Unholy matrimony

News coverage that UKIP leader Nigel Farage has turned down an attempt by the BNP to draw the two parties into an electoral alliance includes an extraordinary statement from Farage who says: "I'm simply amazed that the BNP thought we would even consider such a thing". Are you Nigel? Are you really?

Nigel Farage would have to phenomenally naive if he didn't understand why the BNP would want to court UKIP... and the idea that he’s some kind of political ingénue is not one that’s easy to swallow so it's fair to assume that he's displaying political astuteness by using incredulity to reject the notion.

And rightly so... after all, UKIP’s relative respectability would be massively compromised if they contemplated such a move and Farage knows it. That’s why he’s acted so swiftly to expel Buster Mottram from the party for attempting to broker the deal. (Though, given Mottram’s previous affiliation with the openly racist National Front, it’s strange that he should have been permitted to gain a high profile position within UKIP in the first place).

The audaciousness of the BNP’s move is part of a continuing bid by Nick Griffin to secure a role on the edge of the political mainstream. They are aided and abetted in this by the reluctance of the three main political parties to defend immigration... as it leaves the BNP (and UKIP) to fill the silence with prejudiced rhetoric which consistently misrepresents those who arrive in Britain looking for work. As long as this continues to be the case, white Britons will continue to buy into the stereotype perpetuated by The Daily Mail that this country is being flooded by systematic benefit fraudsters.

The reality of what newcomers to these shores face is brilliantly described by Marina Lewycka in her book ‘Two Caravans’. Anyone under the impression that newcomers to these shores are freeloaders should be forced to read this book so they can understand the tribulations endured by those hoping for a better life over here.

And we should also understand that much of the wealth which is being pissed down the drain by the derivatives traders was generated by the gap between what these people earn and what they ought to earn. That money makes its way up the financial food chain into the coffers of the institutions who, it turns out, have gambled it on far-fetched prospects in other countries. Frankly, we all would have been better off had the immigrant workers who are prepared to take on these wretched jobs had been paid a fair wage as they would have kept most of the money in the UK economy.

The BNP don’t want you believe that and neither do UKIP... they want you to believe that the ease with which citizens of other EC countries can come into this country has damaged our economy. This is piffle, of course, but when was the last time you heard anyone in the political mainstream overtly challenge this idea. If they are not prejudiced themselves then they are scared of the backlash from constituents whom they suspect of harbouring racist views.

They should be braver. Anyone who saw the recent edition of BBC’s Question Time broadcast from Peterborough will have witnessed a really encouraging display of solidarity with migrant workers from the majority of those in the audience who spoke. There were one or two exceptions, as you might expect, but the overwhelming impression was that people in Peterborough from a wide variety of backgrounds recognised that immigrants have had a raw deal.

Big towns in the East of England are generally thought to be those most prone to anti-immigrant views because they have had to absorb a disproportionate number of those arriving, but the people of Peterborough rejected the prejudice and made up their own minds. The MPs of the main political parties would do well to pay attention to this and recognise that their silence tacitly allows the BNP and UKIP to peddle their prejudice. Then, even if the two parties are united in unholy matrimony, they can expect a proper sustained argument against their jaundiced points of view.