Make Bradford British - Jens

14 February 2012

Seventy-one year old retired policeman Jens lives in one of Bradford's whitest suburbs.

 

What made you decide to take part in this series in the first place?
I was asked to. I didn't apply for it, I was contacted and asked if I'd like to. I said "Well, I will do, if you want me to." So I did! I'm now 71. I was a policeman from the age of 21 to 51. My police service finished in 1991, so I was aware of the racial problems that existed then, but I've not been a policeman for 20 years. So things have changed a little bit since then. Or have they?

 

Why do you think Bradford is segregated?
How big an answer do you want for this one? It's not exactly a yes/no answer. I think it's the unwillingness of various ethnicities to mix with different ethnicities from their own. Pakistani's like to be with their Pakistani friends, West Indians like to be with West Indians, English want to be with the English. I think maybe that's what it is - an unwillingness to befriend or marry people from a different ethnicity.

 

What did other people in your community think about you taking part in the series?
They were amazed and aghast and interested. Some thought that I might be a target for comments about being racist - would people make comments about my opinions?

 

Was the project what you expected it to be?
In some ways it was, and in some ways it wasn't. I didn't anticipate the level of scrutiny and questioning, which went direct to the point. I didn't think it would be quite so deep and probing.

 

Do you feel you were fairly represented in the programme?
Having seen the proposed programme, I feel that I myself was under-represented in the finished product, probably because other people have got louder voices and opinions than I have. I actually don't feature quite as much on the finished programme as some of the others did. I'm not annoyed about that, as such, but I feel that quite a number of my good points didn't come out.

 

What were the high and the low points of taking part in the project?
I don't think there were any high points or low points. Possibly a low point might have been if I got defeated in an argument with somebody. The high point might be when I won an argument. But I don't think there were any high points or low points as such, it was just an interesting four days, really.

 

Do you think you learned anything from the experience?
Oh, I learned quite a bit from the others. I learned about attitudes within different racial communities, and their customs and attitudes and opinions. I do think that when people have come from the other parts of the world, I do feel that they should, if they want to be British, adopt British traditions, speak our language, and do as we do.

 

What do you think it means to be British?
To accept this country as the motherland and, to quote president Kennedy, to ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. And I believe in adopting and applauding and enthusing about the traditions that we have, and not immersing them in the traditions of other countries. This is Britain, and we want to be British.