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse) how Birmingham was a “totally Muslim” city where non-Muslims “just don’t go”, defenders of this blatantly untrue idea were rather thin on the ground. But cometh the hour, cometh the grovelling Murdoch servant, and so yesterday morning one set of voices had spoken up for them.

Fart in lift Inquiry getting squeezed out

It should surprise no-one at all that the voices concerned were the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, who span the idea that Birmingham is, if not “totally Muslim”, at least home to a number of “no-go areas”. To this end, they homed in on an item on the Birmingham Mail website from more than six years ago, which was then juxtaposed with a report on the Fox News claims.

And at first glance it does seem that the Fawkes folks might have a point, as witness the headline “The area [sic] of Birmingham that are no-go areas for white people”. However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, the first line of the article proper is also worth quoting: “WHITE working class Brummies fear parts of their city have become no-go areas for them” [my emphasis].

There’s more: “The shock claim has been made in a bombshell Government report into how poor white people feel about immigration. The study has also revealed that hard-working white Brummies fear politicians have betrayed them in favour of refugees and single mothers. Researchers for the Department of Communities and Local Government quizzed residents from Castle Vale about their feelings on immigration”.

Do go on: “Among the many concerns raised in Castle Vale was the claim that white people were not welcome in parts of Birmingham at night. The report quotes an anonymous male contributor, aged in his 40s”. It quotes just one person? Can we see what kind of sample size is being discussed? Sadly, there is no definitive answer to that one, although the number 43 is quoted by one of those commenting.

So what we have here is someone at the Sunday Mercury being a little too creative with their headline writing skills: all that the article tells us is that some residents of Birmingham have formed an impression about parts of the city - which the author of the article does not go on and investigate. That, though, is enough for The Great Guido to inflate into justification for what Ms Pirro and her guest fed the Fox News audience.

And then another thought enters: this is not just any old Murdoch grovel, it gives every sign of being a grovel even more desperate than usual. Emerson did the rounds of media outlets yesterday and confessed to being totally wrong about Birmingham, so why is the Fawkes rabble devoting any time at all to suggesting otherwise? Ah well. That Sun column of theirs has been utterly piss-poor of late. Rupe may be less than happy about that.

So to the chief Godfather, there must be an appropriate tribute paid. Another fine mess.