Wednesday, January 19, 2011

This cannot be true...Can it?

The Mail are reporting that a child has been turned away from a baby group  in St Neots, Cambridgeshire for being British.
Shop worker Emma, who lives in St Neots, booked a place at the playgroup six weeks ago after it was recommended by a mixed-race friend.

'I said I knew it was trying to integrate people into the community but didn't realise that meant British people and their children were banned.'

She said: 'The first thing I was asked about was my nationality and when I said I was British I was told we had to leave.

'She said are you not aware this is for foreign people only?
If this is about integration as suggested, then er... who are they integrating with given that the host, native, vernacular call it what you will population is excluded.

And this statement from the organisers of the playgroup is just bizzare,
According to Making Links' website the group 'seeks to operate in the spirit of the Commission for Racial Equality'.

Its targets include: 'bringing communities together and facilitating interaction between them'.

The website claims about 50 women attend the weekly sessions every Thursday.

It adds: 'Making Links frees them from feelings of isolation, helps them build multicultural friendships and empowers them with knowledge about the local community.

'Thus Making Links presents a friendly St Neots face to people who might otherwise be outsiders.'

Roger Owen, administrator for Making Links, said that the group is not a 'typical' playgroup and is funded entirely for women from other nationalities.
He said: 'We believe there are plenty of other alternatives for British mothers in the town.

'We have had an issue with men turning up before and back then we told them the group is strictly for mothers so it's nothing to do with racial discrimination.'
Multicultural friendhips eh? Like with the locals perhaps, or are immigrants only supposed to know immigrants. And surely if peiple want to integrate and if St Neots have plenty of other groups, why is this being funded, given the integration could take place, dare I say, in the pre-existing groups?

1 comment:

McRantin said...

It may interest you to know, that after I read this article yesterday I contacted "Making Links" via their forum to ask if it were true that they discriminate against British mothers.
I went back to check up today only to discover the forum is now inaccessible. Either I started a sh*t-storm or someone's got a guilty conscience :P

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