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It's not racist......

Diarist | 13.04.2005 21:11 | Analysis | Anti-racism | Migration | London | World

Are you thinking what they're thinking? It's not racist to endanger ethnic minorities in order to advance your career

To say that there has always been a whiff of closet racism about the Conservative Party would be to show an excessive level of generosity to that great British institution. In fact the closet door remains permanently ajar, and is occasionally flung wide open.

In 1964 Labour's shadow foreign secretary was trounced by a Tory candidate whose campaign featured the slogan: "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour". In 1968 shadow cabinet member Enoch Powell did his bit for race relations by claiming that immigrants would seek to "overawe and dominate", resulting in a nation awash with "rivers of blood". In 1978, after a riot in Woverhampton, Margaret Thatcher remarked that "People are really rather afraid that this country might be swamped by people of a different culture." Under her premiership Tory minister Alan Clark suggested that immigrants ought to be sent back to "Bongo-Bongo Land". In 1990 Norman Tebbit demanded that commonwealth immigrants, with the savage history of Empire still fresh in their minds, prove their loyalty through a "cricket test" by supporting the England team instead of those from their ancestral homes. In 2001 Tory leader William Hague, along with his sidekick and famed moral crusader Anne Widdecombe, embarked on a ruthless drive to exploit public fears on immigration that had been whipped up by an hysterical and mendacious tabloid press. In 2002 Tory rural affairs spokeswoman Ann Winterton was sacked for telling a particularly sordid racist joke at a public engagement. Unrepentant, the MP repeated the offence in 2004. 

Now in 2005, Michael Howard feels the dead hand of Conservative history upon his shoulder.

At the weekend Howard delivered an ominous warning of "literally millions of people in poorer countries" wishing to settle in Britain whose arrival would jeopardise "the future of good community relations". Howard invoked an image of dark, grasping hordes beating down our doors. As Yasmin Alibhai-Brown notes in The Independent, it is not white immigrants that Howard concerns himself with. "Conservatives and New Labour have no problems with [antipodean] migrants, nor with white Zimbabweans, South Africans and Americans who have taken up opportunities here and made good. These people are not the enemy within unlike black Africans, Arabs, Gypsies and South Asians. It is all about race."

Howard repeatedly asserts that its not racist to talk about immigration; as though he had any interest in an honest discussion. A better indication of Howard's intentions is given by his choice of campaign director. Lynton Crosby made his name during Australia's 2001 general elections, and an ugly row about a refugee ship, the Tampa. Crosby exploited false allegations that asylum seekers had tried to blackmail their way into the country by throwing children overboard. "It was a squalid lie" said Dr Paul Reynolds of the University of Queensland, the state where Crosby cut his teeth in Australia's centre-right Liberal party. "Lynton Crosby did not initiate the row. But he went along for the ride and milked it. He was compliant."

Such tactics have entirely predictable consequences for the future of good community relations.

Last weekend The United Nations refugee agency accused Howard of encouraging hatred of foreigners by dragging asylum-seekers into party politics. "UNHCR is terribly worried as among some quarters the crisis rhetoric and lumping of asylum with immigration issues continues, often fuelled by thinly disguised xenophobia and political opportunism". Then, earlier this week, following reports around the country of racist violence, including attacks on traveller sites, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality warned politicians to "take a step back" and realise what their words "may do to people on the ground". He said there were signs of pre-election debates causing racial hostility. The commission had received reports of racist violence, intimidation and "mob rule": "We know what's happening in schools. We know what's happening in factories and so on". Those comments were backed up by Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, who said "Research shows that every time something hardline is said in the press by politicians about immigration, there is a direct link to racist attacks." But none of these warnings have deterred Howard from taking his brave stand against the forces of political correctness.

As Hunter S Thompson said of George W. Bush; four years of Michael Howard would be like four years of syphilis. Many will lament the expected return of a New Labour government in May. But we can at least allow ourselves the small comfort one should derive from witnessing a fresh knife-twist in the heart of the Tory party. Having flatlined at around 30% in the polls for over a decade, one can only hope that 2005 will mark another small step towards the painful, and richly deserved death of the patient. For the warm welcome it has offered to refugees and ethnic minorities throughout its dismal history, the Conservative Party deserves nothing less.

Diarist
- e-mail: diarist@democratsdiary.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.democratsdiary.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Telford

14.04.2005 08:13

We would like to invite you to join Michael Howard at the Midlands Election Campaign Rally this Sunday 10th April, at 2pm at the International Centre Telford, St Quentin Gate, Telford, Shropshire, TF3 4JH.



If you are able to attend, please phone 0845 404 9411 or reply to  events@conservatives.com giving the name, address and mobile phone number (if any) of each person attending. Please arrive by 1pm for the 2pm start, and remember to bring photographic ID such as a passport or new style drivers licence. Dress is casual.



Telford


Re: Mr Powel

14.04.2005 21:15

He didn't quite say "rivers of blood". What actually said was something rather more pretencious. He said this.

"Like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with
much blood!!"

What kind of a poncey thing to say is that.

Tosser.

The Dude


Don't forget Labour

18.04.2005 18:05

We focus rightly on the racism Conservatives, but Labour has also been tightening the screw on immigration since they have been in power. In immigration policy, the Conservatives might be more blatent in racism, but Labour is hardly better. We just have to look at the number of immigration acts that have come into force/about to come into force. By focusing just on the Conservatives, it kind of forgets about Labour's pandering to the UK's 'fear' of immigration. It forgets that Labour have reformed the appeal system for asylum seekers making representation by lawyers increasingly more risky.

SOAS studo


anti-fascism pt 2

09.05.2005 02:41

What is the logical connection between racism and immigration?

If you want to stop race riots then stop importing (not you but you back it with your stupid campaigns) the Third World's cheap labour. Millions of new low-skilled people of a foreign culture mixed with not enough jobs, housing shortage and a failing healthcare system = race riots and new prejudices. That is the one and only real connection between immigration and racism.

White people in Britain today are not inherently racist. If you want to explain racism look at the environment (the economic conditions). Like I said before, a reality check is much in order.

kasheem


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