He is also critical of the fact that initiatives to deal with the problem are not as good as they could be. Both the police Community Affairs Team and the Racial Incidents Task Force are comprised exclusively of white people. Anti-racists in Oldham are doing a difficult job in the area, working in the most testing of circumstances. There is an urgent need for greater solidarity from white people with their fellow Oldhamers. In many ways the greatest problem in the town is not the racists themselves, but the apathy of white people who could make a stand against them.
Much blame needs to be laid at the door of the authorities as well.
On the Saturday before the proposed NF march Mike Luft, one of the leaders of Oldham United Against Racism, was telephoned and told that racist hooligans from Stoke were rampaging through Westwood and could he come down. When he arrived people were organising against a reoccurrence of the racist rampage to which their families had been subject an hour or so earlier. In spite of requests that the racists should be diverted away from the area, they were allowed to march back near enough to be seen and heard, inflaming the situation as they chanted racist abuse. After a while the police decided, without any consultation, to drive away the people who were protecting the area by leading a charge with vans and then batons. Serious injuries were inflicted.