It really is a jungle out there

It’s been alleged that Britain is proactive towards the international community and cares about all the vulnerable people out there but don’t believe it folks.  It’s a myth.

I’ve been reading about the immigration camps of Calais and about the way the residents there have been totally dehumanised by people who are supposed to care about human rights.  The people in the camps were mainly from Afghanistan and Iraq and seeing as Britain helped create the crisis then Britain, in any reasonable view, surely bears some responsibility.

It’s easy to get despondent but thank goodness for people like Green party leader, Caroline Lucas who said . . .

Rather than fulfilling their responsibilities to seekers of asylum under both EU and international law, the French and British governments are turning a blind eye to the suffering taking place on their own doorsteps. Home Secretary Alan Johnson‘s glee in the wake of this aggressive police raid is particularly disturbing.

“The plan for mass deportations of these refugees rides roughshod over the European Convention on Human Rights, the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Geneva Convention. And given that so many facing expulsion are children, the plans may also breach the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Makes me want to weep with shame.

To paraphrase Jim Jay from this excellent article, our own Home Secretary Alan Johnson took great delight in the swift and decisive rounding up of the happy campers.  Britain is refusing to take in any of the refugees in spite of the UNHCR asking them to give asylum to some of them.  Well Johnson has to consider what the good and compassionate citizens of Britain would say if he let more needy immigrants in.  And lord knows what the Daily Mail would have to say?  I mean, those pesky and bothersome Jungle dwellers were becoming an eyesore for the civilised people of France.  And Britain was shaking with apprehension at the thought of even more scrounging, sub-humans arriving to steal our jobs and our homes, to take over our beloved NHS and overrun our schools.  I mean we can’t have them coming here and contributing to our economy and doing all the crappy jobs and bringing in their skills and knowledge and stuff can we.  That would make us look even more dumb.

Sarcasm over, great shame on Johnson for putting public and political opinion before the needs of genuine humans.  And that goes for the rest of the sorry bunch and their cold and detached attitude towards the plight of these people including families, children.  Of course France has the right to maintain public order etc. but the refugees have the right to seek  asylum and these people have not been given access to the correct asylum procedure.  The French are simply sweeping the problem from one place to another.  Someone aptly said out of the jungle and into the wasteland.

It’s to their utter shame that Western governments are not only refusing to help these refugees but are treating them like criminals.  The British and French politicians are fully aware of the horrors occurring in Afghanistan.  They know damned well about the conditions that drive people to make extremely dangerous and high-risk journeys in order to seek asylum.  Who would got to dreadfully extreme lengths if they weren’t desperate?  Who wouldn’t try to seek a better life for their families when they’ve been living in holes for successive Winters with no access to education or health care, drinking water from disease-ridden muddy rivers and constantly fleeing from brutal, Western-empowered regimes?  Who wouldn’t?

Again,  who – wouldn’t?

What do we live for if it’s not to make life less difficult for each other? George Elliot

This Thursday

65 years ago this week a generation risked everything to defeat fascism. Now it’s our turn. They risked their lives.  All we have to do is vote on Thursday 4 June.

Hope Not Hate

White Poverty?

Before I get onto the main point of this post, I’d just like to make a point regarding the two former Green Party members who were included on the BNP members list. Some people have used this irrelevant little fact to try and smear the Green Party so, as a proud Green Party member myself, in response I’ll just quote the words of Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London:

“Let there be no doubt that the Green Party stands firmly against both racism and anti-Semitism. The Green Party has long fought for equality for all, supported the rights of migrant workers and spoken out against fascism and racism. People with those views are not welcome in the Green Party.”

Right, back to task. Since the BNP member list went live, the level of publicity the party has gained was beginning to look like an election campaign and a little thought popped into my head that maybe Nick Griffin engineered the whole thing but anyway, they have enjoyed a lot of free time in the spotlight and the only thing that can be gained from all this publicity is . . . well, publicity. That and causing people to react hastily, some even going as far as to intimidate people whose names are included on the list. To repeat myself, in the same way that I didn’t condone the outing of all those members, I also don’t condone any violence or intimidation of said members, even when (sigh) those members have used intimidation themselves against opponent of the BNP and other fascist groups. And in any case, it can only result in a bunch of smug martyrs who will exploit their victim status to promote their ideology. So it’s probably better to ignore the whole thing.

However, it has opened the debate again about the so-called white working-class plight. It’s being said by many, not least the BNP, that the White working class voters are being ignored. The right-wing media makes this claim on a daily basis and even some Labour politicians are joining in , saying that disaffected voters are turning to the BNP because they feel that they are being ignored by the mainstream parties.

Anyway, I’d like to ask, are the white, working classes really being ignored or has the right-wing press created a huge myth out of a few little problems? Clearly, whether it’s myth or reality, there is a genuine feeling of being invisible and ignored and it needs to be resolved somehow because one thing’s for sure and that is that the divisions and deep racial tensions are very real and are causing seething resentment from the British public and kneejerk reactions from the politicians.

So, here we go . . .

I hate to say this, but Hazel Blears is mostly spot on in what she says. We can safely say that yes, young, white, working class folks rightly feel disillusioned and disenfranchised. And it certainly doesn’t help when the middle-classes and the political classes and the media continually dumb them down using phrases like chavscum, no-hopers and benefit scroungers. News outlets such as The Daily Mail and the Sun have a hell of a lot to answer for. On one page they write off the working classes, claiming in short, that unemployed layabouts and single mums are to blame for rises in crime, growing disrespect and every other social ill that exists and on the next page they target that same group of people in order to gain support for their anti-immigrant, anti-muslim, racist agenda.

I’m in danger of tying myself in knots here but it won’t be the first time so hey ho. Seems to me that we just can’t get it right. It was only a while ago that people on the borderline were being ignored – those who weren’t entitled to any benefits but could only just make ends meet. So the government tried to meet their needs and now the Middle classes have grown in number. That’s not a bad thing if it keeps growing until everyone is well out of poverty. But no, there is now a new social group and you have to be poor and white to belong to it.

Fact is, the mainstream parties are ignoring the working class whites and the BNP is managing to convince them they are being ignored simply because the mainstream parties focus on the ethnics. But I say that this is a myth created by Nick Griffin and his flying monkeys, and the Daily Mail of course. Nick Griffins racism is clear for all in this article he wrote on his website. Such is his hatred of coloured people that he is accusing Barack Obama of being . .  get this . . . a deeply anti-white racist bigot. Hell, he’s even blaming him for the sub-prime disaster in the United States and is making ridiculous presumptions that Obama will only help his own people. But getting back to the UK, yes, it’s correct to say the WWC’s are not being listened to but it’s not correct to claim that it’s because the mainstreams care more for the ethnics – it’s more likely to be because the mainstreams prioritise the Middle classes.

The ethnics do not receive special treatment at the expense of the working class whites. The BNP exclusively ignores other non-white poor groups as though it’s only the whites who are suffering. But many if not most Muslims and other ethnics are also working class and poor. Poverty does not discriminate between colour or race. Poverty doesn’t care what colour or religion you are.

Wouldn’t it be good if the poor, working classes of every colour and creed got together in unity to fight against the unjust capitalist policies and the inequalities of the Labour and Conservative parties? But that’s not what the British National Party is about. The BNP only cares about poverty if it’s white poverty.

For them, it’s all about the colour. And it’s hateful.

That BNP member list thing

As tempting as it is to revel in the news that the BNP’s whole member list has been posted on the internet and as much as it’s easy to laugh at and mock the party, it’s actually not that funny.

Thinking it might not be a genuine list I was at first reluctant to pass comment but it seems that the party leader, the wonderfully embracing Mr. Nick Griffin, has confirmed on his hate web-site that the list is genuine and that some names have been wrongly added with malicious intent so of course now I can’t keep my mouth shut.

It’s no secret here that I detest the BNP and what it stands for but this seemingly vindictive act of treason has put many people in a precarious position. Crucially, people’s jobs are in jeopardy. Many people who have been ‘outed’ are forbidden from joining the BNP and could face dismissal. Among the members list are the names, addresses, emails and occupations of police officers, members of the armed forces, teachers and religious representatives and although I can’t deny my disdain for anyone wishing to become a member of such a far right extremist group that, let’s not deny it, has an evil single issue agenda, and although I can’t resist taking a long and close peep at the whole list, and although I really want to be mean-minded and spiteful and rejoice in their public exposure on account of their misguided desires to be a part of such a dreadful political party, those people do have the right to have their identities kept private.

That said, I am grossly uncomfortable, but not surprised, with the fact that police officers, teachers and religious ministers are included on that list. I find it hard to believe they can go about their duties without their beliefs affecting their attitude towards the citizens/school children that they are paid to tend to. For example, how can a teacher who believes in the ideology of the BNP, affectively teach a child of ethnic origin when that teacher feels that the child should not be there?

It’s being said that the person who breached securities and released such sensitive and confidential data is a member of the party’s leadership so this is a betrayed of the most vengeful kind but it’s also indicative of some serious in-party conflict so maybe it’s best if they just shut up shop, you know, cease business and all that . . . for the betterment of us all.

BNP Family Fun-Fest

This weekend, the British National Party are holding their annual rally in Derbyshire and it’s being dubbed by anti-BNP groups as a hate-fest.  Groups are forming to protest against the rally which the BNP, with a remarkable show of unlimited imagination, have named the Red, White and Blue (RWB) festival.   Whoopee!  Go Britannia!  They promise a family festival of fun and – get this - diversity and they describe their event as a celebration of White European Culture.  However, the BBC’s Panorama report of previous RWB events challenges this wholesome image by claiming that when the camera’s were taken down so were the masks.  Racist jokes, straight-arm salutes and SS music to name but a few examples of hate.

I detest the BNP and everything it stands for but, sadly enough, they are a legitimate party and for as long as they are doing nothing illegal, they have the right to hold their fascist rally.  Of course the Camp for Climage Change people had the right to hold their rally too but that didn’t stop the police from harrassing them from the offset and trying to smear their campaign.  And it appears that the police are intending to be just as restrictive towards the BNP protesters. 

Sure, the BNP has the right to hold its xenophobic little hate-fest, but the anti-BNP groups have as much right to protest against it, such is our democratic privilege.  This is where that old civil rights issue might rear its rather uncivil head and it remains to be seen as to whether the police will react with any sense of proportion. 

Anyway, here’s my presentation of all the fun things the BNP say you can expect to enjoy at this year’s family BNP fun-fest:

1. Appearance by Patriotic C&W Artist Traven Tucker.  Will present songs in a cultural educational context, ie, will contain not-very-subliminal messages about patriotism and more crucially, white supremacy.
2. Folk Song competition.  All songs must be sung in English or any other European language.  The BNP is NOT racist and loves diversity.  However, any song entries in an inferior, non-white language will be disqualified immediately.  Entries must be submitted at the *Traditional* Food Hall by 1pm Saturday.  Traditional food being salt-soaked fish ‘n’ chips, mushy peas, liver ‘n’ onion and that delicious delicacy, black pudding.
3. Home-brewed traditional beer competition.  Nick Griffin must not be permitted to take part in the judging because a few slurps of the hard stuff might result in him marching up and down the beer tent singing Third Reich military songs.  Sure, that would be good fun and all but some stray, England-bashing reporter might twist it all out of proportion and (gasp!) accuse him of being a neo-Nazi.
4. Children’s Drawing and Poetry Competition.  To be inspired by the RWB.  The kiddies are given the chance to demonstrate in art form what they’ve learned from their not-at-all-racist parents about those evil muslims, those dreadfulsome Jews and those horrid black crime-lord gangs.
5. Wide range of stalls selling Excalibur merchandise.  A chance to buy your swastika’s and other beloved Nazi memorabillia here.  Also available will be DVD’s and CD’s produced by the Great White Records label.
6. Smoking bar.  Brave and rebellious challenge to the illiberal smoking ban.  In this room, you will also be able to purchase unhealthy snacks such as Mars bars, crisps and (gasp!) pork scratchings. And also available will be seafood sold by nubile young serving wenches lassies - because the BNP laughs in the face of political correctness.  Whoopy-doo.

 Oh, and there will be good old traditional Engish Morris Dancing – enough to make you weep.