Apologies for the length of this post. I am so angry

Comment on BNP Immigration Policy by Ray Bolton.

Apologies for the length of this post.

I am so angry that the BNP might actually get an MP elected because of the way it is exploiting people’s anxieties about immigration by promising unachievable and misleading policies to deal with it.

I also dislike the way mainstream politicians and the media play right into the BNP’s hands. We won’t beat the BNP by just accusing them of being ‘racist’ or ‘fascist’ or trying to prevent them from being given a platform to discuss their views: this is really patronising because most people are sophisticated enough to listen to the views on both sides of an argument and form their own opinion.

I am going to try arguing against the BNP policies constructively and logically while suggesting some alternative solutions:

– Stopping all immigration: I don’t know how any political party, authoritarian or otherwise, could ever hope to stop immigration. Not even if every single boat, lorry, car and bus was checked when it arrived at every sea port or airport across the country. What about the BNP’s other policies for education and health? Where is the money going to come from to close the borders?

– The immediate deportation of illegal/criminal immigrants: Deporting criminal immigrants is fair enough, but the BNP have this policy in the hope that it might appeal to those who are disaffected with the mainstream parties (who claim to support the same policy). However, the best way to deal with illegal immigrants is to tackle the gangmasters who transport people into this country and get them working in the black market.

– Voluntary resettlement: I think this would be a gigantic waste of taxpayers’ money. Denmark has a similar policy and has just had to increase the amount of money tenfold. The BNP would be better off reverting to its policy of forced repatriation!

Repatriation is discriminatory and if someone is born in this country but their parents or grandparents came from overseas then they must have the right to remain. Howver, new arrivals, including asylum seekers, who do not take reasonable steps to look for work or commit serious crimes should be repatriated.

– Positive discrimination: I refute the idea that positive discrimination has turned white Britons into second class citizens. Non-white people still experience discrimination in employment and quotas are designed to tackle this. Discrimination can be indirect and difficult to prove, especially if an employer’s offers alternative reasons for refusing to employ someone.

– Clamp down on the ‘flood’ of asylum seekers: We need to be clear what we mean by ‘asylum seeker’. These are people who have fled their countries because of war or persecution at which time they become refugees. When they come to Britain they are called asylum seekers. This is a complicated subject, but when people are fleeing a war they do not tend to leave alone (e.g. the Albanian refugees from Kosovo in 1998-9). In that case, it’s plainly the case they are ‘genuine’. To avoid waffle I’ll restrict myself to saying that the BNP’s policy is too simplistic.