Friday 10 April 2015

UKIP's Genteel Xenophobia.

Loudly Defending "Little England": Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is the product of Thatcherism's elimination of the threat of Labour's "socialism" and the trade unions' "communism". Their greatest fears allayed, the Little Englanders are now voicing their xenophobic antipathy to globalisation and its consequences.
 
IN LESS THAN A MONTH the people of the United Kingdom will have a new government. Depending on how the votes fall, one of the key figures in that new government could be Nigel Farage – leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
 
Frequently interviewed outside a traditional English pub, pint of beer in hand, Mr Farage has spent a decade perfecting his populist political persona: that of the loud, but fearless, member of the local golf club who isn’t afraid to call a guest-worker a “bloody foreigner” – and political correctness be damned!
 
UKIP claims to speak for “Little England” – think Hobbiton with Range Rovers – a place where retired small businessmen and local branch managers keep their suburban hedges neatly trimmed, and their little squares of lawn as closely shaved as their own ruddy cheeks. Safe within the confines of the golf-club, or down at their local, these Little Englanders grouse and grumble about what they see as their country’s slow dissolution in the acidic cosmopolitanism of the despised European Union (EU) and the caustic demographic backwash of Britain’s long lost Empire.
 
The success with which Nigel Farage has given voice to this genteel suburban xenophobia has the British Conservative Party running scared.
 
Time was when Little England’s visceral fear of the “socialists” in the Labour Party, and the “communists” in the trade unions, was sufficient to keep them safely inside the Tory Party’s big tent. But thanks to Margaret Thatcher (the woman Little Englanders would canonise if they could) the great left-wing bogeymen of the 50s, 60s and (especially) the 1970s have been reduced to things of vinegar and brown paper. Ed Miliband undoubtedly possesses many talents, but the ability to frighten Tories isn’t one of them.
 
With the Left no longer strong enough to keep the Right united, the natural fissures within British conservatism have grown wider.
 
Little England and UKIP wishes their beleaguered country could look like Inspector Barnaby’s Midsomer (minus the lethal homicide rate). Theirs would be a land of picturesque cottages, thriving high-street shops and large Anglican congregations. A world in which everybody’s white, nobody’s red, and blue is still the colour you call true. UKIP and Little England have no time for the EU’s circle of stars; no time for the Euro; and no time for the tens-of-thousands of “bloody foreigners” pouring across the English Channel.
 
In their heart-of-hearts they must know that their Little England has never existed outside the pages of Agatha Christie’s whodunits. What made England – and Britain – “great” were her factories, her cities and her highly-skilled working-class. William Blake’s “green and pleasant” England is a place rooted in “ancient time” – one that is quite incompatible with the “dark Satanic Mills” that have made the Britain of modern times so prosperous and heroic.
 
For all its aristocratic heritage and old-Etonian chic, the modern British Conservative Party was built by Stanley Baldwin, a Big England iron-and-steel industrialist who understood that if British capitalism showed itself to be incapable of sustaining a prosperous and growing middle-class, then its much larger (and considerably less prosperous) working-class would, eventually, put an end to it.
 
Little England may have loved Margaret Thatcher for smashing Labour and the unions, but it never really grasped the fact that the Left was not broken for the sake of the posh and the toff. On the contrary, Mrs Thatcher broke the Left because she regarded it as an impediment to the modernisation of Britain’s economy. She didn’t want to turn England into Midsomer Worthy, she wanted to turn England into Canary Wharf. Thatcherism was about barrow-boys breaking into boardrooms. It was about the City of London sucking the wealth of Europe into a very big British bang. It was about refashioning the British Labour Party in Thatcherism’s own image.
 
Mr Farage can sup his traditional English pint, and excoriate David Cameron’s Tories for selling England’s inheritance for a mess of EU-approved pottage, but the truth of the matter is that a Conservative-UKIP coalition government; one at odds with Labour and the Scots, and out of the European Union altogether, would very quickly have the nation on life-support.
 
What UKIP has yet to grasp is that, given the goals they share, David Cameron and Ed Miliband would rather rule Britain together, than see it decline, out of Europe, on its own.
 
This essay was originally published by The Waikato Times, The Taranaki Daily News, The Timaru Herald, The Otago Daily Times and The Greymouth Star of Friday, 10 April 2015.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chris,

This is only part of the truth, and rather a caricature of that part.

Farage and the UKIP appeal to those who have seen Britain very quickly inundated with millions from other cultures they don't understand, and are not happy about it. They were not consulted about this vast cultural and demographic change, and to even mention it, let alone object is to be branded 'A Racist' by most of the media*

Combine this with the lack of assimilation (another sin that dare not speak it's name), actual fear of prosecuting browner people for fear of being 'culturally insensitive'** (see Rotherham) , and home grown Islamic terrorism , is it any wonder the UKIP is gaining in popularity?
Have you considered they might have a point?

The importance of the home grown Islamic terrorism bit cannot be over stated. The fact that people who have grown up in the UK, attending UK schools have decided to become terrorists and blow up their fellow citizens is not a paranoid fantasy, but a multiply repeated reality.
And a grim monument to the utter failure and moral bankruptcy of Multiculturalism.

At this point, it is traditional to reference Enoch
Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech.

It is true that the UKIP and similar tend to attract out right race haters who loath anyone darker than themselves. This problem may be insurmountable.

*Are you blushing?

**As if police should be anything but.

greywarbler said...

Chris that is a very entertaining and good explanation of present Britain.
I love the comparison with Midsomer Murders scenery which I found picturesque and magnetic. But touristy also.
Not much around the lives on those in the Hillsborough tragedy.These 'ruddy cheeked' nostalgists of UKIP coupled with the resolute determination of the retired
who gaze forward with narrowed vision searching for the Peak of Darien. Real life around them, and the effects on the not-so-comfortable, are inconsequential. The 'wisdom of age' is not present and available to the younger voyagers in divining their future course.

Guerilla Surgeon said...

It's interesting that Nigel Farage loves to have his photograph taken with pint in hand as if he were one of the people. Whereas he actually went to a public school (albeit minor) and was a commodities trader in the City of London. Interesting also that his party is rabidly against immigration, when his ancestors aren't even English :-). Irony upon irony, he gets a lot of support from the working class. However, in common with Winston he often brings up subjects which, although the establishment doesn't like to discuss them, need discussion.

Dave_1924 said...

Chris: "but the truth of the matter is that a Conservative-UKIP coalition government; one at odds with Labour and the Scots, and out of the European Union altogether, would very quickly have the nation on life-support."

On what do you rest this statement? Would be interested in hearing why you think a GB outside of the EU would have no future, especially given the problems the EU currently has trying to prop up Spain, France and Italy never mind Greece.

[I don't have an opinion one way or the other really, apart from observing the rising disquiet amongst my working class English relatives at the loss of the way of life they knew 20 years ago.... observation taken in Feb/Mar 2015....]

Davo Stevens said...

Nigel Farage is rabidly anti-immigration, especially immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe but from Europe in general. Which begs the question; is he going to deport his wife? She is German. Perhaps she is one of those "Good" immigrants.

Jigsaw said...

Shock! Horror! Nigel Farage went to a minor public school when he should really have realised what he was doing and left immediately. You must have looked long and hard to find such an unflattering picture of him Chris-bet that took some time! Fact is that people (strangely enough often the working class in the UK) don't like their neighbourhoods being completely altered but unlimited immigration. OK for the middle class-they go to live in Spain but the rest have to stay and watch their whole society being changed. If you do some reading you will see how difficult it is for Ed to deal with this. UKIP is going to do well at this election for the same reason that John Key's government has to learn to deal with immigration which has hardly been an election topic in this country.

Guerilla Surgeon said...

Fear of prosecuting? Is that why they shot that black kid who was allegedly 'going for a gun' instead of just arresting him?

aberfoyle said...

Great picture with a cloth cap and a caption could almost be Norman Wisdom,though Norman had some honest old fashioned slap stick in his comic humour.Farage out and out white fright bigot.

Gnossienne said...

There's nothing wrong with a populist party. We need plenty of them, the more outré, politically incorrect or even bizarre, the better. We had a good one here last year and look what the yelping media whores and the whited sepulchres did to it. At least Farage sounds like a real live human being amongst a depressing army of dead eyed lumps of putty, malleable and visionless. A bit like Winston Peters really. You know, alive like Hone Harawira, Laila Harre and Kim Dot Com.
I read that the EU costs Britain 55 million a day as a member of this vast, money wasting merry-go-round controlling all and absolutely everything but actually itself controlled by the bankers of Empire.
Everything needs to decouple from a world already so unhinged that even the imagination of Philip K. Dick could not compete with the degree of rot now palpable and permanent in the atmosphere.

Victor said...

Dave_1924

If the UK left the EU, Japanese motor manufacturers would exit Britain and set up their European assembly plants elsewhere. This is not theory. It's what they've said they'd do.


Chris

An excellent piece. If it's close to caricature, that's because Farage is a deliberate caricature.

Up against the likes of Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, he might be able to pass for "authentic". But up against Nicola Sturgeon, he looks like the poseur he is.

What a pity she wants to bust up the Union instead of leading it!

Guerilla Surgeon said...

All there are more unflattering pictures of Nigel around. But I seem to be unable to post them in these threads. Pity.
The only reason I commented on the fact that he went to a public school was, he tries to make out that he is one of the little people. He's not. He's far closer to the Conservative MP than I think you would like to admit. But the sort of people he tries to appeal to don't always like toffs, unless they're Hyacinth Bucket :-). So there you go.
And some of Nige's ancestors were Huguenots – migrants to Britain around the 16th century are preserved, and one of his grandfathers was a German who migrated to Britain in the 19th century. So he perhaps should soft pedal a little on the immigration shtick. Some of the people I know in Britain would like to retrospectively expel his ancestors :-). Anyway, the foreign-born population of Britain is about 11%. Hardly a cause for alarm I would have thought. Though I'm sure if Maori had realised what their population statistics were going to be 100 years after they let Europeans in they probably would have voted UKIP.
All you people who crap on and on about migration seem to forget that as you often put it "we are all migrants in this country." So perhaps a little consistency might be in order.

Anonymous said...

I wouldnt be so worried. about UKIP. From the looks of it, they peaked too early, and are sliding in the polls, and just about every second day, a UKIP candidate says something stupid. Signs are that Farage will not win the seat he is contesting, and it looks unlikely that 'Kippers' will get any seats in Parliament.

And if you use 'Midsomer Murders' as a guide, Little England has a rather sinister underbelly....

Millsy

Anonymous said...

Also worth nothing that Farage's idol, Enoch Powell, as Health Secretary in the 1950's brought in thousands of immigrant workers to work in the NHS...

Millsy

Jigsaw said...

That's the problem with debate on immigration-people take the arguments to extremes. Most people are not against immigration -just the level of it. There is a level of immigration beyond which any society cannot absorb the flow and stresses and strains begin to stress that society. People should be able to debate that level in rational terms not throw comments around about us all being immigrants. Of course we were-even Maori. That's the past, we are debating the future.

Guerilla Surgeon said...

Well jigsaw, I do agree with your first sentence. But then you can't resist the little dig. All I said was that as the sons nor grandsons or great-grandsons of migrants, perhaps we should be a little bit shy about condemning migration. But Nigel doesn't do that now does he?
Point remains – would you have supported Maori in restricting European migration to New Zealand. Point of principle rather than just talking about the past. "Let's move on," that's what the perpetrator always says to the victim. Perhaps the victim should have a say in when they move on – or not. Your past contributions on Maori today, show that that's the way you think. All very well for the beneficiaries of migration to want to move on. Pity, because I suspect you would find quite a number of allies amongst the Maori in restricting immigration. Perhaps you could rationally reconsider.

Anonymous said...

A fun article Chris, but you're a little out of touch with the UK and have missed an important point:

Many of the people who will be voting for UKIP are blue-collar ex Labour voters who have seen their employment prospects swamped by a wave of East Europeans and their working class suburbs and schools overrun by Muslims.

You may mock but this is a very real and serious issue.

Just as Powell predicted - this will not end well.

Barry said...

I agree with the comment of Anonymous today at 12:21.

Guerilla Surgeon said...

Funny, I've read one newspaper article and a couple of academic journal articles that suggest that the impact of migration to Britain on wages and jobs is pretty minimal. Particularly EU migrants. But no one ever went broke ignoring academic research.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/immigration-to-britain-has-not-increased-unemployment-or-reduced-wages-study-finds-10075047.html

Jamie said...

I also agree with the comment of Anonymous today at 12:21.

Russell Armitage said...

Hello Chris
I am one who more often than not agrees with your articles. However in this one about UKIP I do not. You have certainly written a caricature and that is the big weakness and mistake in your piece. In 2013 I returned to NZ after living 4 years (2009-2012) in Walsall, the West Midlands near Birmingham. I had been an admirer of the Liberal-Democrats for many years and joined up soon after arrival. However it soon became apparent that the sycophantic behaviour of the leader Nick Clegg towards the EU was a huge flaw in its credibility - a view supported by many grass roots members I came across who could not understand why the Lib-Dem leadership were uncritical of the EU and Brussels’ and were just toddies. . So I left. I had been aware of UKIP for many years and had liked their EU scepticism. Then when they were the only major party to come out strongly against the HS2 super-fast train folly proposed between London and Birmingham (a view supported by most major dailies) I went along to a meeting in Walsall. I ended up joining and then stood as a candidate for the local Walsall Council in 2011 and got a very high 18% of the vote. I am an accountant and economist and have been a Labour then Green voter in NZ. None of the people I met at my local branch meeting were anything like the ones you paint in your imaginary picture of UKIP members. I also went to the National Conference that year in Birmingham and was quite surprised at the quality and professionalism of the 800 or so delegates. I have been to a few political party conferences and they are often a very mixed bag but this was a cut above. There were of course the usual odd-ball fringe elements (religious groups in the main) but UKIP being an essentially libertarian Party tolerated them. Several friends were quite horrified that I had joined up and asked how I could join a 'homophobic' party being gay. Well that was just another myth as the gay marriage workshop at the conference was quite a revelation. The policies on defence (scrap Trident), education and health (endorsed by all main medical associations in England) were refreshing, practical, well researched and sensible. Media misrepresentation had been extensive in the UK (much more vitriolic than your off-beam piece)and caused unwarranted antagonism towards UKIP. But some papers are having to take them seriously as it is clear they represent a large swathe of public opinion - ignored for too long.

Russell Armitage said...

The accusations about being racist is also misguided. What UKIP has long expressed concern about is the excessive immigration to the UK (now accepted with heads hung low by the Labour Party bosses) and the impact on many communities of large Muslim populations and their desire for separateness especially in education(I suggest you read the Government's Trojan Horse Report of 2013 of the Islamification of schools in Birmingham - a shock to even liberals). On both these issues UKIP is right and that is why its policies on immigration and undesirable Muslim influence are supported by so many people as they have been a tragedy for the UK - especially England. All the UKIP members I met were decent ordinary English who had worked all their lives and were so distressed at what inept leadership and policies from Westminster had done to their lives and country. It was also attracting a lot of younger people at the time I came home. Door knocking in Walsall when I was campaigning for the Council election was very illuminating. Almost without exception the concerns of these people, in a not very prosperous part of England with many social problems, were the views that UKIP represented.
I wonder Chris, if you have ever met a UKIP person? Your description of them is nothing like the reality. I am happy to meet for a coffee for a chat.
The problems of the UK are deep and manifold - both Labour and the Conservatives have failed in so many ways and are discredited in many people’s eyes. Many will now just not vote. The Lib-Dems are a misguided spent force that did have potential. A shame they wasted it. So I see UKIP as a very positive development for politics in the UK even though they are still hamstrung by the unfair undemocratic electoral system of first past the post.

Guerilla Surgeon said...

"The accusations about being racist is also misguided."
The fact that there Parliamentary candidates and other officials are time after time recorded saying racist things means nothing then?

Jamie said...

You will like that forced mass immigration or else!!!

“If She Opens The Door, Shoot Her!” Left Wing Threats Against UKIP Candidates Spreads To Norfolk

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/04/16/if-she-opens-the-door-shoot-her-left-wing-threats-against-ukip-candidates-spreads-to-norfolk/

What's not to like???

Guerilla Surgeon said...

Well Jamie, luckily the woman doesn't live in the United States than eh? :-) She is much less likely to be confronted by a gun.

Davo Stevens said...

Ah Jamie you mean this Andrew Breitbart (1969—2012) was an American right-wing media critic, webmaster and "Internet entrepreneur."
He was the founder of the "Big X" sites, currently comprising of Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism and Big Peace. Breitbart had a reputation for self-aggrandizement and making grandiose, incoherent proclamations. He was particularly fond of using misleading information to denigrate his political opponents. Very shortly after his death (mere hours after the news broke), bizarre conspiracy theories began circulating that Breitbart was murdered after finding "something" on Barack Obama rather than dying of natural causes.

You should really do better than that!

Guerilla Surgeon said...

Breitbart is about on a par with Fox for news/information. And Fox makes you less informed than someone who doesn't watch or listen to the news at all according to at least one survey :-).

Jamie said...

"Well Jamie, luckily the woman doesn't live in the United States than eh? :-) She is much less likely to be confronted by a gun."G.S

Says you. Thugs have access to guns and they can just as easily kill with bombs or knives.

"Ah Jamie you mean this Andrew Breitbart (1969—2012) was an American right-wing media critic, webmaster and "Internet entrepreneur." Davo 'Vietnam combat veteran' Stevens

So what if he's right wing???Google it if you think I'm lying

http://www.infowars.com/ukip-death-threat-mep-labour-should-rebrand-itself-the-paedophile-protection-party/

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/570768/Ukip-Nigel-Farage-death-threats-physical-violence-campaign-election-UK-Independence-Party

"Very shortly after his death (mere hours after the news broke), bizarre conspiracy theories began circulating that Breitbart was murdered after finding "something" on Barack Obama rather than dying of natural causes."Davo 'Vietnam combat veteran' Stevens

[I fail to see the relevance of all this but ok, you went there]

Hussein Obamas old man is Frank Marshall Davis a pornographer and a communist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLCtrbRCaQo

[If you don't like the link I provided then try www.google.com]

And if you don't like commies then racism

Guerilla Surgeon said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/01/british-gangs-use-flare-guns-now-because-they-cant-find-real-ones/

"Thugs have access to guns and they can just as easily kill with bombs or knives."

Yes Jamie. And as soon as she appears at the door, they are going to throw a bomb at her and blow themselves up. Sorry Jamie you're paranoid to the max.
Honestly you think the woman travels around by herself knocking on doors? You think someone is going to shoot her at their own house, where the cops can you know, go around and pick them up – because they live there? Get real.
Christ, your life must be a shocker, checking behind all the doors for commies with knives and guns, stocking up on ammo and food for when the world comes to an end. You live in fear mate sorry about that, but it's probably not healthy.

Davo Stevens said...

Jamie 'the Armchair General' I have no problem with right wingers at all. I just have a problem with idiots.

Breitbart, who happens to be dead at the moment, was a nutter of the first order. He was another who never let the truth get in the way of a good story. His rants were just about as crazy as yours.

Infowars eh? Alex Jones is as big a nutter as Breitbart was.

"Alex Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is a far right[2] radio personality who never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like. He is one of the very few people to make Glenn Beck look sane and rational in comparison. That is all you really need to know about him.
Jones has no discernible political stance aside from all-consuming paranoid rage. He claims that the Illuminati control the world. He claims that "the elite" conspirators who he says control the world "believe they're contacting inter-dimensional aliens" through use of the drug DMT, and "believe that they are being directed by them." Jones says that the entities that the world-ruling conspirators worship are called "clockwork elves" and that their ultimate goal is to be granted "eternal life" after they "kill everybody".[3]
His radio program is typified by frequent use of the Imperial March from Star Wars[4] while he rants about the impending roundup and execution of Americans by the New World Order (NWO) in the next week or two. He has been predicting this every day since at least 1995. We're still waiting. Any time a "major event" of any kind happens in the media, the first words from Jones on his radio show are always, "This whole situation stinks!" and he then immediately begins rounding up clues and evidence of the 'Massive Coverup' currently taking place in the current situation … whatever the situation is."

Try reading some middle of the political road sites to balance the bullshit. Remember Google is your friend! But be careful, by your own admissions Google will be spying on you to find out how many guns you have hidden under you bed.

Jamie said...

'Armchair general' - Nah not this callsign. I only reached the dizzy heights of lance jack. What was your rank back in Nam Davo???

'Infowars eh? Alex Jones is as big a nutter as Breitbart was.'D.S

He may be a little crazy, he also is right about a hell of a lot of things. He was right about 9/11

A Former head of US Senate Intelligence committee admits involvement of Saudi and US Government

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/middleeast/florida-ex-senator-pursues-claims-of-saudi-ties-to-sept-11-attacks.html?referrer&_r=3

That's from the New York Times - I hope that source is left wing enough for ya

Back to the topic of Xenophobia

“Funny how little we have heard from British liberals about a rather nasty outbreak of anti-immigrant violence this week.

Black South Africans burst on to the streets of Durban and Johannesburg, savagely attacking and threatening black immigrants from other parts of Africa.

Whatever this is, it isn’t ‘racist’. The assailants and victims alike are almost all black Africans. The fact that it is happening in a country liberals pretend is a rainbow paradise (when it isn’t) is also hard for them to handle.

The sad truth is that mass migration, whatever the colour of the skins of those involved, upsets and worries indigenous people, especially the poorest. If it is not controlled – and South Africa has utterly failed to control it for many years – it can lead to serious social conflict.

And if you think this doesn’t affect us, you are worryingly wrong. For Africa is exploding north and south, as war and famine uproot its unhappy millions.

David Cameron’s irresponsible and ignorant intervention in Libya (which alone should be enough to ensure he never holds responsible office again) is now causing one of the greatest human upheavals of modern times.

A wave of human misery is now heading to Europe – and eventually to Britain – from the fiery chaos of post-Cameron Libya.

In one week, at least 10,000 migrants have been ferried to Italy by greedy criminal traffickers.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3045163/PETER-HITCHENS-wave-migrants-way-don-t-dare-mention-it.html

In my opinion Labour long ago gave up representing the blue collar working man like myself

Jamie said...

"Britain's second largest police force withheld a report about gangs of Muslim men grooming children in case it inflamed racial tensions ahead of a General Election, it was revealed today"

***Source*** http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3138984/Police-withheld-bombshell-report-revealing-gangs-Muslim-men-grooming-100-schoolgirls-young-10-case-inflamed-racial-tensions-ahead-General-Election.html

More likely withheld so UKIP didn't get more votes.

Jamie said...

Labour parliamentary candidate Amran Hussain, 29, posed for a selfie where gunman slaughtered 38 tourists

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3142087/Thousands-defiant-Tunisians-light-candles-march-streets-protest-massacre-brought-blood-beaches-leaving-39-dead.html

If the name don't give it away then the photo will. Says all I need to know