I hear you're a racist now, York

[Hazzardo]

Booked to go to York at half term, but I'm a bit put off by press reports of the racially motivated harassment, assaults and vandalism that are happening there at the moment. I heard an interview on radio 4 with the guy who's whipping all this up flag-wise, and he sounds pretty unhinged, as do his followers. What's it really like there at the moment? If it's tense we can go elsewhere. We've been before and we all liked it but I don't really want to be around such behaviour and I don't want my kids to be around it either. It's surprised me to hear all this trouble happening there, not least because unless things have massively changed in the couple of years since our last trip, it was one of the whitest cities in the country. So, what's the script? Is it as bad as it sounds?

Any concrete examples @Hazzardo or just 'you've heard' if someone said they'd heard you were a terrorist, would you say 'I MUST be!! Gossip says so!!

It's been on the news, quite a bit. The radio 4 interview was on Sunday.

Why would York be immune to stuff happening elsewhere?

There was a pro Britain march on the high street here a couple of weeks ago, I thought oh no here we go. Despite the social media hype beforehand, fewer than 30 people attended, half of which were the crowd of regular street drinkers/semi homeless who were just all dancing and/or fighting and are usually around the high street on a Saturday. I wouldn't let it change your plans

Things like this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70850vlqz8o

And this - death threat to the local MP!

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/crime/police-investigating-england-flag-death-threat-on-york-walls-against-mp-5324592

I doubt it. It's full of tourists of all nationalities.

Not remotely close OP, I’ve spent the day in York today with a very good friend who happens to be Indian. It is our local city. No issues whatsoever.

No it's not as bad as it sounds. There are flags around placed no doubt by the man you heard interviewed but I would not say he is representative of the city as a whole. Last week I noticed around the Uni, a very wide range of national flags had been added to lampposts to dilute the row of England flags. I'd be more concerned about exposing your kids to all the hen / stag parties 🙃

@TheCurious0range thank you, that sounds ... not ideal but contained at least.

Is there another one planned, do you know?

I don’t know about York but thanks for the laugh at remembering one of the best father ted scenes ever

I automatically read it in an Irish accent too!!

Was it just me who opened the thread thinking, Christ what's Prince Andrew done now?!

We've been watching old Death in Paradise episodes and at least once, in every episode, one of us says "I hear you're a racist now Father" when Ardal comes on screen.

There was a quite large pro-mass deportation ‘Britain First’ March through central Newcastle this past Saturday. Big police presence. But also a vociferous counter-protest.

I doubt it they got ridiculed all over local social media.
There will be that number of street drinkers/homeless/semi homeless etc on the streets of York every week and you've not noticed them before. I work in criminal justice so notice them more. Most high streets these days have some people who have a potential to cause trouble, most of the time they don't.

You can't shield your children from life I'm afraid. This isn't a big bad white people attacking black people thing. This is a current high tension of obvious economic migration (or refugees for the naive) problems and current Britons feeling like they're not being heard. Yes, racists will jump on the bandwagon and use it as a microphone. But underneath it, there is a problem that needs addressing.

Is flag wielding getting a bit silly and eye rolly? Yes. The middle classes are generally educated and know how to form a civil backed up debate (well apparently, anyway) the lower working classes very generally speaking don't have the same abilities to argue in a high falluting way. (Not that it's just lower working classes that have concerns)

It's actually an opportunity to open discussion with children (depending on age of course) rather than pointing and shaming protesters and saying "look at those stupid pig thick white gammons" you could ask whether you think that's the right way to protest? If not, why not? What problems can come from this ? Will they make innocent people feel unwelcome and scared ?

Erm… why the focus on York? It’s happening everywhere. This is not a York-specific issue!

@CrispsPlease lol nice try but the teachable moments I'm after in York are things like "look, a Roman coin, that's really old isn't it" not "look at Daddy getting beaten up by the fascists. Do you think that's a good way to win an argument, or should they be using kind hands?"

There's more white rose than St George in York to be fair.

@Hazzardo stated in the opening post

"Booked to go to York at half term"

Well , I expect the mothers and fathers of 1939-1945 didn't want to teach their children how to respond to a siren , or why their daddy wasn't coming home. You don't always get to pick and choose which sanitised parts of life you'd like to expose your children to. You're not coming across well

I was in York on Friday. We had lunch at a pizzeria on Petergate, followed by a stint with our laptops at the public library and a talk by Lady Hale at the Museum Gardens. It was as peaceful a day out as I've had anywhere, but York usually is. If you can avoid the hens and stags, you're fine - and if you can't, most of them are over-exuberant and basically harmless.

I can't say I noticed any flags in the centre of town, although there might have been further out. What I did notice was the OU graduates about town with their loved ones, having a fab day - the ceremony was at the Barbican.

It’s honestly fine. There were flags EVERYWHERE for about two weeks, the MP was instrumental in getting them down. Some loon wrote mas kill on a flag, more likely that they couldn’t spell as opposed to it being a threat. There is some unrest about the number of immigrants being housed in the stay city hotel in the centre, and there are also reports of sexual assaults having increased in number in that particular area (but this does come from ‘Simon’s neighbour’s cousins who’s a police man’ so I couldn’t even be sure that’s true), but is that any different/ worse to any other city at the moment, I doubt it.

Honestly, if you are this sensitive please don’t come.
York is lovely and hasn’t been used as a dumping ground for years like some towns and cities in the North east where industry was destroyed and men left to rot.
However, like everywhere there are masses of people unhappy with what s happening in the country -but you can’t avoid everywhere can you.
I don’t know what you are expecting in York but it’s as lovely as ever, if too busy (like everywhere)as our country is overpopulated.
It’s a great time of year to go although places like the York museum will be heaving due to half term.

Yes, I read that, I’m just curious why she thinks this is York specific. It’s no different to anywhere else at the moment. She could have easily said the same about Newcastle, London, Birmingham etc… The fact she is going to York is, to me, immaterial.