In the Guardian, Gary Younge argues that New Labour enabled the rise of the BNP by failing to tackle racism head-on:
New Labour extinguished all hope of class solidarity and singularly failed to provide principled anti-racist alternatives, leaving a significant section of the white working class to seek cheap refuge in racism and xenophobia. In their identity they see not the potential for resistance against corruption and injustice, but only a grievance. They don’t trust government and don’t see any alternatives. The coming election simply provides the choice between two parties that share the intent to slash public spending, after the gift of billions to bankers.
Over at Spiked, Tim Black says the belief that Nick Griffin’s appearance will trigger a rise in racism is condescending to the public:
It implies that we the public are not capable of dealing with freedom of speech and open debate. We need to be protected from certain arguments and points of view, the merest hints of which will send us racist. The public here is viewed as a childlike mass, incapable of resisting the sinister adult advances of people like Griffin. Could we be more condescended to? The idea that the two million people watching Question Time will suddenly go Nazi because some whites-only crank is on the panel is as absurd as Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg hoping two million people will suddenly go Lib Dem because Chris Huhne is sat there too. Monkey see, monkey do, goes the thinking.
The Independent’s Steve Richards warns that the BNP has an unexpected chance to benefit from record political discontent:
These are unusually febrile times. I speak to a lot of MPs who worry about the impact of the BNP in their constituencies more than virtually any other issue. A cabinet minister also said to me recently that the simultaneous political and economic crises are bound to have tumultuous consequences, so far ill-defined. There is still a dangerous gap in the market. The BNP shows few signs of filling it, but now an opportunity has arisen from nowhere for its leader to perform.
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In the Daily Telegraph, Mary Riddell says the government must stand up for immigration in the face of the BNP:
Government should champion the transformation wrought by incomers and uphold the British tradition of welcoming, from the Huguenots onwards, those fleeing persecution. It should applaud Europe’s open borders while stressing that EU migrants, many of whom do not stay long, have boosted the economy. In 2008-9, new arrivals paid 37 per cent more in taxes than they cost in welfare payments and public services.
The Times’s David Aaronovitch offers a ten-point plan for the panellists to defeat Griffin. Here’s number four:
Ditch the indignation — you have to earn the right to be angry in front of viewers. Don’t describe his views as abhorrent, hateful or evil or declare yourself shocked, appalled, sickened or disgusted until he’s said something to justfy such a reaction. Abstract fury just looks incontinent.
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