A key aspect of the emerging realignment.
Dr Cruddas (for so he is), an economically leftish, union-backed, practising Catholic, known Eurosceptic who has recanted his support for the Iraq War? Or Cameron and all that crowd, Clegg, the dynastic Milibands, the public school thuggish Balls, and on, and on, and on? But the first of that list of alternatives is why there is going to be a hung Parliament with Labour as the largest party. Creating all the more room for an economically leftish, union-backed, practising Catholic, known Eurosceptic who has recanted his support for the Iraq War, and who went from a comp to a PhD at a major, but not Oxbridge, university. Talk about crossover appeal. He needs to sort himself out on certain moral issues, but that can be taken care of.
Meanwhile, enough of this fantasy that BNP voters are ex-Labour. The BNP's support comes from where Fascist support has always come from: people who sees themselves as a cut above their chavvy neighbours; in British terms, Tories in Labour areas. The Glasgow North East proved that once and for all. But everyone already knew it, anyway. If the BNP has any working-class, or at least any self-identifyingly working-class, following worth speaking of, then it is the only Fascist party ever to have had one. But those of you saying so no doubt define anyone less posh than David Cameron as working-class. Likewise, you assume that Labour could ordinarily expect every vote cast in Barking & Dagenham, or the whole of Yorkshire, or the whole of the North West, or Glasgow North East.
In that last, the Labour vote held up sufficiently to keep the seat, while the BNP, from a standing start, came almost level with the Tories. Just how much more proof do you need as to where BNP support comes from? Entirely in line with the history of Fascist movements for as long as there have been Fascist movements.
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Mayor of London?
ReplyDeleteGood point. The idea that fascism grew out of working-class anger and frustration is a very persistent myth. I may be very wrong, but didn't Hitler hate Berlin, at least partially, because that city's working-class (like the German working-class elsewhere) was strongly anti-Nazi?
ReplyDeleteMr. Piccolo, quite so.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, he promised not to try againt Ken Livinsgtone if Ken backed him for Leader. But Ken is now backing Ed Balls. So, yes, looks like.
I am afraid, however, that there is plenty of clear polling data that show that the BNP receives its support mostly from working class ex-Labourites. Sure, they may have more (working class) ex-Tories amongst them than are found in your average Northeast English constituency, but still...
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, you also have something against M. Le Pen. His party is obviously mostly supported by the industrial working class and unemployed, though perhaps with about a 60-40 ex-Gaullist vs. ex-Leftist split. It seems to me entirely rational to switch from backing Georges Marchais to supporting Le Pen.
There it goes again, the assumption that everyone in the North (among other places) ordinarily votes Labour. It's not like that.
ReplyDeleteWhen the BNP does well, it is not the Labour vote, but the Tory vote, that collapses.