It looks like the new year will begin as the old one ended, with people making comments on subjects about which they have little experience.

I could not help but feel a little aggrieved at the comments of the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali.

It would be all too easy for me to say the bishop is wrong and give the usual response saved for such views - that there haven't been attempts to impose an 'Islamic' character on certain areas. Of course there have. Hey, I'm as blind and ignorant as the next man, but I don't need the bishop to tell me this.

All right, there are plenty of mosques in Blackburn.

And if you go to certain areas the only non-Muslim you are going to see is the council worker parking his car outside someone's house in the morning because his employers have put pay-and-display signs up everywhere.

Is the fact that there are a fair few mosques in a neighbourhood really the reason that a non-Muslim would not want to wander into an Muslim area, as the bishop seems to suggest?

I found it ridiculous that this is how the bishop's comments were then used and translated across the wider media.

It's as if there are these blokes with big beards and megaphones intimidating non-Muslims to steer clear of these no-go areas'.

Now, I have been to some scary places in my life but I have to admit one thing. There is no level of extremism or Muslims that block my way into any neighbourhood. And I can assure you I have been to real hell-holes in my life.

On the contrary, you are more likely to get a warm welcome from someone of faith than someone who wants to rob you of your mobile phone.

It's like me complaining that I might get done over by a couple of priests when I go to Higher Croft.

The point many people tend to miss is that the reason someone doesn't go into a certain area is that sometimes there's no point in going there unless you really need to.

And even if you did, you would take the same precautions as you would when you went anywhere else.

What's the point in arguing about no-go zones' when the real no-go zones' are in in our hearts.

Which, I have to say, is a great first line for a rock ballad.