We British are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with our recently arrived neighbours from Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In November I expressed my concern that press stories about predatory Asian men targeting young white girls were
being used to fuel racial tensions. I reminded readers that gangs of men seeking sex from the powerless and defenseless is, sadly, not new, nor something which is confined to any one racial group.
Now former Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw has jumped into the controversy making comments which are considerably less than helpful. According to today's
Daily Telegraph Jack says:
Former home secretary Jack Straw has accused some Pakistani men in Britain of seeing young white women as "easy meat" for sexual abuse.
The Blackburn MP has called on the Pakistani community to be "more open" about the issue after describing about a "specific problem" involving young Pakistani men's attitudes towards white girls.
He was speaking after two Asian men were jailed after subjecting a series of vulnerable girls to rapes and sexual assaults.
Later in the article Jack addresses the issue of white male offenders but nevertheless would have realised where the headlines would fall.
It is disturbing that Jack places the onus at the feet of the Pakistani community without asking a few questions about the atmosphere and circumstances that make these young girls such "easy meat".
Perhaps these few cases tell us as much about contemporary British attitudes to sexuality and sexual behaviour as they do about those of our neighbours of Pakistan background.
I don't believe in harking back to some golden age but the boundaries and attitudes around sexual behaviour that I remember in the 1950s and for most of the 1960s were very different than those of today. During that period there were far fewer cases of sexually transmitted disease, far fewer pre-marital pregnancies, and far fewer children being brought up in homes with an absent parent. In other words something was going right.
The boundaries, often observed in the breach rather than the observance, were there. Intercourse before marriage was off limits, both men and women were expected to be virgins on their wedding night, discussion about sex surrounded the territory of "how far should we go" (upstairs outside was seen as the absolute limit).
Records with lyrics such as "Let's spend the night together" were banned on the radio, university Christian Union cell groups would discuss whether couples should pray together on their first date. If two unmarried young people slept under the same roof it was separate rooms with Mum on landing patrol from dusk to dawn.
As I say, these boundaries may have been breached, but they were there and provided safety, an alibi and a breathing space for young people.
Now lets go forward 40 or 50 years. Think of those young white girls who are allegedly "groomed" by gangs of Asian men. What sort of home life to the most vulnerable young people in our society now enjoy? How many have a Mum and a Dad ready to look after their interests? How many even know their both their parents? As any academic study of pedophilia shows, sexual exploiters know exactly what sort of youngsters to target.
Then think about the attitudes to sexual behaviour. Read the popular press and see the almost universal acceptance and expectation of casualised sexual behaviour. In much of our society it is taken for granted that "one night stands" are acceptable with young people encouraged to take condoms to parties and clubs. Just read some of the material from the various NHS sexual health agencies.
In those circumstances is it surprising that young vulnerable girls are such "easy meat"? Rather than lecturing the Pakistani community, we their British white neighbours need to take a long hard look at what we have created, accepted and expected for half a century.
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