So, a UK government minister feels most of the people who voted for the British National Party at the European Parliament elections did so because they felt, “excluded and ignored.”
Well, John Denham, it’s comforting to know that they weren’t voting BNP because they were fascists, racists, white supremacists or even British Nationalists, although I doubt if anyone even knows what a British Nationalist is.
What do we need to do to stop them voting BNP ? Give them a hug ? Tickle their tummy and tell them they’re wonderful ? No, apparently, politicians need to listen to them more and talk more about the issues that matter most to them. Like what ? Well, his fellow Labour MP, John Cruddas, says we should be talking about housing, the recession, unemployment, immigration.
Immigration ? Wait a minute, his pal just said they didn’t vote BNP because they were racist. If they’re not racist then why should they be that bothered about immigration ?
Another friend, Andy Burnham called the election of two English BNP Euro MP’s a protest vote. Some protest. Normally, tactical voting involves putting your X on the ballot paper next to the name of the nice chap from the Liberal Democrats.
Now thousands, no hundreds of thousands, of people are prepared to vote for a party that wants to pack people born in Britain onto planes to live in a country they’ve never visited, simply to protest at the way the country’s being run ? Are you serious ?
Sure, if you want to shock the political elite out of what you perceive to be their complacency then that is one way to do it. But how many people who genuinely want to register their discontent with the major political powers in the land feel compelled to vote Nazi just to do so ?
But still the main parties come up with the ‘Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do’ line. A protest vote is a protest vote, whether it’s for fascists or the Greens. If that’s true, and voting intentions are reduced to a game of sticking the tail on the donkey then what does that say about our level of democratic sophistication ? No, don’t answer that.
So what are we left with ? People susceptible to the casual, off-the-cuff, discrimination against those who might be easily described as “not like us” because they have dark skin, wear strange clothes, or have “funny sounding” names.
But we are not allowed to call these people racists because their viewpoints are based largely on ignorance and once we make them see the folly of their muddled thinking they will all be champions for race relations.
Hang on, though, these “others” that they see as a threat because they fail to understand them properly have been here for decades. We’ve had plenty of time to explain their differences in non-threatening terms, plenty of time to change attitudes, make the places we live in multi-ethnic.
And it has not all been a failure.In real numbers those voting BNP are still a small minority, and most of us would have no truck with the party. However, there is obviously still work to be done if enough votes can be mustered to elect the BNP in a national poll. Pretending that the majority of those votes are cast by people who are not racist suggests there are some who simply want to wake up in the morning and find out it was all a bad dream.
David Cameron can talk all he wants about the “shame” of his country sending BNP members to Brussels and Strasbourg. But surely now is the time for him and Messrs. Denham, Cruddas and Burnham to stand up and fight racism in ways that mean something, rather than try to make limp excuses on behalf of those who are induced to misuse democracy for the aims of right-wing extremism.
Well, John Denham, it’s comforting to know that they weren’t voting BNP because they were fascists, racists, white supremacists or even British Nationalists, although I doubt if anyone even knows what a British Nationalist is.
What do we need to do to stop them voting BNP ? Give them a hug ? Tickle their tummy and tell them they’re wonderful ? No, apparently, politicians need to listen to them more and talk more about the issues that matter most to them. Like what ? Well, his fellow Labour MP, John Cruddas, says we should be talking about housing, the recession, unemployment, immigration.
Immigration ? Wait a minute, his pal just said they didn’t vote BNP because they were racist. If they’re not racist then why should they be that bothered about immigration ?
Another friend, Andy Burnham called the election of two English BNP Euro MP’s a protest vote. Some protest. Normally, tactical voting involves putting your X on the ballot paper next to the name of the nice chap from the Liberal Democrats.
Now thousands, no hundreds of thousands, of people are prepared to vote for a party that wants to pack people born in Britain onto planes to live in a country they’ve never visited, simply to protest at the way the country’s being run ? Are you serious ?
Sure, if you want to shock the political elite out of what you perceive to be their complacency then that is one way to do it. But how many people who genuinely want to register their discontent with the major political powers in the land feel compelled to vote Nazi just to do so ?
But still the main parties come up with the ‘Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do’ line. A protest vote is a protest vote, whether it’s for fascists or the Greens. If that’s true, and voting intentions are reduced to a game of sticking the tail on the donkey then what does that say about our level of democratic sophistication ? No, don’t answer that.
So what are we left with ? People susceptible to the casual, off-the-cuff, discrimination against those who might be easily described as “not like us” because they have dark skin, wear strange clothes, or have “funny sounding” names.
But we are not allowed to call these people racists because their viewpoints are based largely on ignorance and once we make them see the folly of their muddled thinking they will all be champions for race relations.
Hang on, though, these “others” that they see as a threat because they fail to understand them properly have been here for decades. We’ve had plenty of time to explain their differences in non-threatening terms, plenty of time to change attitudes, make the places we live in multi-ethnic.
And it has not all been a failure.In real numbers those voting BNP are still a small minority, and most of us would have no truck with the party. However, there is obviously still work to be done if enough votes can be mustered to elect the BNP in a national poll. Pretending that the majority of those votes are cast by people who are not racist suggests there are some who simply want to wake up in the morning and find out it was all a bad dream.
David Cameron can talk all he wants about the “shame” of his country sending BNP members to Brussels and Strasbourg. But surely now is the time for him and Messrs. Denham, Cruddas and Burnham to stand up and fight racism in ways that mean something, rather than try to make limp excuses on behalf of those who are induced to misuse democracy for the aims of right-wing extremism.
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