Labour are still afraid of the BNP
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Dear John Denham,
For a Labour minister to talk common sense is such a momentous occasion that I was in no doubt that I should be writing a letter to you this morning. Yesterday you declared that being black or Asian no longer means you will be automatically disadvantaged. Incredible stuff, really. Unfortunately, your eureka moment falls apart under closer inspection.
At the launch of a review of government policy on race, you made a number of similar statements . You said progress made since 2000 meant that, while racial discrimination still existed, disadvantage was now more linked to poverty, class and identity. For example, while children with Chinese heritage tended to excel at school, boys from white working-class areas were doing far worse. “That does not mean that we should reduce our efforts to tackle racism and promote race equality but we must avoid a one-dimensional debate that assumes all minority ethnic people are disadvantaged.” Your Department for Communities and Local Government has earmarked £12 million to look at entrenched social problems in 130 predominantly white working-class areas, which was widely seen at the time as a desperate attempt by Labour to counter the rise of the BNP following criticism from within the party that it had failed to heed the warning signs of a backlash against economic migration. Naturally, you denied that these areas have been ‘forgotten’ but acknowledged that the far-right gains where people do not believe their grievances have been dealt with.
It such a shame that, although you get so close to getting things right, you still managed to fall at the last hurdle. The way that you phrased your argument belies the fact that Labour are incapable of understanding the root causes of problems. Even your main headline that being black or Asian “no longer means you will be automatically disadvantaged” is absurd – being black or Asian never meant that you were by definition disadvantaged. Do you honestly think that it did? To phrase your statement in a way that suggests Labour have somehow ‘turned things around’ or changed society since 2000 demonstrates that you were simply trying to make political capital out of Labour’s dire performance on this issue. Poverty, class and identity have always and will always exert a huge influence on performance at school and success in later life, and to even raise the possibility that this is something that is confined to the last nine years is totally disingenuous.
There was also time for TUC general secretary Brendan Barber to chip in, and naturally he welcomed your statement, saying: “The introduction of the duty on public bodies to promote race equality has undoubtedly made a real difference to the way in which our schools, police forces, NHS and local councils serve and employ people from ethnic communities, but more will always need to be done. In particular in the private sector, employers are not required to promote race equality, just to avoid discrimination which relies on individuals pursuing complaints against employers before anything is done.” Oh my god, shock horror, you mean we currently have a situation in which individuals have to prove that they are being maltreated before anything gets done? This is shurely shome mishtake! Brendan, you idiot, it is not the job of any public or private sector organisation to ‘promote’ anyone or anything – they are there to do a job and do it properly, not pander to some politically manipulative agenda. Honestly, get a grip.
John, in all fairness, I think you are one of the smarter and more impressive members of the Cabinet, and you are a decent bet to become the next Labour leader due to your ability to steer clear of trouble and indeed steer clear of Gordon Brown. Even so, this epiphany that you had yesterday was nothing of the sort, regardless of how much you tried to spin in that way. You have identified some of the symptoms of Labour’s woeful equality agenda, namely that the white working-class get left behind and become disillusioned, but your analysis of where this originated from was wide of the mark. Labour are the problem, John, not the solution.
Regards
A.Tory
“…but more will always need to be done. “
*sigh* Yes, indeed, Brendan, more will always need to be done, where ‘more’ = more jobs for public sector workers in spurious ‘diversity’ teams, right?
“John, in all fairness, I think you are one of the smarter and more impressive members of the Cabinet…”
That’s like being one of the tallest of the Seven Dwarfs, right? He’s still a dwarf…
I think Harriet has been out with the cattle-prod again…
LFAT, I think the comment in your the last paragraph about the Labour leadership probably best identifies what’s going on here. As Denham is one of the more anonymous members of the government the chances are he sees this as a calculated chance to put down early his own leadership marker.
Expect much more of this sort of thing over the next few weeks.
LFaT, an eloquently and precisely targeted argument for what is a very common train of thought. Top post.
“acknowledged that the far-right gains where”
Where were these gains then? I can’t think of any far-right party making any gains anywhere.
I can on the other hand think of places where the left-wing BNP are making much capital out of Labour’s failures.
Julia, he is still a smart dwarf, though.
Shaun, not sure Harriet was involved. I think Denham is trying to carve a niche for himself and he doesn’t want to be seen anywhere near Harman’s loony agenda.
Talwin, I expect Denham will happily watch Old Labour fade, just like Mandelson.
Scan, thanks.
VR, here we go again – are the BNP left or right-wing? Discuss….
There’s always more to be done. And old inequalities and prejudices take a long time to melt away.
As my Irish Grandad said when when he phoned the council to fix a leaking roof, and was fobbed off,
“Well, Dat’s jus typical. First, Potato Famine and now dis!”
Well, quite, but deciding what needs to be done always seems to trip up Labour in spectacular style.
Well, LFAT, *my* pet sectional interest group *is* obviously more important than yours and deserves a bigger piece of the pie!
And so on.
I’ve got industrial amounts of popcorn in to watch what should really be the last legalised bloodsport in the UK: Lefty-Fight!
Well a few years back I worked for a certain “ethical” bank, when I was told (after obtaining two degrees, one part time and te other as a scholarship) that I would not be eligible for promotion as the new policy was to give preference to ethnic minorities and women I told them where to stick the job and left. Most people could not care less about the race or gender of their colleagues provided that they have the necessary skills to do the job. “Positive discrimination” demeans many of those who are selected to benefit, did they have the skills or are they just there to “tick the boxes”?
The likes of the BNP thrive when they can claim that your job/lifestyle is being given to somebody else (generally foreign and there is enough “evidence” to support the viewpoint.
I’d be interested to know, LfaT, if you still consider Denham one of the ’smarter and more impressive members of the Cabinet’ after reading this..?