Foes of Foreigners Grow Vocal In Britain

[ElPunto]

I thought Britain was the last place to go in this direction in Europe - and now it seems to be happening there. And with the illegal alien brouhaha in the States - only Canada seems to have not been infected by this spreading virus. Not yet at least!

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Foes of Foreigners Grow Vocal In Britain

Anti-Immigrant Party Garnering Support

 

By Kevin Sullivan

Washington Post Foreign Service

Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A18

 

LONDON, May 3 -- Paula Mitchell, cutting fresh flowers in the Gale Street Florist shop in east London, said she's voting for candidates of the British National Party in local elections on Thursday -- but she hopes they lose.

 

"If they got in, I'd be absolutely horrified," said Mitchell, 38, who described her planned ballot for the vehemently anti-immigration BNP as a protest against what she sees as out-of-control immigration to Britain.

 

We're against people coming in and taking our jobs, taking our school places, getting priority in housing," said Mitchell. "Everyone is fed up, and we want to make our feelings known."

 

The BNP declares itself "wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples." It seeks to restore the overwhelmingly white makeup of Britain before 1948; its leader has called Islam a "wicked, vicious faith." Support from people like Mitchell, a white mother of three whose political views otherwise appear generally mainstream, illustrates rising anti-immigration sentiment in Britain and across Europe.

 

Parties long dismissed by many as the racist fringe have become increasingly popular as governments that once freely accepted immigrants question how many more their nations can take.

 

"It should be a worry for all Western democracies," said Nick Lowles of Searchlight, an anti-racist group that publishes a magazine in Britain. Lowles said many voters were turning to extremist parties to vent anger at their political leaders. "People are shouting out," he said, "and they want to be heard."

 

In France, a public opinion poll last month showed that more than a third of respondents believed the anti-immigrant National Front, led by the outspoken Jean-Marie Le Pen, was in line with "the concerns of French people." Numbers like that could make the party a power in presidential elections next year.

 

The anti-immigration Danish People's Party in Denmark and Progress Party in Norway, meanwhile, both reached record levels of the vote -- 13 and 22 percent, respectively -- in elections last year.

 

A British study this month concluded that up to a fourth of British voters were considering supporting the BNP. Their country now has an estimated 7 million people of various minority groups. "The BNP's message is simple and seductive," Lowles said. "It's always nice to be able to blame someone else for your problems."

 

The BNP's appeal "stems not so much from crude racism, but from disillusionment with the government," said Vernon Bogdanor, a professor of government at Oxford University. He and other analysts said immigrants are often blamed for tough economic times, and many voters fault the Labor Party government of Prime Minister Tony Blair for not doing enough to control immigration.

 

Blair's government has been rocked by scandals recently, including the disclosure that more than 1,000 foreigners convicted of crimes including murder and rape had been released from prison instead of being deported, and many are still unaccounted for. On Wednesday, Blair told Parliament that he was drafting a plan to automatically deport foreigners convicted of serious crimes.

 

Public anger over the scandal deepened Wednesday when the government disclosed that the prime suspect in November's shooting death of a female police officer was a Somali immigrant who had not been deported despite multiple criminal convictions and prison terms in Britain.

 

"The BNP have become the protest vote for people who don't like the government for any number of reasons," Bogdanor said.

 

Despite that "combustible" anger, Bogdanor said, mainstream voters still might not back the BNP, which has never won a seat in Parliament and holds only 21 local offices. Opinion polls published last weekend showed the party had only about 4 or 5 percent support nationally, but 30 percent or more in some urban areas.

 

Jon Cruddas, a Labor Party member of Parliament who represents the working-class east London borough where Mitchell's flower shop is located, said the BNP had made "a conscious strategy to work into areas of white working-class disillusionment," such as his district.

 

The party is fielding a record 357 candidates out of 4,000 total candidates nationally, including 13 in Cruddas's district of 180,000 people, where unemployment is rampant. The area, which was 85 percent white in the 2001 census, has some of the city's least-expensive housing and has been a magnet for immigrants, with the black African population growing by 3 to 4 percent a year, Cruddas said.

 

In recent interviews with people on the street and in shops in the neighborhood, nearly every person expressed agreement with the BNP's arguments about immigration, and several said they planned to vote for the party.

 

"The issue in this city is immigration," said Jackie Odger, who works in Toddy's Unisex Hair Salon. "People don't like it when people come here and claim benefits they're not entitled to."

 

Odger said she was concerned about the BNP's "racist side," but added that she feels she "might vote for them and not tell anyone."

 

The neighborhood has drawn attention recently because the government employment minister, Margaret Hodge, a Labor Party member of Parliament who represents the area, said publicly that 80 percent of the voters she met in the borough were considering voting for the BNP.

 

Richard Barnbrook, a BNP candidate for the local council, was so delighted, he said, that he sent Hodge 10 flowers, including eight white lilies pointedly representing BNP voters.

 

Barnbrook, 45, a special-needs teacher, ran against Hodge in the most recent election, finishing with about 4,950 votes to her 14,000. He said he's tired of "P.C., wishy-washy subjects" taught in schools -- world history instead of British history, for example. He said he favors chemical castration for pedophiles and serial rapists and wants more government support for the "indigenous peoples" of Britain.

 

Dressed in a tan suit, Barnbrook walked around the neighborhood, slipping copies of a BNP publication promoting the party as "the voice of the silent majority" through front-door mail slots. Featured on the cover is a photo taken in 1953 on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, showing a large group of white women and girls attending a party. Below are two more-recent photos of the neighborhood, showing black men and Muslim women in head scarves and veils. Large bold letters ask, "Is this what you really want?"

 

Barnbrook said the flier simply shows the area's "traditional identity" and how it has changed over the years.

 

" 'Racist' is the right word to use," said Sunday Ogunyemi, 31, a Nigerian immigrant who has lived in the borough for six years. "Their views do not represent what most British people say. Britain is a country that welcomes people from other countries."

[FatB]

yeah all those who have ugly faces and bad breath GO BACK TO YOUR F***ING COUNTRIES

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Ingiriiska still tops the list being the most Muslim-friendly when it comes to Western country.

 

Tell me, which Western nation would dare to free a non-citizen convicted killing a policewoman, as that Mustaf Jaamac was, who the last time I knew was freed. Kanada would do such a thing? 'Security Certificate' mala ilooway.

 

Hello Xasan Amreey. Hello Max'ed Saki Maxjuub. Hello Maxamuud Jabaallah. Hello Caadil Sharkuuy. Hello Qadar family.

 

UK is much, much better than walaa Mareykan, Kanada and Australia iyo New Zealand la isku daray when it comes to Muslim issues. Iskaba dhaaf Continental Yurub.

[ScarFace]

Tell me, which Western nation would dare to free a non-citizen convicted killing a policewoman as that Mustaf Jaamac was, who the last time I knew was freed

They couldnt find him...In order to convict him they have to find him......he was not freed?

But he had multiple conviction before the shooting of the police woman.......

 

 

Richard Barnbrook won a council seat in Barking for the BNP.....They have won Barking and Dagenham 11 of the 13 seats......

 

 

Will BNP election gains last?

 

 

The British National Party has more than doubled its number of council seats in England from 20 to 44.

 

 

The BNP is led by Nick Griffin

 

But, historically, gains by far-right parties in UK elections have tended to be short-lived.

 

Oswald Mosley's New Party, formed in 1931, panicked the political mainstream when its candidates gained 16% of the vote, but it never came close to winning a seat at Westminster and was later subsumed into the British Union of Fascists.

 

In the 1970s, the National Front saw its popularity increase on the back of concern about immigration and working class voters' growing disenchantment with Labour.

 

In 1973, the party gained 16% of the vote in a West Bromwich by-election, but it averaged just 3% nationally at the next general election, where it fielded 54 candidates.

 

In the 1977 Greater London Council elections the National Front fielded 91 candidates - and the smaller National Party 22 - gaining a combined total of more than 100,000 votes.

 

Sporadic success

 

In 10 constituencies the far right vote was above 10% of the total cast. In the two seats of Bethnal Green & Bow and Hackney South & Shoreditch it was 19%.

 

 

RECENT PERFORMANCE

1997 General election:

Votes: 35,832

Share: 0.1%

Seats: 0

2001 General election:

Votes: 47,129

Share: 0.18%

 

2004 London assembly:

Votes: 90,365

Share: 4.8%

Seats: 0

2004 European elections:

Votes: 808.200

Share: 4.9%

Seats: 0

2005 General election:

Votes: 192,850

Share: 0.7%

Seats: 0

 

But by the 1981 GLC elections, the extreme right vote had slumped to 30,006, with just 462 votes per candidate, compared with 1,127 in 1977.

 

Since breaking away from the National Front in the early 1980s, the BNP has had sporadic success in local elections, particularly in its East London heartlands and, more recently, West Yorkshire.

 

The party's Derek Beacon won a 1993 by-election in the Millwall ward of Tower Hamlets but in the full borough elections the following May Labour won it back - on an extraordinarily high turnout, for a local election, of 66.5%.

 

Before Thursday's poll, the party had just 20 local councillors out of Britain's 22,000 council seats, all gained since 2002.

 

And although it fielded a record 363 candidates this time, it is still a long way from being able to put up a full slate of candidates across the country - either in local or general elections.

 

Retained deposits

 

Nevertheless, there is growing concern among mainstream parties, who accuse the BNP of peddling hate and division, that it is learning to hold on to its gains.

 

It has steadily improved its performance in general elections, although its share of the vote in the 2005 poll was still minuscule, at 0.7%.

 

A handful of constituencies bucked this trend, with the BNP gaining 17% of the vote in Barking, beating the Liberal Democrats into fourth place. It gained 13.13% of the vote in Keighley and 9.16% in Dewsbury, where chairman Nick Griffin was standing.

 

The party picked up nearly 200,000 votes in the 120 constituencies it contested and retained its deposit in 40 of the seats.

 

Fragile support?

 

But the BNP's high water mark, before Thursday, came in 2004 when it was able to capitalise on racial tension in Blackburn and Burnley.

 

It gained more than 800,000 votes in that year's European elections - 4.9% of the vote, although it missed out on a seat in the Brussels parliament.

 

One opinion poll taken before this week's local elections suggest nearly one in four UK electors have seriously considered backing the BNP.

 

But there are also signs its support at the ballot box remains fragile.

 

It won 14% of the vote across Oldham's two parliamentary seats in the 2001 general election but fell back to just 6% in 2005.

 

Earlier this year in Keighley, it lost a seat on Bradford council, when Labour won by 503 votes.

 

Only time will tell whether the seats gained on Thursday are a sign of things to come or another flash in the pan.

 

source bbc

[ElPunto]

Originally posted by Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar:

Ingiriiska still tops the list being the most Muslim-friendly when it comes to Western country.

 

Tell me, which Western nation would dare to free a non-citizen convicted killing a policewoman, as that Mustaf Jaamac was, who the last time I knew was freed. Kanada would do such a thing? 'Security Certificate' mala ilooway.

 

Hello Xasan Amreey. Hello Max'ed Saki Maxjuub. Hello Maxamuud Jabaallah. Hello Caadil Sharkuuy. Hello Qadar family.

 

UK is much, much better than walaa Mareykan, Kanada and Australia iyo New Zealand la isku daray when it comes to Muslim issues. Iskaba dhaaf Continental Yurub.

I would have to disagree my friend as regards Muslim/immigrant friendly. I would say Canada and the US are the best - with a slight edge to Canada. Any country that has a party like the BNP(and which receives substantial votes) can't be as accomodating as a country that doesn't have a national party even approaching that. That said - without a doubt, on balance, it is a friendly country for immigrants and Muslims.

[Strawberry_Xu]

^^^ Britain may have a party like the BNP, but like the figures above show, it only has only 4 or 5 percent national support. The existence of a right-wing party doesn't mean the country as a whole isn't accomodating.

 

The indigineous people are complaining for a reason (personally, I don't think it's fair). The government does give priority to immigrants who don't have somewhere to stay when it comes to housing. As a Somali I think the benefit offices are much too lenient with their welfare policy. They go out of their way to pay education and other expenses for people of poor backgrounds. Affirmative action seemed to have actually worked here, unlike in countries like The Netherlands.

 

I wonder, despite the lack of racist national parties in the US, is the US government really as accepting and accomodating towards ethnic minorities and immigrants as Britain.

 

Remember, these a fringe parties, and one should a judge a country as a whole by their national policy and the attitudes of the people in general.