Last week I went to the Hate Not Hope mini-consultation roadshow on UKIP. It’s a good sign that when faced with a genuinely difficult decision an organisation proactively asks people what it should do rather than hammer out the “line” behind closed doors and then force everyone to swallow it.
The question is how does an organisation specifically set up to help build the fight against the far right deal with the massive surge in support for the anti-immigration UKIP when, in all fairness, it is not a fascist organisation? If anything UKIP is successfully siphoning electoral support away from the floundering BNP, quite possibly finishing off that dying organisation and certainly ensuring that it will not have a hope in hell of electing a single MEP next year.
The mainstream panders to the right
However, don’t get the bunting out just yet, UKIP may be snuffing out the BNP’s short lived spark but they are certainly helping create a toxic political environment as all three mainstream parties publicly wet themselves in fear. Cameron, Miliband and even Clegg were seen capering to anti-foreigner tunes of their own devising in the desperate hope that their more racist supporters would not dessert them for the purple peril.
That validation of UKIP’s priorities, that was taking place well before this year’s County Council elections, only served to make UKIP more credible in the eyes of the voters and push the electoral terrain to the right. You don’t fight racism by agreeing with it, you take it on. It may be tough in the short term but even in purely cynical terms the voters respect people who seem to actually believe in things and stand up for them. In the absence of political opposition, future elections will be inevitably fought on the right’s terms and spells bad news for the centre.
I’m far more concerned about what Ed Miliband has to say about immigration than Farage because Miliband dictates the pace of the shift to the right in British politics, by actively courting instead of confronting dangerous ideas. It’s like opposing austerity by agreeing with it. Madness.
Consequences
While there are those on the ground who have been making the case against this anti-immigration rhetoric the consequences of the capitulation of the main three parties had a far more troubling impact than a few unvetted blazer wearers getting elected to rural County Council seats. With the Woolwich killing the ground had been laid for an anti-Muslim backlash far in excess of anything we saw after 9/11 or 7/7.
The EDL was plucked from dustbin of history and began its devil’s dance all over again. We have moved backwards substantially, and this has to be seen as a failure of those who should have been opposing the anti-immigrant rhetoric but chose less challenging paths.
The open mosque initiatives and the response from Lee Rigby’s family and Hope for Heroes were far more progressive and helpful than anything we’d seen from our politicians or the media, and that includes the Guardian whose response was among the least considered of all the national press the day after the murder. Thank goodness hardly anyone reads it.
What to do?
There is a real role for anti-racists to get involved in busting racist myths as they arise and actively promoting what we can loosely call a multi-cultural society (I know some on the left dislike the term but now is not the time for pedantry). This goes well beyond “calling people out” for using the “wrong” words and is about whole-hearted community building.
We cannot confine ourselves to confronting the football hooligans and racist thugs who’ve marched for hate and escalated the climate of fear. I know we are small but we have to take seriously the national mood, attempting to shift public opinion. The EDL is a response to that mood, they are not creating it.
UKIP is not just about immigrants
Of course UKIP’s vote may be underpinned by racism but there are other issues, often unrecognised, there too. Europe (of course), the smoking ban, climate change and health and safety to name a few. It is not a coincidence that Farage is always pictured with a drink and a cigar in his hands. He’s not simply cultivating the image of someone it might be fun to hang out with (which it would be hard to say of Miliband, Clegg or Cameron) but he’s also defining himself as someone who cannot abide petty rules and regulations. He appears to enjoy life without the constraints of political correctness constantly pulling him down.
In this way UKIP are far closer to the Tea Party, as out-riders for the irresponsible right who pay no heed to minor annoyances like facts, manners or the buttoned up conventions of traditional politics. They appeal to people who don’t like being told off for being massive arseholes or believe they are never allowed to voice their opinions – and say so, endlessly. As the anti-politics party they have little to offer in terms of solutions that might actually work but they also have a geographically broader electoral based than even the Conservatives – drawing strong support from across the regions.
Defeating UKIP
The priority, I think, is to beat the ideas. While puncturing the ego of Farage is pleasing enough and exposing the most villainous of his candidates and councillors is useful – if the reactionary vote simply shifts from one electoral vehicle to the next we simply are not dealing with the problem. The BNP were never successful because of the strategic genius of Nick Griffin – because he hasn’t got none. While Farage is a better politician than Griffin he’s also surfing a wave he did not create.
Personally I hate elections where people try to turn them into referendums on hating the right. Framing any election as a fight between the BNP and respectable politics has always been a way of mobilising and concentrating support for both sides. The vast majority of politics in the vast majority of places is not about the far-right, or even UKIP and it is almost always a dumbing down tendency to suggest that it is (with some specific exceptions). I like to be able to vote for something, not just against. I doubt I’m alone in this.
As such we desperately need credible politicians, ones that can’t be easily fitted into the out of touch, say anything to get elected, identikit wonk turned MP. Do you know any? Perhaps that’s a whole new post, so let’s leave it there.