Sunday, April 16, 2006

Anti-immigration backlash in Britain

The Labour Party in Britain is sounding the alarm over the loss of white, working-class support, according to The Telegraph. Margaret Hodge, employment minister and a key Blair ally, says "They can't get a home for their children, they see black and ethnic minority communities moving in and they are angry."

Neither the article nor Ms. Hodge come out and say it, but the vast majority of immigrants to Britain are from Muslim countries. We might assume that the "black and ethnic minorit[ies]" discussed here are Muslim immigrants.

Ms. Hodge fears that this key Labour demographic will vote "eight out of 10" for the British National Party, a group characterized as "far right" in the article. She goes on to say:
When I knock on doors I say to people, 'are you tempted to vote BNP?' and many, many, many - eight out of 10 of the white families - say 'yes'. That's something we have never seen before, in all my years. Even when people voted BNP, they used to be ashamed to vote BNP. Now they are not.

The Labour Party hasn't talked to these people. This is a traditional Labour area but they are not used to engaging with us because all we do is put leaflets through doors. Part of the reason they switch to the BNP is they feel no one else is listening to them.
But this next quote is most revealing, and shows who's really to blame for Labour's problems in this area:
It's an incredibly serious issue. It's the big issue. We need very much stronger leadership nationally to promote the benefits of the multi-cultural society. [emphasis added --ed.] We have got to do it, the Labour leadership have got to do it. All the political parties have got to do it.
Ms. Hodge and the rest of the parties need to realize that forced multi-culturalism is the problem when the immigrant groups not only refuse to integrate and assimilate, but actively preach a doctrine of hatred and attempt to destroy the host society. As long as opposition to unhindered immigration is framed as right-wing extremism, Britain will continue to have disillusioned "white, working class" voters.

The BNP does sound a bit unsavory, as evidenced by this Telegraph article from yesterday. But Labour isn't giving their constituents much of an alternative.

Ms. Hodge complains that nobody but the BNP is listening to their constituents. She's right -- and she's not listening, either. Instead, she's trying to force an unwanted position - her own - down their throats.

Update: at 0945EDT - An editor at The Telegraph seems to agree.

6 comments:

ba ba said...

Interesting post. Dont make up your mind based on newspaper reports, they are pretty much all biased (on pretty much all subjects, such is modern life)

If your interested, read the manifesto which is linked to from my blog. (thats not as dull as it sounds, btw)Lastly, do you fancy a link exchange? im going to set up an "american pundits" section on my link list.

Best,
Gareth.

Edwin Greenwood said...

The "minority ethnic" population of the UK is probably running about 10%, or 6 million, by now, of whom about 2 million are likely to be Muslim (official estimates are around the 1.6 million level).

The other established groups are Hindus and Sikhs from India or India via Africa, Christian Afro-Caribbeans and largely Christian West Africans.

But the trend is certainly Muslim. Not only do Muslims increasingly dominate the new influx, but they have startlingly high birth rates, the Bangladeshis and Somalis especially.

The BNP may not be a particularly attractive party, but with the three mainstream parties becoming increasingly indistinguishable and all professing the same head-in-the-sand multiculti orthodoxy, then unfortuately the BNP is becoming the only sanegame in town.

Eric said...

Gareth,

I'll read the manifesto...I'm willing to withhold judgment until then.

But did the BNP really withhold support from the English football team because it had black members? I'd like to hear your take on that.

Cheers!

Laban said...

Not exactly, seems to be the answer.

Have a look at this ..

http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2006/04/council-election-campaign-bnp-to-drop.html

ba ba said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ba ba said...

Yeah, im not sure on that Eric. Im not a footy fan and that was before my time anyway. The post laban links to seems to say otherwise.