An open letter to the BNP.

With the upcoming UK elections I thought I would focus this post closer to home. We are currently facing a bit of a crisis in British politics and could even be facing a hung parliament; a parliament in which no one party holds an absolute majority of seats. The only other times we have had a hung parliament were in 1929 against a background of rising unemployment, interwar crisis and memories of the 1926 general strike and 1974 during the oil crisis and three day working week This election follows the same trend, the incompetence of the incumbent party is clear for all to see yet the opposition still fails to offer an alternative. This is because in times of crisis the alternative is systematic change to such an extent that no mainstream party is willing to accept, or even able to comprehend. What did the 1929 crisis end up in? WW2. What did the oil crisis end up in? The delinking of the dollar to gold and 40 years of economic globalization dictated by the whims of international capital, if the 60s and 70s were the ‘golden age’ of development it abruptly ground to a halt, development indicators stagnated and in many places regressed.

So what does today’s crisis represent? The expenses and lobbying scandals as well as immigration, public services and bankers' bonuses all reflect the inequality which is rife throughout our society and is reaching untenable levels. Far to many MPs graduate from university and slot straight into the political machine completely detached from reality and the people they are supposed to represent, the only links they have with the outside world are those within their political clique or with corporate interests. This was represented perfectly by David Cameron himself when he attempted to justify his reason for not supporting reform on the lobbying system by claiming MPs needed these contacts, that is, with corporate interests, not with the actual voting populous of course!

Immigration and multiculturalism is another area where the vast gap between the governing class and regular working people is reflected. Unfortunately, the leftist approach to the issue only aggravates the situation. Labour’s open immigration policy is covered with a vale of ethics and fairness which the radical left find very difficult to criticize. However, we must approach the issue from a realistic perspective, not the idealist open boarders approach all too common to the radical left and yet another indicator of the inequalities of in the UK. Is it really ethical to, not just allow but, to actively encourage immigration whilst neglecting job and training provision to working class areas? Why negotiate with unions when you can bring in cheap labor from Eastern Europe? Why train doctors here when we can let India train them and then let the come here to work? Furthermore, all new immigrants generally go to poor inner city areas where public services and housing are already over stretched, a sure recipe for conflict.

From this position it is easy to attribute many of the problems of the white working classes to immigration, only, however, if we fail to take into account the bigger picture. A long peddled argument from the left is that immigrants are good the economy, their cheap skilled labor is valued by business, employment is high and training costs are low as they are generally already educated before coming here and the impact of immigration on real wages is minimal. However, due to our unequal system these benefits are only reaped by those at the top. For those at the bottom immigration simply represents increased competition for jobs and a squeeze on inadequate public services. This is exacerbated by the perceived threat to British culture that many see from immigration. The truth is that most of this is media scaremongering pandering to nut jobs like Islam Choudary and Abu Hamza who simply want publicity to serve their divisive agendas in exchange for big headlines. The media justify themselves with the abstract principle of free speech without any reference to what is actually being said or who it will effect, but in any case they need not worry about this as it wont be the windows of their country houses that will get bricks thrown through them. Then there are those instances when British culture is actually repressed, usually by over zealous white beurocrats for whom it is more important to tick their multicultural boxes and to meet government agenda than actually represent those they are supposed to govern. The fact is that most immigrants respect British culture and this is a big reason for many of the coming here.

If the BNP really do want justice for the working class then they are barking up the wrong tree with their fervent anti-immigration stance. Immigrant bashing is never going to make us feel proud to be British, it is not going to significantly improve employment or public services. It’s a step away from building a Britain we can be proud of which to do so we must tackle those factors that make immigration appear to be such a negative thing. If the wealthy actually paid taxes rather than hiding in loopholes or offshore tax havens there would be far more funds for public services and it wouldn’t be a question of they get it or we get it. If we bridged the gap between the government and the people we wouldn’t go into illegal wars that cost the public billions. We wouldn’t support corruption in the developing world that keeps them locked in a perpetual state of underdevelopment making economic migration to the West far more attractive. We wouldn’t sell arms to war mongers around the world driving thousands more to our shores as asylum seekers. Most immigrants that come here are forced to by an unequal global system; why else would you leave your friends and family, travelling thousands of miles, risking your life to come to our rainy little island? It is this unequal system that we must bring down together and No, this system doesn’t benefit us at all, it only benefits the corporate and political elite of Britain who want to keep it that way.

Let’s bring some figures into play to bring all this into perspective. The Daily Mail cry that asylum seekers, as they are prohibited by law from working (so if they work they are stealing our jobs but if they don’t they are leaching), cost the UK economy ‘73 million per year!’. Wow! That’s a lot of millions, but not as any as the 990 million that British Tax payers pay to subsidize our arms export industry, or the 4.5billion (that’s 4500 millions!) annual cost of the Iraq / Afghan wars, or finally, the 850 billion pound cost of the bankers bailout this year. Who pays these taxes? Well it certainly isn’t the corporations and wealthy individuals with their legal loopholes and tax havens but it is certainly them who reap the profits.

The change we need will probably not come in time for the next election but a hung parliament will represent the inability of the established parties to effectively tackle the inequality and social division that scourge our society. If you are of the lefty persuasion don’t think you are keeping the BNP out by voting for Labour because you are simply voting for a party that has abandoned its working class base and hence pushes more and more people towards the BNP. Likewise, those on the radical left must approach immigration realistically; immigration is an effect of an unequal world system and you must put yourself in the shoes of those suffering the worst effects of this system – those in developing countries where there is a shortage of young skilled workers (the UK enjoys 166 doctors per 100000 patients and Zimbabwe makes do with 5.7 while Zimbabwean doctors are recruited here) and those here having to compete for jobs and public services at the bottom of the pile. They must desist in building a fairy tale multicultural society of their own devise, Condemning as ignorant racists all those who oppose the idea. Finally, If your thinking of voting BNP, instead of scapegoating asylum seekers, or fearing those who appear different, just take a little time, make a little effort, to work out who your real enemy is. Once you’ve done this then maybe we can all get along with changing things for the better; Building an equal, free and just Britain, one that we can all be proud of.