Don’t blame the BNP. It’s the main parties who have
betrayed the voters
*
Daily Mail
Tuesday, April 18, 2006.
by
Demetrious Panton
DURING the General Election campaign last year, I stood
as an Independent candidate against the sitting Labour MP Margaret Hodge, in
the East London constituency of Barking.
On
one occasion, a mother invited me into her home to explain why she was
considering voting for the BNP. There was no way she could be described as a
racist, she said, for she had two mixed -race daughters herself.
But
over a cup of tea, she told me how she was fed up with the sheer numbers of
people arriving in the borough, many of them illegally.
The
strain on housing and local services was becoming too great, she believed.
Displaying the kind of logic that is all too absent from the Government
thinking, she said:
‘this is already a poor area. What is the point of
bringing even more poor people here?
Her
views were shard by many other perfectly decent residents, who felt their
borough, was home to too many Eastern Europeans and Africans…Another women told
me as I canvassed a certain estate:
‘I call this Kosovan Towers’, after the influx of
asylum seekers from the Balkans.
But
throughout the campaign Margaret Hodge and her local Labour Party refused to
face the reality of working -class anger.
Now
suddenly she has woken up. She complains that Labour has failed to engaged with
its natural supporters and warns eight out of ten of her white working- class
constituents are thinking of voting for the BNP.
She
is not alone in discovering this phenomenon. A report by the research group the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, due to be published next week, says that up to 25
per cent of voters may consider supporting the BNP.
FRUSTRATION
It
attributes this to
a
feelings of ‘powerlessness and frustration’ among voters and anger with the
main political parties.
It
comes as no surprise to Mrs Hodge, and presumably a surprise to the Conservative
Party as well. If disillusioned Labour voters no longer turn to the Conservatives
but to the racist BNP, what on earth is going on?
Simply,
the main parties are [part of the problem. What we are seeing is the rise of a
poisoness party because many traditional working class voters are feeling
disenfranchised.
Labour
no longer represents its traditional supporters in its heartlands. It is now
seen as the PARTY of a Metropolitan Elite, far removed from the working class
upon whom it used to rely and whose interests it held dear.
This
phenomenon of a neglected working class is not just confined to LONDON. The BNP
is also expected to pick up votes in the North-West and the Midlands.
The
Conservatives are he party that once transformed the lives of
working class people in the inner cities under Margaret Thatcher by granting
the right to buy their council Homes.
The
inability of Labour to tackle key concerns in its heartlands would give the Conservatives
great opportunities to make inroads in thee areas again, if they took up the
challenge.
BUT
the Tories, as I saw in Barking in 2005, have virtually given up in the inner
cities. And the Liberal democrats are the most pro-immigration,
pro-multicultural party of ALL.
The
vacuum this has left was most graphically illustrated during my campaigning by
the fact that people with close links to the ethnic
Minority
communities -and even black people themselves -expressed alarm about the influx
of asylum seekers and the effect this was having on schools and housing in the
area.
While
I would never recommend anyone voting for the BNP, what struck me was how
similar were the thoughts and feelings of many people from a variety of
backgrounds.
As
a mixed-race candidate, I encountered hardly any personal hostility or
prejudice from voters as I canvassed the streets of the constituency.
But
I did come across genuine resentment at the high levels of immigration and the
sense that the needs of incomers were receiving higher priority than
long-established local families.
The
community of Barking has long been one of the most established working-class
areas in London.
Now
belatedly, Mrs Hodge is aware of some of the anxieties these people face. She
says:
‘The
poorest whites feel the greatest anger because there is no way out for them.
Throughout
the campaign I found that Mrs Hodge was seen aloof and affluent. Many locals
regarded her as if she were an absentee landlady, an attitude not helped by her
decision to go canvassing with the doyenne of liberal columnists, the Guardian’s
Polly Toynbee.
At
one stage, when I bumped into Toynbee in a Barking market and proffered my hand
in greeting, she looked at me with distain and turned away with distain and
turned away without a word.
Toynbee’s
behaviour perfectly encapsulates the arrogance of our ruling elite, which has
foisted on the public, without any vote or debate the greatest demographic
change in our nation’s history.
And
those who have borne the brunt of the revolution, such as the working class in
barking, have been traduced if they raise the slightest objection.
The
Labour Government has also ruthlessly imposed the ideology of multiculturalism,
which exacerbates racial divisions in our society by encouraging different
ethnic groups to cling on to their own values; customs sand even languages,
rather than embracing a British IDENTITY.
This
has made it impossible to establish any sense of shared belonging or
citizenship. Thanks to the creed of diversity, we now have suspicion and
distrust between different groups.
Multiculturalism
has helped to create a hierarchy of victimhood, where minorities have a vested
interest in emphasising the extent of their supposed social exclusion in order
to gain more government funding, housing, grants and employment.
But
one group that is permanently ignored is the white working class, leading to
grotesque double standards.
The
political elite shows huge concern, for instance, over anti-black racism, but
barely utters a squeak about the violent behaviour of so many young black males
that spreads fear across urban neighbourhoods.
In
one comment at the weekend, Margaret Hodge said that there had been ‘a lack of
leadership’ on race from Labour.
FAILURE
On
the contrary, Labour has been obsessed with race since coming to power, passing
a deluge of legislation and accusing almost every public service of
‘institutionalised racism’.
BUT
it has been one-way traffic. In the focus on alleged discrimination, ordinary
white people have been left behind
The
rise of the BNP is a direct result of the failure of our traditional politics.
Labour seems interested only in the votes of liberal Middle England - key
voters in marginal ‘swing’ seats -and has taken its [once] rock-solid urban
seats for granted.
So
at the heart of our system is a dangerous vacuum and this is now being filled
by the BNP. It is a dangerous development, for if the BNP gains further ground,
severe damage will be caused to the fabric of our society.
Britain
[ENGLAND] has a long, proud history of good race relations, having little of
the extremism that has poisoned continental Europe.
Ironically,
however, the Labour Government is now threatening that record with its dilution
of our NATIONAL CHARACTER, its explosion in MIGRATION and its promotion of
RACIAL DIVISIONS.
Margaret
Hodge may have woken up to the TRUTH.
BUT WILL HER COLLEAGUES FOLLOW?
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