So, what has the IPPR study into electoral support for the BNP and its relationship to social factors? Well not a lot really. Anybody with an ounce of intelligence will already have known that the core support for the BNP is amongst the 'white working class'. However, the fact is that the areas they have in the past chosen to target in their election campaigns have been where they have hoped that the presence of 'immigrant' populations and disaffected 'white working class' voters would be the correct explosive mixture to push up their 'share' of the vote.
The big problem is that everyone knows that the fear of 'the other' no longer remains when one has met, lived alongside and interacted with 'the other' on a daily basis. Hence the IPPR's result. The study however completely ignores the real big problem, that the increased presence of the BNP and their ilk on the streets during and after an election (if the local community is unfortunate enough to be lumbered with a BNP councillor) directly results in an increased level of violence and intimidation aimed against so-called ethnic minorities. Just check out the crime statistics.
The scapegoating of migrants, whether it is by the BNP, the Tories, Nu Labour or whoever, only serves to justify the violence and inhumane behaviour meted out to migrants everywhere: on the streets of Barking and Dagenham or Oldham, in detention centres like Oakington and Yarl's Wood, or in the back of vans transporting people handcuffed between security guards to airports. Targeting those with no voice, those who lack the ability to fight back, is the action of the bigot and the bully, racist or otherwise.
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