Edge of the City

A documentary claiming that Asian men in Bradford were grooming under-age white girls for prostitution was pulled from the Channel 4 schedules last night after police said that it might provoke racial violence.

Colin Cramphorn, the area’s Chief Constable, claimed that it would be inflammatory in the run-up to next month’s elections; with the British National Party, which is fielding ten candidates in Bradford, promoting the documentary on its website.

Despite a reputation for defying convention, Channel 4 executives dutifully obliged.

Open to question though, is whether the Chief Constable’s request to have the documentary pulled was politically motivated. The British National Party may well have gained votes from its broadcast. But whether or not its broadcast would have provoked public disorder is entirely debatable.

It is a well-known fact that Masonic influence is particularly strong among the ranks of Britain’s senior police officers. Indeed it is said to be the overriding criteria in promotion to higher ranks in the force. It is therefore entirely plausible that the Chief Constable’s request was in response to orders from senior masons, rather than any genuine concern he might have had that the documentary would provoke disorder.

Finally, it should be noted that this writer comes from a mixed race background so he has no particular axe to grind. Moreover, although the Illuminati often use racial tensions to their benefit, unlike the major political parties, they do not entirely control the BNP, despite the party's rumoured covert links with British Intelligence. Which is why the powers that be do not want to see the BNP gain in the forthcoming local elections. It might precipitate a complete rejection by voters of the more mainstream parties.

So while this writer would prefer to reserve judgement, he can proffer the following review of the program, from someone who has actually seen it. Ed.


IT IS not unusual for programmes to be pulled, but it is usually done for legal reasons and well in advance. Yesterday Channel 4 pulled Edge of the City hours before transmission because police felt that it might provoke racial conflict.

It is easy to see why. The producer-director Anna Hall set out to make a sober documentary about the work of Bradford Social Services, but she included an explosive issue.

For several years, it seems, a group of men of Asian origin have been cruising Bradford and neighbouring Keighley to pick up under-age white schoolgirls and “groom” them for sex. Many of the girls have been sedated, raped vaginally and anally, and in some cases confined in flats and gang-raped.

According to Hall’s film, one of the four social services offices in the area has noted 60 to 80 possible cases, some involving girls as young as 12. Hall filmed groups of girls hanging around street corners, while a previous victim said that they were waiting to be picked up. The police, apparently, are hamstrung because if a girl is over 13 they cannot act unless she makes a complaint.

The anonymous victim tells Hall that the girls get involved with the men willingly at first. They are seduced by the flash cars, charming manners and gifts, especially mobile phones, and genuinely believe that the men see them as their girlfriends.

Many of the men are involved with drug gangs, and some girls have been threatened with violence if they go to the police. So far only one prosecution has gone to court.

There was nothing sensational about this film — if anything it was chillingly deadpan. But if Hall had wanted to find a story to fuel support for the BNP in the run-up to the European elections, she could not have done better.

Police fears may be understandable. Yet Hall highlights a problem that needs attention, and to see it in purely ethnic terms is to miss the point. As a senior Bradford child protection officer says, the problem is one not of race or culture, but of misogyny. Hall’s commentary notes that most of these men are detached from the core of the Muslim community, “beyond the control of the elders” . Some Muslims would doubtless argue that they have been corrupted by the decadent host culture.

The seduction of underage girls by wealthy men is not confined to West Yorkshire. There is evidence, for instance, that wealthy young white men prey on under-age girls of any ethnicity in the middle-class suburbs of London. Men of any background can be sexually predatory if they can get away with it. The brothels of Bangkok are full of Western male sex tourists.

Even so, it remains one of television’s strengths that it can force difficult issues into the public arena. Hall’s film made it clear that these girls need help. Her material about the work of Bradford social services wasn’t half bad, either.

Also see:
Darkness at the Edge of Town
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=172

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Last updated 27/08/2004

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