As I’ve observed and been involved in politics since
the days of Thatcher, I’ve noted with growing horror the way a significant –
and seemingly growing – proportion of predominantly English voters will vote
for their own destruction if fed the red meat of racism. Call it jingoism, xenophobia or race-related bigotry – call it what you like – at its core it’s
an irrational knee-jerk reaction against ‘them’ (ME) and it has allowed their
real enemy – the extremely privileged minority at the top of the pile to non-too
subtly whittle away the post war socio-economic gains made by the ordinary majority
of the UK. The clearest recent example is the nonsense of shipping migrants to
Rwanda as a main distraction from this government’s disasters and ongoing
failures in time for the upcoming May elections.
It’s what got us Brexit. Farage with his ‘floods’ of
migrants reminiscent of the fascist Mosely and his rivers of blood - was only side-lined when the Tories stepped more
openly into the sewer and handed the crown to Johnson – racist, misogynist,
liar, chancer, populist political embarrassment and international buffoon.
But we had the hostile environment for immigrants
prior to that – thanks to Theresa May when Home Secretary. We had her vile ‘go
home’ vans driving the streets of the capitol. We’ve had the
Windrush scandal where thousands of Caribbean people who came to the UK to
re-build Britain after the war were in effect de-nationalised – many deported –
some dead and many homeless and desperate as a result of this huge miscarriage of justice.
Jingoism – as I said a couple of posts ago - is a
tired old tune but with an ability to have a Pavlovian reaction from certain
elements of the British – and especially the English working class. Remember, neither
Scotland nor Ireland voted for Brexit or Johnson – though both nations are
paying an extraordinarily heavy price.
Never mind that anything belonging to or benefitting
Britain was sold off from Thatcher onwards – often to foreign investors. Never
mind that much of the UK’s infrastructure is now controlled from abroad. Never
mind that the NHS is on its knees – the state school system barely functioned
through the pandemic and in poor areas of the UK, life expectancy actually fell
(this before covid) for the first time since such records began. No matter the
Tory indebtedness to a slew of Russian oligarchs. Despite all that –the
curdling cry that the ills of the UK are somehow the fault of poor, desperate foreigners never
fails to chime.
The Tories know it works. No matter how vile their policies – how cruel
– no matter how food banks have spread and spread under their mismanagement and
how many families in work now rely on handouts. No matter the degradation – no
matter the sleaze and the vileness of those in public office – they know that as long as they can turn the
spotlight on foreigners – preferably brown and black ones with inhumane policies – the dog whistle will work.
It would be nice if this May – for the first time –
we saw some sign that jingoism has run out of energy – some sign that – for
once the working class of England – the UK’s most populous nation – finally
decided to act with complete self-interest and start the process of kicking
these monsters out.
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And – on a lighter not – as always I invite you to check out my novels, children's books and poetry anthologies here -