Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Bigots? That'll be the English.

I didn't really have that much to say about Gordon Browns gaffe with the microphone as it merely confirmed to me at least how the political classes actually see real people with real concerns. Still, Kevin McKenna tries to defend what Gordon had to say in Comment is free, by tarring the English with the racist brush.

Guardian CiF.
On a late autumn evening in Glasgow seven years ago, I first realised that England's north-west had a serious problem. The couple we had just encountered in the pub were in their mid-30s and were enjoying the first evening of a long weekend hotel break in Glasgow. They were from Blackburn and their demeanour spoke of aspirational, working-class, comprehensive England. They could have been professional (cost accountants perhaps), but they could also have been skilled artisan. The gent may even have been wearing a tanktop. Afterwards, I remember hoping that they weren't teachers. They were pleasant and affable in that plain-speaking manner that has always attracted me to those who dwell in the Midlands and the north of England.
It was only when we said that we would be visiting Blackburn the following week for a football pilgrimage that we first noticed a drop in the temperature. "Is it a decent town centre with nice pubs and restaurants?" I asked. "The town centre is a no-go area now, it's been taken over by Asians. We all moved out years ago." This from the woman as her partner nodded vigorously. Were the candles on the table beginning to flicker? Had the barman suddenly called time on the happy hour it could not have become chillier. We blundered on. We asked them why that was necessarily a problem. After all, weren't we in Glasgow proud of the way in which the Asians, the Chinese, the eastern Europeans, the Italians and the Irish had all contributed to our city becoming one of the most interesting and diverse cities in Europe?
But the couple were having none of it. "It's not our city any more and we have been abandoned by the Labour party." It was the BNP's manifesto in one short sentence and helped to explain why they would soon make their first UK electoral gains on the councils of north-west England.
He doesn't get it, he probably never will but these people have don't have a problem with immigration, they probably do their best to cope with multiculturalism and treat everyone fairly. Their problem is colonisation, there are towns in the Midlands and North (Rochdale or Blackburn or Oldham or Stoke) where the local culture has been pushed out by up to 40% immigration. Where they have seen their town centres and some estates turned into no go areas for locals. Where young local girls are groomed for prostitution by Asian youths and instead of church bells they hear the screech of a Muzzein. They find the colonists aren't integrating (after all why should they it's not as if they need too) and that English is often enough not spoken well if it is spoken at all. If they ask why they are immediately labelled "racist", "bigot", "Islamophobe"  to name but a few. Politicians of the main parties aren't interested in doing anything about it so, tied up in political correctness as they are. They decry parties like the BNP as "Right Wing" and again "racist", yet it is the BNP who go to these towns and say to the remaining residents "Yes, it is a problem, vote for us and we'll do something about it" Something not even the Lib Dems would dare do to get votes (probably). Then the mainstream parties wonder why the BNP get councillors and MEP's in these areas and some like Kevin McKenna assume it's because the English are racist without actually seeing why.

It's not just the Midlands and the North though, London Whitechapel has a problem...

Independent.
When I look back on it now what surprises me is how disarmingly polite my attackers were.
"What are you doing?" asked one of the two, seemingly inquisitive, Asian teenagers who approached me on a quiet cul-de-sac in Bow, east London, shortly after 1pm yesterday.
The Independent looking to speak to a man at an address in the area, who was standing as a candidate in the local elections, about allegations of postal vote fraud. "Can we see your note pad," the boy asked.
I declined and then the first punch came – landing straight on my nose, sending blood and tears streaming down my face. Then another. Then another.
I tried to protect myself but a fresh crop of attackers – I guess between four and six – joined in. As they knocked me to the ground one of them brought a traffic cone repeatedly down on the back of my head.
As their fists and feet slammed into me, all I could think about was some advice a friend had given me. She's a paramedic and has dealt with countless victims of assault. "Whatever you do don't get knocked to the ground," she once said. "Blows on the floor are much more dangerous." It seemed faintly absurd now. "That's easy for you to say," I thought. "How on earth are you meant to stay up?" 
What brought me to Bow yesterday were allegations of widespread postal voting fraud. Both the local Conservative and Respect parties in Tower Hamlets have been looking through the new electoral rolls for properties that have an alarmingly high number of adults registered to one address. The area has a large Bengali population and this type of fraud is unfortunately all too common. In some instances there have been as many as 20 Bengali names supposedly living in two or three-bedroom flats. When journalists have previously called, all too often there are far fewer living there. In some instances, no Bengalis at all. 
No go areas for  whites are becoming far more prevalent and we know who is to blame, it was Labour who deliberately opened the floodgates to rub the so called rights faces in multiculturalism. They forgot of course that multiculturalism doesn't work, after all what divides us cannot unite us. So they discovered that their core vote didn't like their new Labour voting pets and turned to those who promised to do something about it. It's happening in Barking and Dagenham where years of Labour neglect have suddenly forced them into a desperate fight to retain the seat against the BNP too.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction as Newtons law of motion tells us. Save that doesn't really work with the English, we're polite (to an extent) but we can only be pushed so far and then woe betide those who get in our way.

To tar the Northwest of England as racist as Kevin McKenna does from sectarian Glasgow is a little like the pot calling the kettle black. Yes there is a problem, but it isn't of the English's making any more than the colonisation of the Spanish Mediterranean coast by the English is of the Spanish's making, they don't like it and who can blame them. When the government of any country opens the floodgates of immigration to such an extent that the local resources cannot cope, when they deliberately prevent integration by multiculturalism and do their level best to put the needs of the colonists (yes for this is what they are) above those of the local indigenous and denigrate them as racist bigots for even daring to ask why, then some sort of extreme reaction is on the cards the longer it goes.

People will turn to those who say we'll sort it, that's the problem Mr McKenna, it wasn't that Gillian Duffy was a bigot it was that she asked the question, got the stock answer which didn't answer anything, then discovered what Gordon Brown really thought of her and those like her, but now they do know some will turn to the BNP.

I'm a civic nationalist, I believe Englishness can be inclusive to all, yet what I've seen over the last few years makes this increasingly difficult. The UK government has gone out of it's way to divide this country up and marginalise the English in some areas to the extent that they feel they are under siege by those who cannot nor will not integrate on our terms and who are protected by government legislation. The next few years will be interesting to say the least as parties like the BNP continue to gain support and groups like the EDL grow.

So yes Mr McKenna England has a serious problem, but it's a problem made by people of the left, like you Mr McKenna.

Julia M does a serious fisking on the woeful Kevin McKenna's comments here.

7 annotations:

McGonagall said...

Well said. I really don't see much hope for England as the political classes, lib/lab/con, are not prepared to close the doors or get out of the EU. Every year some 400,000 English leave and a million or so migrants come in. Do the math - English as a culture ... as a nation ... is unsustainable under those conditions. It's only a matter of time.

Anonymous said...

"there are towns in the Midlands (Rochdale or Blackburn or Oldham or Stoke)"

Geography is not your strong point is it?

Anonymous said...

What a strange man Mr McKenna is - Scotland has nowhere near the immigration levels of England, but I think we must say that, like England, Scotland has a problem with racism.

Mr McKenna comes across in this instance as simply being smug and biased. Scotland GOOD - England BAD. Same old tune.

Quiet_Man said...

Well Anonymous 3:16 hailing as I do from Newcastle I see all towns south of Middlesbrough as Midlands or South. But to keep you pedantically happy I've altered it to suit you.

James Higham said...

Well put, QM and Julia's was also good earlier.

Sue said...

I think every aspiring politician should have to live in Tower Hamlets for a year with his family before he is allowed to even be a civil servant.

Then see how they feel!!!!

Mrs Rigby said...

During the last leaders’ debate one of them said we "couldn't deport" however-many-thousands of illegal immigrants (or something similar). We Rigbys immediately asked why not, if they are here illegally. Might as well forget the laws, all of them, if they're too difficult (or too mean) to enforce.

Various studies over the last few years have reported that, in Britain, we're doing immigration wrong. In other countries people arrive and gradually disperse, and integrate, their children become ‘locals’. It hasn't happened here, and some claim integration has been actively discouraged, resulting in ghettoisation. It’s natural, though, for people to stick together, it’s something we all do – but some of us have been told it’s wrong.

It's true that immigration can enrich a country, both culturally and economically, but not in the scale that's been allowed (encouraged) over recent years. One new family in a street is easy to assimilate, twenty new families in a street is a takeover.

It’s something I touched on here
http://mrsrigbysays.blogspot.com/2010/04/mrs-r-knows-why-shirley-disapproves-of.html