Immigration, immigration, immigration
I'm really in a hole as regards the early part of this week, so this'll be fairly short... the Conservatives published their manifesto yesterday - one of the shortest on record. Only about 7,000 words. There are few surprises, they're going for strategy rather than content.... their campaign slogan could be summed up as
My view is that the Little Englander/racist vote in this country is not currently strong enough to hand this election to the Tories on the immigration issue alone (although I agree with the Tories that it is possible to be worried about immigration without being a racist, I'd also point out that for anyone who is a racist, the Tory campaign is grist to his or her mill... and Michael Howard is happy to racists to come out and vote for him, as indeed is Tony Blair. By any means necessary, eh lads? More on this at the weekend.)
But the Tories will come back to this one as much as they need to... and they have a well funded campaign this time round. Labour, meanwhile, finds itself in the paradoxical position of being seen as 'soft on immigration' whilst in fact having the 'hardest' policy Britain's ever had on this issue, in terms of deportations, border control, and rights for asylum applicants. Be very wary of people coming up to you during this campaign and saying "I'm not a racist, but..." Your response should be: "You don't look like they left your brain in the incubator, but..."
immigration, immigration, immigration. (as in: less of it)We should not underestimate the potency of the forces which the Tories are trying to unleash here. Yesterday I met with an Australian Labor Party spokeman on economic policy who pointed out that in last year's general election over there, the Labor opposition had scoffed at the conservative coalition's campaign, which aimed to stoke up as much fear and fretting about immigration as possible... scoffed, that is, until the results came in, and Labor got stomped.
My view is that the Little Englander/racist vote in this country is not currently strong enough to hand this election to the Tories on the immigration issue alone (although I agree with the Tories that it is possible to be worried about immigration without being a racist, I'd also point out that for anyone who is a racist, the Tory campaign is grist to his or her mill... and Michael Howard is happy to racists to come out and vote for him, as indeed is Tony Blair. By any means necessary, eh lads? More on this at the weekend.)
But the Tories will come back to this one as much as they need to... and they have a well funded campaign this time round. Labour, meanwhile, finds itself in the paradoxical position of being seen as 'soft on immigration' whilst in fact having the 'hardest' policy Britain's ever had on this issue, in terms of deportations, border control, and rights for asylum applicants. Be very wary of people coming up to you during this campaign and saying "I'm not a racist, but..." Your response should be: "You don't look like they left your brain in the incubator, but..."
9 Comments:
"I'm in a hole..." Have you become a badger? The regularly rolled-out assertion that immigration controls are only touted by (closet) racists is a perpetual political annoyance - rather akin to suggesting that speed limits on UK roads discriminate against BMW drivers. The Tory manifesto (I should add that I haven't gone so far as to read the thing) does seem to have directness and simplicity that may yet appeal to lower-middle-England (and possibly even the lower forth dimension). But there's a certain mind-numbing inaneness about the idea that the government of the UK for the next 4-5 years might be chosen on the basis merely of a commitment to re-introduce hospital matrons.
Incidentally, deadline for nominations for parliamentary candidates is 19 April.
I've also just noticed that there's an English Democrats candidate standing in Oxford West and Abingdon. What do we know about these chaps? Their main manifesto policy would appear to be to make St. George's Day a public holiday.
The English Democrats, bless 'em, like threatening bloggers with legal action.
They're sad, sad people.
The English Democrats appeared through my letterbox in Wembley (??) last June during the GLA elections. Although I originally though they were an even more militant BNP splinter group, it turns out they appear to be an English Nationalist group along UKIP lines (BNP in blazers to quote 'Hal Berstram' - a logical corollary of increasingly unbalanced regional redistribution which has accelerated since 1997.
Whilst I would agree they seem an amateurish operation reminiscent of the late 80's Liberal party (The rump that refused to merge with the SDP)- their central message has some valid points. The anomaly that Whilst Scottish MPs can vote on English issues, English MPs have no say on Scottish issues, etc has never been satisfactorily addressed. Whilst I'm sure 'Hal Berstam' supports the current situation in that it prevents the Conservatives gaining power, any impartial observer would deem it unfair. Desperate people, perhaps, but with a legitimate grievance, nonetheless.
Anything that discriminates against BMW drivers and/or Tories is just fine with me. Bollocks to "fairness".
If you are in a hole perhaps it would be best if you stayed there till May 6th! - Without wishing to blather on about this issue, one political figure not mentioned in the blog who appears happy to court the racist vote is the leading Anti-War campaigner (oft-eulogised in the 'Turtle' pages) and paid Agent of Saddam Hussein George Galloway, whose behaviour in the 'debate' on Monday with MP Oona King would have brought the wrath of the entire left-wing, anti-racist establishment had he been an ED,UKIP or BNP candidate. Good to see that hypocrisy on this issue is not limited to the Right Wing!
Oft-eulogised in the Turtle?
We mentioned Galloway once in this article, with a reference to something he was doing in 1999.
Where else?
English Democrats appear to be the 'Political Wing' of the Campaign for an English Parliament set up several years ago, without the hard hitting edge of Fathers for Justice !
CEP (for short) - nothing to do with racism or "goose stepping" more to do with sorting out the problems caused to England by Scottish and Welsh devolution - you can think of them (English Democrats) as an English Version of the SNP (Scottish National Party - are they racist ? - and/or The Party of Wales - PC - are they racist ?)
Funny how we are 'programmed' to associate the Cross of St George with racism, good job Jason Robinson is happy to score Tries in the Rugby World Cup playing under the Cross of St George !!?!
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