Kenton White

Something has fundamentally changed in Birmingham. And Britain, too, has changed with it. Consider football: the rough and tumble of our national game is nothing new for the West Midlands. Growing up in the eighties, my Dad took me to more than a few matches at Villa Park in the away end. The language, chants, and antics were – at times – less than well-mannered. But it was largely good-natured fun. Where there was violence, the police put a quick but firm end to it. Such was the rhythm of British life. The same men and women worked together all week, turning up and supporting different teams on a Saturday. No longer. The decision from West Midlands Police to ban Jewish football fans from Villa Park marks a new low for our nation. What has changed? Well, last week, there were howls of outrage over my answer to that question. A leaked tape recorded me saying that, in parts of Birmingham, integration had totally failed. I’d been to Handsworth and seen a community that did not represent the full breadth of British society. It, like too much of Birmingham, resembled a segregated community. That’s not the kind of country I want. I want a country where fellow Brits live side by side, with a strong sense of national togetherness and unity. The Mayor of the West Midlands, the Bishop of Birmingham, the BBC, and others all lined up to say I was wrong. The local MP, Ayoub Khan, described my views as “a far-Right cliché” while simultaneously organising a petition to prevent Israeli fans from attending the forthcoming game between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Many, including the BBC and ITV, misquoted me. I faced the inevitable accusations of racism. There was the drivel about diversity being our strength. That’s what’s happened time and again to anyone voicing the mildest critique of immigration. Others continue to attack me. Handsworth is a model community, they say. Villa Park is a few streets from Handsworth: a week after my remarks were reported, West Midlands Police have now in effect declared those streets a “no-go zone” for Jews. My comments weren’t based on a few hours in Birmingham; I’ve known the city my whole life. They were based on a deep concern for the lack of action by successive governments to tackle the abject failure of integration. There have been at least six serious reports in the last 20 years, saying much the same thing as I did. They have all ended on a dusty shelf. Why? Partly, because of the fear of our gutless political class to stand up and speak out. They are shameless cowards, more concerned about retaining respectability amongst the liberal elite. Take the Prime Minister himself. Last night, he tweeted his outrage over West Midlands Police’s decision. But last week he denounced me for crossing “a red line” in discussing integration in Birmingham. He’s happy to criticise the police, but runs scared of even acknowledging the big problems we face. Keir Starmer isn’t a bystander. He’s the Prime Minister. What is he actually going to do? Bury his head in the sand when it gets uncomfortable. So I won’t be silenced. During my speech at the Conservative Party Conference last week, I said that “a Britain where our Jewish friends are afraid is just not Britain”. I meant it. The same goes for football. A football in which Jewish fans aren’t welcome just isn’t football. What should we do? Send in as many police officers as required. Sack the Chief Constable if he won’t change his mind. Deal with the extremist Imams in Birmingham who have spent the past few days fomenting hate. We must tackle the vile sectarian MPs who have polluted our politics. But the longer term strategy is harder. Thirty years of mass migration have changed our country in ways that we’re only beginning to feel. Unintegrated communities will continue to be hotbeds of extremism and division. Our country cannot have no-go zones. It cannot have sectarian MPs. The time has come for muscular action to make integration a reality.