Mrs Reasonable

Here is a link to an excellent article by Natasha Walter in The Guardian. She quotes the formidable Baroness Uddin - by far the coolest, as well as most formidable, person in Tower Hamlets.

Baroness Uddin, for those too harried to click on the link, says, in response to being asked why women's voices weren't being heard in the debate over filming Monica Ali's novel on location in Brick Lane: "Our voices aren't sought! The media are not interested in in us."

Khadija Rahman says: "The men in the community are more uneasy than the women. Brick Lane is famous for its restaurants, which are mainly run by men, and they don't like the fact that Monica Ali, who doesn't live there and doesn't care about their opinions, has had such a success."

Walter goes on to make the point that, essentially, "live and let live" is not an inflammatory-enough opinion to make the news. And of course this harks back to my original post on the subject. By quoting only reactionary extremists, and by favouring anything that sounds like stereotypical "traditional cultural values" (whether it is or not, & whether or not it goes against all the principles of British life) - by, in fact, disallowing a spectrum of thought from within an entire community, as part of the national cultural debate - the press - along with local authority, government, social services etc - is letting all of us down.