What We Need Is More Talking, Until These People Get The Message!

Eshaan Akbar (Who he? According to ‘CiF’, ‘Eshaan Akbar is taking part in the Young Foundation's UpRising programme, which aims to identify, recruit, develop and support a new generation of young leaders, aged 19 to 25, from a range of backgrounds in east London.’) has an article looking at the rise of the BNP in east London.

First, his ‘out of the frying pan’ decision:

I moved to Chadwell Heath in Barking and Dagenham – where 12 of the 51 councillors are from the BNP – 10 years ago, only a mile away from the West Ham Utd training ground, and my brother attends one of the most improved schools in the country. My local amenities include a newsagent owned by a Sri Lankan, a Bangladeshi restaurant, a cafe and "chippy" owned by a Turkish family, Pakistani dry cleaners and a closed-down Woolworths.

Ahh, glorious diversity!

Despite this, Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, will be standing for election in a ward in the south of the borough at the general election.

‘Despite this’..? Maybe ‘because of this’. Did that ever occur to you, Eshaan?

…the BNP have been tactically astute in striking when the iron is hot and have invented a new game – politics by immigrant numbers. Your odds of getting a job, that council house, hospital treatment or your children getting a fair amount of attention from their teachers are better if there are fewer people going for that job or council house and fewer children for the teachers to contend with. It's a simple argument, but an effective one…

Well, quite.

So long as these key issues – around employment, social housing, and education – remain unaddressed by those in power who can effect change, particularly at the local level, the BNP will have a bouncy castle of a platform.

Again, quite.

So what to do about it? Well, if Eshaan is to be believed, talk longer and harder at these stupid people until they get the message:

Local councils have an important role to play in working with local partners and central government to identify ways in which to encourage disaffected communities to engage with society.

They are ‘engaging with society’. They are voting for the only party that promises them an answer to what they see as a problem.

I fail to see how you plan to combat this by telling them there isn’t a problem at all. That’s been tried for the last eleven years, without success.

But its most important role is transparency and communication. Central government has stepped into the domain of transparency with their recent launch of data.gov.uk, but at the local level this means very little, especially in a borough where residents are unlikely to use the internet to interrogate government data.

Really? Is B&D an internet blackspot, or something?

Residents want simple questions answered: Will I get a house? Will I have a job? Will my child do alright in school? Is my situation the fault of immigrants?

And if the answer might be ‘Yes’, better avoid asking that question, at all costs!

What separates the BNP from other parties is that they seem happy to do the groundwork to answer those questions – no matter how fabricated their answers may be – and, in the absence of an alternative, residents accept what they are presented with.

But you aren’t offering any alternative, Eshaan, except the chance to be told everything is rosy and you are all horrible racists for thinking otherwise.

Fascism has its roots in movements where members feel like they and "their people" are victims. Right now, in Barking and Dagenham, there are a lot of people who are being told they are victims.

And your solution, Eshaan, is to tell them they are not, more often, and harder.

But others are listening, and promising action. And it’s not just the BNP:

Migrants would be forced to 'earn' the right to benefits and council housing over several years under explosive plans outlined today by a senior Labour minister.

Margaret Hodge warns British values of openness and tolerance are under threat because of an increasing sense of 'unfairness' over immigration.

And Margaret Hodge is clearly fully clued up on ‘British values of openness and tolerance’, being, umm, a Labour MP…

The Culture Minister is calling for a new points system - based on length of residence or national insurance contributions - to determine that only migrants who have made a fair contribution to society get the same rights as local families.

She’s calling for it now? Why is it suddenly ‘fair’ now, when it wasn’t eleven years ago?

Mrs Hodge was attacked as 'offensive' by senior Labour colleagues after calling for a shake-up of housing rules two and half years ago.

But last year, the Government announced it was adopting the policy proposal she made to give councils new powers to give local people priority on waiting lists.

Now the minister is risking angering colleagues again by going further, with an admission that the Government has failed to address voters' concerns over immigration.

Why would she do this?

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the MigrationWatch, said: 'This sounds like a very promising idea. It's just a pity that the Government has not done anything about it over the last 13 years.'

Indeed. So why would she do th…

Ah:

Mrs Hodge received 13,826 votes at the last election, a majority of 8,883. The BNP finished only 27 votes behind the Tories on 4,916.

All is revealed…

Of course, as Leg-Iron points out, she's bound to be lying like a cheap rug, but she wouldn't do that if she didn't think it'd work.