As a South African who has made York my home for 30 years, I couldn't let Billy Bragg's proposals for a 'New England' (January 17) pass without comment.
It is one thing to propose York as an alternative to Leeds or Manchester as the capital of a devolved England. It is quite another to describe York as having a 'strong multi-cultural tradition'.
The slowly growing black community in our city is almost invisible - count how many non-white faces appeared in Monday's edition of the Evening Press.
The council chamber, too, is hardly ethnically diverse. York has a shameful history where the Jewish community is concerned, as anyone visiting Clifford's Tower can read for themselves.
If Mr Bragg, the radical intellectual, wants to make a serious contribution to the devolution debate, perhaps he should spend more time researching the facts.
John Goodfellow,
Victor Street, York.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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