Ah, so that’s what makes you such on expert on the East End white working class. Just as those few far-off months in the fruit fields made you an expert on the rural white working class.

Yet you chose to move away. You left an area largely populated by the exemplary “hard-working” Bangladeshis that you eulogise, to live cheek-by-jowl with the “self-pitying” white working class people that you despise. (We’ll ignore the unemployment rates for Bangladeshis in TH – wouldn’t want any reality to burst your cosy imagery).

Interesting to know what prompted your departure. It can’t have been white flight – not you. It couldn’t – horror! – have anything to do with the negative attitude of Bengalis towards mixed-race relationships? The deeply-held belief among parents that a gora partner would not be good enough for their daughters? (But even he would be better than a black man).

Of course, this isn’t racism. It’s traditional cultural attitudes and must be respected. If a white working class person expresses the same opinion, then it’s racism. Isn’t that so?

“Since this is the opinion held almost exclusively by the BNP”

So everyone who may hold that opinion – ie anyone who can remember a time before Somali street gangs, Islamist politics and entrenched, balkanised communities (which was as recently as the mid-late 80s) – is automatically a BNP type? What arrogant PC rot. Proof yet again that the worst enemy of good race relations isn’t the screeching jihadi-wannabe or even the cynical BNP demagogue, but the self-righteous, white, middle-class liberal with his ingrained prejudices and multiculturalist mumbo-jumbo.

It’s why you agree so heartily with YAB, but would have been screaming for action if another journalist had written an almost identical article, but substituting “black” or “Muslim” for “white”. And let’s face it, if one had, then at the very least the police would have “looked into” the piece. He/she would have faced possible arrest, probable political condemnation, and almost certain career death.

But hey, it was only the white working class. Who gives a damn about them any more? Not you, that’s for sure.

I lived in Tower Hamlets for four years.

“Tell me something, Dan. Why do so many current and former East Enders say that this was the case – that crime and violence was lower, and that neighbourliness and “community cohesion” was higher among all races before the mass immigrations of the late 20th Century?”

Since this is the opinion held almost exclusively by the BNP, not many judging by their low level of support in the East End. But if you are born and brought up in Debden, then you’ll have no experience of living in the East End.

The rest of your moan rather proves my point.

“I’ve never lived in Havering.”

Oh, my mistake. Debden then. Even whiter and more crime-free than Havering. Well, the same arguments apply.

“You have a rather rose-tinted view of the East End. Perhaps you think it was full of jolly cockneys, free of crime and police by pearly queens. The Krays were just loveable rogues.”

No, I have a first-hand view – I grew up in the East End and have lived here all my life. Did you? No, and yet you know all there is to know about life here. (Pearly kings and the Kray twins, eh? Throw in pie and mash shops and you’d have a full house of patronising stereotypes).

Tell me something, Dan. Why do so many current and former East Enders say that this was the case – that crime and violence was lower, and that neighbourliness and “community cohesion” was higher among all races before the mass immigrations of the late 20th Century? Are we all part of the same conspiracy? Tens of thousands of unconnected people all telling the same lie? Could this really be possible? Or could it be that we’re telling the truth, and that such a truth is totally unacceptable to middle-class liberals such as yourself?

(Who, I’ve noticed, all seem to prefer to live a long way from the multicultural communities that they eulogise. Why is that? And why do such people endlessly praise “hard-working” BME pupils, but shy away from sending their own children to schools dominated by them? The latter appears to be reflexive condition that afflicts middle-class liberals of all races – they should call it Diane Abbott Syndrome).

“that’s just how some of the other East End boroughs used to be – certainly most of Newham and Waltham Forest.”
You have a rather rose-tinted view of the East End. Perhaps you think it was full of jolly cockneys, free of crime and police by pearly queens. The Krays were just loveable rogues.

“because they see the [very real] squalor, violence, and high crime rates that have engulfed their former neighbourhoods and they fear the same thing happening to their streets.”
Do you truly believe that East London never had violence and squalor? The Debden council estate in Essex was created to house people from the East End who were living in squalor and when it was filled the locals complained they have brought crime with them, with gangland battles fought in Epping Forest. A regular at my local pub is a renowned former boxer and gangland “enforcer”. One of the local BNP leaders, Eddy Butler, is a former East End thug. Criminal networks in the East End will continue to operate, regardless of the colour of people living there. What the BNP hates is the criminals who are not white; the white ones are portrayed as loveable “rough diamonds”.

“There are no non-whites choosing unemployment as a way of life?”
I didn’t say that. I said that there are some idle people who use foreigners as an excuse.

Actually Jason and the Hugonauts, settled in the Sea of Azov, not the East End and got thoroughly wet in the process like all good jumblies!

Dan: “Did I?”

Yes, you did.

“I can only agree with Yasmin Alibhai Brown, although “viscious” is not a term I’d use.”

You fully agreed with her description, apart from the “viscious” [sic] part. So, that just leaves “stupid”, “always-wretched and complaining”, and of course, “self-pitying”.

Which begs the question – if you find working class white people so awful, why do you choose to live in Havering, the East London borough with the highest concentration of such people? Could it be that because, compared with other boroughs in the East of London, it is clean, has relatively low crime rates, good schools, and safe streets?

Well, believe it or not, that’s just how some of the other East End boroughs used to be – certainly most of Newham and Waltham Forest. But not any more. The people who made them that way have largely died off or moved away, with just the elderly and the impoverished remaining.

I imagine some of those neighbours that you so despise probably came from such boroughs – Havering always was a traditional bolthole. They are partly the reason that the BNP does well in Havering and especially in Barking, the racial frontier borough separating what is left of the old traditional white East End from the new “culturally enriched” East End.

They vote BNP not because they are swivel-eyed Nazis dreaming of a Fourth Reich, but because they see the [very real] squalor, violence, and high crime rates that have engulfed their former neighbourhoods and they fear the same thing happening to their streets. Nobody else is addressing their concerns – Labour won’t even listen to them – so the BNP has filled the niche.

You mention that the Labour vote has collapsed locally. It has in many ethnically-diverse wards across the country. Is it any surprise? YAB’s views are probably shared by half the PLP. People tend not to vote for parties that they feel despise them.

“I despair that the idle blame foreigners for the problems they make for themselves, those who think everyone else owes them money and choose unemployment as a way of life”.

There are no non-whites choosing unemployment as a way of life? Are you sure? Statistics beg to differ – both unemployment and economic inactivity are higher in virtually all non-white communities than among whites.

Dan, the blatant contempt that you share with YAB for the white working class is just as pathetic as the views of the anti-Muslim bigots who pop up here with such depressing regularity. Like them, you have no real knowledge or experience of the people you are doing down, and so you fill in the gaps with your own silly prejudices. ( I’m afraid your reference to “the Daily Mail myth” of “violent brown people” pegs you as a drippy wet liberal with rose-tinted views, completely out of touch with reality. I can assure you that there are plenty such people in Newham, Hackney and Waltham Forest – just ask the British-born “brown people” who are most commonly the targets of their “mythical” violence.)

Anyway I’m off to bed with Jonathon Coe tara.

Graham’s childish need to get the last word. A sign of insecurity really.

I know but the last time I filled up the old shopping trolley (oh yes) a couple of cans fell out and exploded on the way home.

Graham’s tip for those feeling old or down this winter is Lidl’s organic vegetable juice (it tastes like shit but makes you feel like a new man) Or possibly a new woman – I don’t want to be misogynist.