"We have politicians who hate politics other than that bureaucrats deal with...We have bad politicians because they do not want unpredictable events, and that is what we have right now. This was not predicted by the politicians ten, twenty years ago.” -- Torben S. Hansen, in an interview with Asger Trier Engberg
In Britain, two recently released documents paint contrasting pictures, of a particular government's "social objectives" on the one hand, and an elder stateswoman's realism and foresight on the other. The first document is a draft report written in 2000 during Tony Blair's reign. The unedited version, released after a FOI request, shows that "Labour’s migration policy (was) aimed not just at meeting the country’s economic needs, but also the Government’s 'social objectives.'" Although these so-called 'social objectives' were never spelled out, Tony Blair's former adviser Andrew Neather recently said that Labour's immigration strategy was intended to "rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date."
The other document, recently released under the thirty-year rule, shows a quite different mindset: Margaret Thatcher believed that too many Asian immigrants were being let in, and that "with some exceptions there had been no humanitarian case for 1.5 million immigrants from south Asia and elsewhere." "It was essential to draw a line somewhere," she said.
Thatcher also expressed her views publicly: during an appearance on a British TV show she said "People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture. If we do not want people to go to extremes we ourselves must talk about this problem and we must show that we are prepared to deal with it. We are not in politics to ignore people's worries. We are in politics to deal with them."
All over Europe you see the electorates moving slowly in a certain direction, and the politicians are far behind, but in the long run they will be forced to confront these problems.
Thatcher...sigh I miss her. Yes she put the UK through a lot, they had a lot to go through. She overreached on the poll tax and started to beleieve her own press.
But on this matter she has the politics of it nailed. The big meta politics of how you bring about change and what kind of change you want. The biggets point is not ignoring the poeple and talking about things, even if you hear some ugly stuff. Denying it, forcing the change and pretending you dont hear just forces the discussion out in other ways.
So to me it is no shock that the BNP is gaining ground in the UK, not because I agree with it but because this is a predictable result of the process that the UK ruling elite have followed. They still have time to put the conversation on a proper track, but it may well get uglier before it gets better.
But "it" WAS predicted by average, normal, non-elite people. Who were then condemned as racists.
I'd rather them being forced sooner, than later.
Recalling a suggesting to move out of my community due to presence of LTTE sympathizers, I must confess that w/o me walking around and reporting the things I notice, their presence could have been overlooked.
If I move out, you folks would remain oblivious to the presence of terrorist sympathizers among you. When I see an LTTE logo, I post it here. When I say 'merry Christmas' to someone in the street and get an silent angry look, I post it here. W/o me living in that slum, you would not even know. W/o my kids having to get a washroom or corridor pass to walk around their school you would not know that your schools are run by Croatian Ustasha fascists. Consider it a public service.
Kathy @ 8:33
There are two predicitions, 1) is the result of policies, which is what I believe is your point
and
2) The result of the "elites" not listening and use deliberate attempts to marginalize those raising point 1. At some point someone comes along, like the BNP and they are the only ones speaking to the issue. It isnt just the UK, the concern is euro wide (Italy, Hungary, Austria, France, Netherlands). Some of the parties are more responsible than others, but the main parties ceded the ground to them.
You cant jsut tell people they are "racist", when they see their own culture being torn down. I never thought I would say this but I think the French have it right now, they are striving to bring immigrants into being "French" rather than trying to denigrate what is french to accomodate immigrants. The French have adopted the american Melting Pot model the British are stuck on the failed Mosaic model....even Canada has realized melting pot works over mosaic.
To the elites there are only 2 kinds of people: The Rich and the Poor.
The middle class is only middle class compared to the poor, not compared to the rich.
Compared to the rich, the middle class are just upper class poor people.
The elites don't care what race the poor consist of, they just don't want too many poor people to become the new Rich.
That would erode the status of the elites.
To keep the poor from becoming rich, the elites have to import more poor people, funded by taxing the poor, to keep the poor fighting amongst themselves for an ever lower standard of living which then entrenches the elites in their elite status.
The elites are for mobility, as long as it's not upward mobility for the poor and "middle class".
The Islamic Republik Of Britain
Britain shall have to reap what it has sown. Islam is not going away or about morph into anything vaguely humanist.
Btw, regarding Thacher's televised statement -
"People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture. If we do not want people to go to extremes we ourselves must talk about this problem and we must show that we are prepared to deal with it. We are not in politics to ignore people's worries. We are in politics to deal with them"
- the Telegraph notes: "The comments were held responsible for a collapse in support for the National Front, which had been gathering momentum in working class communities."
It's no coincidence that the BNP surged during Labour's "bring-em-in' rule.
Oz @10:21 That is a BINGO for you! Excellent assessment of the people haters (Bosheviks and the camp followers).
Not Thatcher's best moment. She was great at freeing people from an overbearing state, but she won't give people freedom of movement. Let 'em all in!