Bradford bounce
Sir: I looked in vain in the article 'Inner city of dreadful night', 27 June, by Mr Richard West (which, although purporting to be on the inner cities, relied for much of its material on the city of Bradford) for any mention of the efforts being made by all members of that community to retrieve their own situation, or acknowledgment of the real achievements which have been made there.
Plainly judgments about the relative awfulness of inner cities are subjective and personal ones. I can, however, think of, and know, many worse inner cities than Bradford. Unlike Bradford, very few are making any attempt at self-help, and most have far fewer excuses for their own intrinsic problems. Much play is made in the article with racial tension, but from my own experience I feel far safer in Bradford than in Brixton, and I can only assume that Mr West has not visited Bombay recently. The Asian Lord Mayor of Bradford, who was in office when I was installed as Chancellor of the University, was a model of everything a Lord Mayor should be: moderate, conscientious, caring, courageous and non-partisan. The city has launched, helped by its involved and active local newspaper, a most successful cam- paign to help the process of 'bouncing back'. I do not know how, in his visit, Mr West managed to miss the National Photo- graphic Museum, the Alhambra, the National Colour Museum (opened last year), or failed to take advantage of the tours into Brontë country which have been organised by the city. There was no mention of the success of Bradford in attracting national mail-order business, national travel business, and the tremendous expansion of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society. There was no mention of the fact that the Science Park was one of the first in the country, and is also one of the most successful. It was also notable that there was no comment on the achievement of Bradford University, which has world standing in many of its activities, and has one of the highest records of placing its graduates in first-time career jobs of any university in this coun- try.
The response of the whole community to the Bradford City Football Club fire disas- ter was an example of how this maligned community can, and does, pull together. I am not a native or inhabitant of Bradford, merely someone who admires multi-racial attempts to overcome horrendous inher- ited problems, and deplores the sort of dismissive sneering that characterises Mr West's article, and does, to my mind, nothing to help tackle the real tasks which need to be dealt with, or to encourage those of us who are making such efforts.
John Harvey-Jones
Chancellor, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire
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