The Oil Crisis
It may seem a little premature to be contemplating the elections but next year should be different. The electoral timetable will see many voters faced with a ‘Super Thursday’ with all-out elections in the English metropolitan authorities, elections to the European Parliament and the London Assembly.
The issue of asylum seekers is certain to be played out; the gutter press will undoubtedly sustain their repugnant pitch of racism between now and polling day.
The debate surrounding asylum seekers has not been helped by New Labour’s policy response, which is immoral and politically immature. The architect of these policies Home Secretary David Blunkett will be giving a University lecture later this month, no doubt attempting to justify these policies with some nonsense about rights and responsibilities.
Tories’ right-hand turn
Meanwhile ID’s speech at the Tory conference launched his new political vision. IDS’s speech was peppered with nationalistic divinations, speaking of the “the British way” and “the country that I love”.
These visions are outdated nonsense – they’ve nothing to do with the diverse society we live in. His attempts to romanticise British nationalism were worrying – while his language may have been Orwellian in places, his tone was more Enoch Powellian! The overall impression he gave was of a party so desperate that they’re prepared to openly pander to the ultra-right.
The BNP have already exploited the failings of one mainstream party – Labour’s heartless treatment of asylum seekers and their abandonment of their heartlands has provided plentiful opportunities for the far-right. Some suggest the BNP’s attention will turn to exploiting Daily Mail jingoism in Tory strongholds – it seems that particular forecast has partly been reversed.
Recently unveiled proposals from the Tory front-bencher and Old Etonian buffoon Oliver Letwin would see asylum seekers shooed away from the British shores and detained on “foreign lands, far, far, away”. This proposal is not only draconian and morally bankrupt – it virtually gives Nick Griffin’s thugs a moderate apperance, as if they are in tune with mainstream political debate. Affection to the Union Jack might not be the only common ground between IDS’s Tories and the BNP.
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