Skip Navigation | HOME | UK Indymedia | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

manchester Indymedia

More racist than thou: Tory quits to stand for BNP

MULE | 03.05.2010 09:21 | Analysis | Anti-racism | Migration

However much David Cameron tries to outdo the other two leaders on the telly – proudly proclaiming that he’s the one to kick out the most ‘illegals’ – it seems he’s just never going to be racist enough for some Tories.

Sheila Spink recently left the Conservatives to join the British National Party, and is standing in the national election on May 6 in Bolton South East. She’s also canvassing to become a councillor in Stockport, a ward just down the road from where her husband, Conservative candidate Alex Raisbeck, is also hoping to win a seat.

“I don’t think they will do what is necessary to be done in this country. I don’t think they are tackling the big problem,” Spink said as she announced her decision. “The Tories are not up to the job, particularly on immigration. There’s no mention of immigration at all and they are just not dealing with that problem.”

The Conservatives are a little embarrassed about this. It’s too late for them to unilaterally recall Mr Raisbeck from his candidacy. He has also been campaigning for the Party’s Stockport parliamentary hopeful Stephen Holland. One Tory insider told the Manchester Evening News: “We are going to get slaughtered about this. We never realised she’d joined the BNP. He’s [Raisbeck] got some explaining to do…It’s come as a total and utter shock.”

Perhaps Raisbeck didn’t get the memo about the Tories being all fluffy and nice these days, personified in Cameron’s cringing “I was talking to a poor/black/Asian/gay/woman/disabled person/scary garment of clothing the other day…” anactodes, and that they’re not really keen on being associated with the far right.

His wife of 20-odd years thinks it’s “no big deal”. Maybe he feels the same. “There’s absolutely no animosity. It’s two professional adults. We are both in our 60s,” she added.

The BNP has welcomed her defection with open arms. At the party’s last meeting in Bolton, foreign affairs spokesman Arthur Kemp claimed it showed how the other parties are coming undone as people realise they’re never going to admit that Britain is being “colonised”.

“The BNP’s message of hope is being heard far and wide, and we welcome people like Mrs Spink who have seen through the Tory’s web of deceit and have come over to the only party which can save Britain from the Third World tsunami,” Kemp said.

It must be confusing for members of the Conservative Party. On the one hand they’ve got to get behind awesome cosmopolitan Dave who’s going to deliver them from Labour; on the other, their party has to carry on hyping up so-called ‘Broken Britain’, bursting with yobs and foreigners, so they don’t alienate their traditional nutty supporters and the omnipresent anti-immigration lobby.

Over the years the Tories have flirted constantly with the far right, as Daily Mail-reading patio falangists teased them with their tantalising votes. In the 1970s, the National Front emerged during similar bouts of scaremongering about immigration during another economic crisis. Thatcher’s win in 1979 had a lot to do with regaining that vote and pandering to a openly racist minority, terrified of people ‘colonising’ Britain – `flooding in´from former British colonies like Kenya, Uganda and Pakistan.

In more recent years, the Conservative Party has been shedding members and voters to both the UK Independence Party and BNP. Labour also lost many voters to the BNP following deindustrialisation in the 1980s. During the last 13 years of New Labour rule these policies were continued and inequality has unceasingly grown. As a result, major parts of the party’s traditional base felt the white working class had been abandoned.

All the parties have been equally complicit in the rise of the far right, gratefully indulging in the media’s scapegoating of migrants for the problems experienced across the country. Mainstream politicians continually ramp up the fear of immigration and then seem miffed when people start supporting the BNP, when in reality Griffin and his cohorts are the only ones who are vaguely honest about their position, whatever middle-class liberals think about it.

Then along comes the bizarre situation where Gordon Brown is reprimanded across the political spectrum for calling some woman a bigot. Obviously he didn’t see the border-controlling irony in what he said, but she was being pretty xenophobic if not outright racist. But claiming to be listening to and perpetuating ‘legitimate’ voter concern about immigration – basically because it’s the easiest thing for politicians to do – and then looking down your nose at them is never going to play out too well.

“Bigotgate” and Spink´s defection are unlikely to be the wake-up calls that the parties need. Bereft of ideas and unable to confront the real issues that the far right has been able to exploit – like a severe affordable housing crisis and a lack of opportunities for old working class communities – their only pathetic response is to try and blackmail voters with a cry of: “Don’t vote for them, they’re racists!”

Of course, confronting the real problems would mean acknowledging the real causes – the policies they’ve been pedling and the dynamics of the global economy. It would also mean admitting there’s very little they can, or are willing to do to address these causes. It would mean being prepared to give up some of their power and admitting that, really, they’re all little more than a bunch of glorified accountants. Much easier to perpetuate myths and avoid difficult questions.

Then they wonder why their members defect to the BNP.

 http://manchestermule.com/article/more-racist-than-thou-tory-quits-to-stand-for-bnp

MULE
- e-mail: editor@manchestermule.com
- Homepage: http://www.manchestermule.com

Download this article in pdf format >>

Email this article to someone >>

Submit an addition or make a quick comment on this article >>

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Confusing

03.05.2010 13:03

'It must be confusing for members of the Conservative Party'.

Er no.

Most Conservatives are able to cope with the idea of a husband and wife having different political views.

I'm surprised the Mule is so old-fashioned as to find this surprising.

I expect he tells Mrs Mule how to vote like any good husband should.

Pete


Confusing

03.05.2010 14:29

"Most Conservatives are able to cope with the idea of a husband and wife having different political views."

Now that's confusing - I thought the Conservatives were the party of old-fashioned bigotry where the wife knew her place, worked in the kitchen, and supported her husband on everything?

anon


That would be the tory enemy within

03.05.2010 20:45

The Tory Party is not short of a few who prefer to be in an electable party than an unelectable party. They are the political parallel of "the enemy within" - so much shouted about in the 1980's.

Realistically right wing apologists are shouting "look over there not here" to avoid recognition.

Derek Hatton


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Manchester Topics

Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Manchester Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Manchester Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Manchester Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Manchester Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Manchester Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Manchester Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Manchester Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Manchester Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

Languages

english

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech