I was going to blog about Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick but Jim has done it already.
He was invited to a wedding of (Labour) Muslim friends and when he got there he didn't like the seating arrangements; so he storms out. Well, he says that he and his wife "left so as not to cause offence." Whereas going to all the papers to denounce the wedding he was invited to is the kind of wedding gift we'd all love to receive, don't you think?
The Labour MP arrived at the wedding to find that men and women were to be seated in separate areas, which is the custom in some Muslim ceremonies and not in others. He then decided that the wedding arrangements were not to his satisfaction and left, no doubt ringing his press officer as he stalked away.
He's quoted everywhere as saying "We are trying to build social cohesion - this is not the way forward." I agree. Insulting your hosts is not the way to build community cohesion.
It's their wedding and the arrangements are theirs to make. Who hasn't been to a wedding where they've had to contend with sitting through drunken embarrassing speeches, being seated next to a booring person or some other less than ideal arrangement?
But if he wanted to appeal to the BNP supporters, then maybe that was his agenda all along. So is Labour heading for the far right? There have been some indications so far, Martin Salter calling polish people thieves, Margaret Hodge MP in 2007 calling for housing for 'local people' and 'British workers for British jobs' says Gordon Brown
We shall see.
5 years ago
14 comments:
You have strange ideas about what constitutes 'far right' Adrian
I wonder what effect this will have on Galloway's chances in Poplar & Limehouse? I didn't think he could win, but now... this is an issue he can use to rally support. I doubt the couple whose marriage it was, their family, and their friends will be voting Labour next year.
Far right for me typically blame foriegners for everything. Its typical of the BNP/UKIP and of course Nazis.
They will have damaged the Labour vote from Muslims, but may pick up the old Labour people who would otherwise go to the BNP. And Galloway will be cheering.
BNP and 'nazis' ----far right, no problem ----but UKIP?
Just for your information, I never blame the immigrant for coming to this country to achieve a better standard of living for themselves, no matter whether they come here to work,live on our generous benefits or continue a criminal career.
No I don't blame the immigrant---I blame our beloved government for allowing too many in without considering the effect.
You asked about my definition of far right, I gave it to you.
Ukip have recently tried to become the anti immigration party, blaming them for all sorts of problems. Its an old excuse, and its never been right.
On the scale of left to right where would you place the Green party?
On the immigration issue, I think your take on the subject puts 70 to 80 % of the population on the far right----would you agree?
I don't agree with 70-80%, maybe 10 - 20% who may vote bnp/ukip on occasion.
The Greens are mostly considered to be on the left.
I don't the terms left/right are that accurate anymore but they are still widely used. See
http://greenreading.blogspot.com/2007/07/left-or-right.html
70to 80% is the percentage of the population that think there has been far too much immigration into the UK in recent years. Whether they actually vote for BNP or UKIP or any other,on your definition they are far right!
The bnp/ukip doesnt get anyhing like that, so I expect any poll you've seen is skewed.
If you only ask daily mail readers you get a stupid answer.
Any poll I've ever seen puts the figure at those levels.
Basically the large majority of the population believe that immigration has been far too high in recent years and should be cut back or stopped.
Take a look around ----you won't find a poll that says any different!
That doesn't mean that 70 to 80 % of people are far right or nazis---simply that they see that the levels of immigration are far too high
Ive debated immigration with you many times, never have I said that to discuss it is racist or even far right.
This blog was about Labour going after the far right vote, those who blame immigrants for all sorts of problems.
It is not a case a Labour appealing to the far right vote, but perhaps an acceptance that many of their traditional (taken for granted ) supporters have had enough of the levels of immigration that their party has allowed, and may well desert them for a far right party like the BNP.--------or a party like UKIP that doesn't mind talking about it.
Didn't the old Ecology Party have an anti-imgration policy?
I wasn't member then, so I don't know.
The GP has policies on migration; see http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/mfss/mfssmg.html
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