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Fictional Crime Drama: Chris Grayling’s warped view of Moss Side

The Mule | 27.08.2009 12:57

Epsom in Surrey, an affluent commuter town on the chalk downs of Surrey that Location, Location, Location named the ‘Best place to Live in the UK’ in 2005. It’s just the kind of place you might expect to find a man like Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary. Grayling is an Oxbridge graduate, and before becoming MP for this Tory stronghold, was a high flier in the media and management consultancy.

It’s very far removed from Moss Side, a small, culturally rich but economically hard-done-by part of inner-city Manchester. Grayling this week compared Moss Side to the ultra-violent US crime drama The Wire, claiming that the conditions on the streets are ‘nothing short of urban war.’

Moss Side has had serious problems with gang violence in the past, and still does today, but ‘urban war’? Anyone living in the area will get a strong whiff of bullshit at that statement. How did he get that idea? For starters, the closest people like Grayling get to a place like Moss Side is through their TV set, so it’s not surprising he’s swallowed the ‘gunchester’ sensationalism.

See the rest of the article here:  http://themule.info/article/fictional-crime-drama-chris-graylings-warped-view-of-moss-side

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  1. manchester — Jo
  2. @jo — avon
  3. The Register: When The Wire and Midsomer Murders collide — Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby