John Hayward Posted: 10 June 2009
Keywords: Government & Foreign Affairs,
'Questions of asylum and immigration will only become more important as the new century progresses. Many believe these issues will be major battlegrounds in future general elections ... Fear and ignorance will persist until dispelled.' [Ram Gidoomal, in Asylum and Immigration: a Christian perspective on a polarised debate]
Last week's European elections saw two of the UK's 72 seats go to the British National Party. The media has attempted to dismiss this 'racist' vote by patronisingly suggesting the public didn't realise what they were voting for, that it was only a protest vote, and that it really reflected disillusionment with Labour and/or all the main parties.
It is true that, as we warned last week, at times when there is 'a deep suspicion of all established parties,' proportional representation makes us far more vulnerable to 'a flight to new parties on the political fringes'. So, given that overall turnout fell from 38.2% to 34.5%, there is a degree of truth to say the BNP's success was caused by disaffection with the established parties. However, although the Labour and LibDem shares of the vote both fell, the Conservative share of the vote increased by 1.0% nationally and by 1.5% in the North West, where the BNP's leader Nick Griffin was elected. The BNP share of the vote increased by 1.3% nationally, by 1.6% in the North West, and by 1.8% in Yorkshire and The Humber, where they won their other seat.
So the media is disingenuous and wrong. If the public had simply wanted to register a protest vote, they had plenty of other minority parties to choose between. UKIP's vote share, by contrast, increased by just 0.3% (gaining one MEP), while the under-reported Greens increased their share by a not insignificant gain of 2.4% (albeit resulting in the same number of MEPs as previously).
The media should also reconsider its portrayal of the BNP as 'far right'. Most of Europe's 'far-right' are not as extreme as Hungary's far-right radical party Jobbik, with its paramilitary wing, the Hungarian Guard. In fact, with their socialist manifesto, a good case could be made for describing the BNP as a 'far left' party - indeed Lord Tebbit recently described them as 'that awful socialist party' and 'Labour with racism'.
My point is that the political elite need to take seriously the concerns of the 6.2% of voters who gave their support to the BNP last week. Anecdotally, when voters told TV interviewers why they supported the BNP, their main concern was immigration. According to the most recent polling, race and immigration is now the greatest concern to voters after the economy - and it has consistently been one of the greatest concerns since January 2003.†
Now more than ever there is a need for honest and reasoned discussion about these concerns, to circumvent the tone of polemic and hysteria which so often mars the debate ... Now more than ever there is a need for the Jubilee Centre's Asylum and Immigration, first published five years ago. Watch out also for the chapter on race and nationhood in our forthcoming book, Votewise Now! Order both books today!
† Ipsos MORI: The most important issues facing britain today
I see a British Red Cross survey today reveals almost a quarter of the public think more than 100,000 people apply for asylum in the UK each year, with an average figure given by those taking the survey of 58,000, whereas the actual 2008 figure was just 25,670. The survey also showed most people think refugees are largely low-skilled workers in their country of origin rather than professionals, when in fact the opposite is true. So people's preceptions about immigrants are just as mistaken as they were when 'Asylum and Immigration' first came out.
Douglas 10 June 2009
The point was that the protest votes went all over the place leading to a steep decline in the share of the votes held by the major parties. The Tory vote was up a little maybe but was abysmal for a party seeking to become the government. Not many people voted for the BNP and some of those were fooling themselves. The BNP need plenty of publicity - as that will highlight their deceptions and obfuscations. For instance at one point Nick Griffin was cornered by an interview asking if he wanted Britain to become a "Christian Saudi Arabia". It's a twin track approach to ensure there's no slide into fascism. The second aspect is to make sure that people are listened to - much of the grievance is the perception that immigrant communities get listened to and get privileges and funding. In the cities it is the multi-ethnic churches that can help bridge the gap and show real love and concern for all.
Jon 15 June 2009