Ten days to go before the British election and the Conservatives show no sign in stopping their campaign of fear in a desperate bid to regain power. The strategy is simple: scapegoat those who are different to us.
Firstly there are immigrants, those from different cultures seeking work or a chance at a better life. Then there are asylum-seekers, people seeking sanctuary from persecution. Finally there are the travellers, such as Romany gypsies, who have traditionally lived a nomadic life.
Three diverse groups of people, but what unites them for the Tories is that they are different from what is known as Middle England. The Tories have been whipping up fear and old prejudices that play well with parts of the British electorate. The strategy is simple. Every political party needs an enemy; every politician wants their electorate to be afraid. The reason is simple: Fear works. Fear is the key that could win the election.
By making immigration, asylum-seekers and gypsies an election issue, the Tories are playing on peoples fear of these three groups of people. The result of all this is that immigration has risen rapidly up the political agenda and is now listed amongst voters top ten concerns.
The number of people intending to vote in this election has suddenly shot up . Fear Works.
It worked for George Bush who won his second term in office by peddling fear in the first US election held after September 11 2001 and the first under the shadow of the Presidents War on Terror. A record number of American voters turned out because they were afraid. There are those that argue that New Labour has played the terrorism card too, and would like people to vote for the government that has backed Bush on his terror war.
But now the Conservatives are taking the politics of fear to a new dangerous level. When Michael Howard devoted the whole of his first major speech of the election campaign on asylum and immigration it was no accident. Immigration is the one issue where the Conservatives score better ratings than Labour.
It is a clever strategy that panders to the agenda of the right-wing British tabloid press that have been waging an anti-immigrant and anti-asylum seeker campaign for a number of years. Immigrants, asylum-seekers and gypsies are being scapegoated for all our ills.
Last year Forward Maisokwadzo from the independent media watch-dog MediaWise, warned that In the last week, you could have read articles in our tabloid newspapers blaming asylum seekers for terrorism, for TB, AIDS and SARS, for failing schools, for failing hospitals, you could have read articles blaming them for falling house prices; or rising house prices. He went on to argue If asylum seekers did not exist they would have to be invented. When every major and minor problem of the day can be blamed on a small number of outsiders, who make up a tiny fraction of the population and expend a tiny fraction of the public purse, then genuine democracy has collapsed .
Our democracy is certainly on dangerous ground. Every day another scare-mongering headline in a newspaper makes our society less tolerant and more bigoted to those who do no look like us, speak like us, but whose needs are far greater than ours. But the Conservatives are exploiting immigration despite knowing the risks. Masisokwado went on to warn that the unspoken conclusion of scapegoating asylum-seekers or immigrants was racist violence on the streets.
He is correct. The more we denigrate people the more acceptable it is to see them as different; the more we see them as different the more acceptable it is to use violence against them. It is ten years ago this week that the young American Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma in the US, killing 168 people. McVeigh, a veteran of the first Gulf War had been fed on a mixture of the politics of fear, paranoia and extremism that pervades the militia movement in the US.
McVeighs warped mind had dehumanised the people he killed as belonging to the enemy, rather than just fellow citizens who just happened to work for the United States Government. The lesson of Oklahoma should be learned by all. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the former president of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, Howard Halpern, wrote about language and violence. Social psychologists and demagogues have long known that if ordinary citizens are to be provoked to violent actions against individuals or groups of fellow citizens, it is necessary to sever the emphatic bond with those to be attacked by painting them as different and despicable.
If we sever the bond between us and someone seeking asylum or an immigrant, or someone who lives on the road, racism will become the norm and violence the end.
Michael Howard and the Conservatives argue that it is not racist to talk about immigration or asylum seekers. Giving his key-note speech Michael Howard said: It’s not racist to talk about immigration. It’s not racist to criticise the system. It’s not racist to want to limit the numbers. It’s just plain common-sense.
However the more fear you install the more acceptable it becomes to be a racist or express racist views. It means our society becomes more xenophobic, and as Forward Masisokwado points out xenophobia provides an alibi for racism.
Just two days before Howard made his speech on immigration, the UNHCRs representative in Britain warned of her concerns over the crisis rhetoric being spoken in the UK election that was often fuelled by thinly disguised xenophobia and political opportunism. Last week the UNHCR said that the Tory plans to curb immigration and withdraw from the Geneva Convention on Refugees would increase the number of asylum-seekers to the UK, not decrease the number.
Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality has expressed concerns too: More than in any election I remember, debates around race are playing an increasingly large role in this campaign. I am concerned that the current debate is actually leading to increased tensions across and between communities .
Keith Best the chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service has warned of the inevitable consequences of demonising immigrants: Research shows that every time something hardline is said in the press by politicians about immigration, there is a direct link to racists attacks. That is the danger.
So is this danger real or imagined?. On the same day that the Tories pledged to crack down on gypsies, a traveller site was set ablaze it Scotland. The local police believe that the two events were unconnected , but no one knows for sure.
In an interview last week, Mike Jempson, the Director of MediaWise said that since March the organisation has had a series of phone calls from traveller and gypsy families who lived on settled sites with a series of new and worrying concerns. One woman complained that her children were now being abused at school. One man recalled how he had withdrawn his children from school because of the abuse they were getting. A person complained that tradesmen were suddenly refusing to visit their long-established site. These actions are the hidden side of inflammatory press and political language, argues Jempson.
The end result of victimising immigrants, asylum-seekers and gypsies is that Britain will become a more introverted xenophobic nation, which treats foreigners with mistrust and disdain. The more we try and close our borders, the more we close our minds. What was once unacceptable will become acceptable. Racist language will flourish. So will racial hatred and violence. And if we use violence against them, expect them to use violence against us. And a spiral of hatred will begin.
Ten days to go before the British election and the Conservatives show no sign in stopping their campaign of fear in a desperate bid to regain power. The strategy is simple: scapegoat those who are different to us.
Firstly there are immigrants, those from different cultures seeking work or a chance at a better life. Then there are asylum-seekers, people seeking sanctuary from persecution. Finally there are the travellers, such as Romany gypsies, who have traditionally lived a nomadic life.
Three diverse groups of people, but what unites them for the Tories is that they are different from what is known as Middle England. The Tories have been whipping up fear and old prejudices that play well with parts of the British electorate. The strategy is simple. Every political party needs an enemy; every politician wants their electorate to be afraid. The reason is simple: Fear works. Fear is the key that could win the election.
By making immigration, asylum-seekers and gypsies an election issue, the Tories are playing on peoples fear of these three groups of people. The result of all this is that immigration has risen rapidly up the political agenda and is now listed amongst voters top ten concerns.
The number of people intending to vote in this election has suddenly shot up . Fear Works.
It worked for George Bush who won his second term in office by peddling fear in the first US election held after September 11 2001 and the first under the shadow of the Presidents War on Terror. A record number of American voters turned out because they were afraid. There are those that argue that New Labour has played the terrorism card too, and would like people to vote for the government that has backed Bush on his terror war.
But now the Conservatives are taking the politics of fear to a new dangerous level. When Michael Howard devoted the whole of his first major speech of the election campaign on asylum and immigration it was no accident. Immigration is the one issue where the Conservatives score better ratings than Labour.
It is a clever strategy that panders to the agenda of the right-wing British tabloid press that have been waging an anti-immigrant and anti-asylum seeker campaign for a number of years. Immigrants, asylum-seekers and gypsies are being scapegoated for all our ills.
Last year Forward Maisokwadzo from the independent media watch-dog MediaWise, warned that In the last week, you could have read articles in our tabloid newspapers blaming asylum seekers for terrorism, for TB, AIDS and SARS, for failing schools, for failing hospitals, you could have read articles blaming them for falling house prices; or rising house prices. He went on to argue If asylum seekers did not exist they would have to be invented. When every major and minor problem of the day can be blamed on a small number of outsiders, who make up a tiny fraction of the population and expend a tiny fraction of the public purse, then genuine democracy has collapsed .
Our democracy is certainly on dangerous ground. Every day another scare-mongering headline in a newspaper makes our society less tolerant and more bigoted to those who do no look like us, speak like us, but whose needs are far greater than ours. But the Conservatives are exploiting immigration despite knowing the risks. Masisokwado went on to warn that the unspoken conclusion of scapegoating asylum-seekers or immigrants was racist violence on the streets.
He is correct. The more we denigrate people the more acceptable it is to see them as different; the more we see them as different the more acceptable it is to use violence against them. It is ten years ago this week that the young American Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma in the US, killing 168 people. McVeigh, a veteran of the first Gulf War had been fed on a mixture of the politics of fear, paranoia and extremism that pervades the militia movement in the US.
McVeighs warped mind had dehumanised the people he killed as belonging to the enemy, rather than just fellow citizens who just happened to work for the United States Government. The lesson of Oklahoma should be learned by all. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the former president of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, Howard Halpern, wrote about language and violence. Social psychologists and demagogues have long known that if ordinary citizens are to be provoked to violent actions against individuals or groups of fellow citizens, it is necessary to sever the emphatic bond with those to be attacked by painting them as different and despicable.
If we sever the bond between us and someone seeking asylum or an immigrant, or someone who lives on the road, racism will become the norm and violence the end.
Michael Howard and the Conservatives argue that it is not racist to talk about immigration or asylum seekers. Giving his key-note speech Michael Howard said: It’s not racist to talk about immigration. It’s not racist to criticise the system. It’s not racist to want to limit the numbers. It’s just plain common-sense.
However the more fear you install the more acceptable it becomes to be a racist or express racist views. It means our society becomes more xenophobic, and as Forward Masisokwado points out xenophobia provides an alibi for racism.
Just two days before Howard made his speech on immigration, the UNHCRs representative in Britain warned of her concerns over the crisis rhetoric being spoken in the UK election that was often fuelled by thinly disguised xenophobia and political opportunism. Last week the UNHCR said that the Tory plans to curb immigration and withdraw from the Geneva Convention on Refugees would increase the number of asylum-seekers to the UK, not decrease the number.
Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality has expressed concerns too: More than in any election I remember, debates around race are playing an increasingly large role in this campaign. I am concerned that the current debate is actually leading to increased tensions across and between communities .
Keith Best the chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service has warned of the inevitable consequences of demonising immigrants: Research shows that every time something hardline is said in the press by politicians about immigration, there is a direct link to racists attacks. That is the danger.
So is this danger real or imagined?. On the same day that the Tories pledged to crack down on gypsies, a traveller site was set ablaze it Scotland. The local police believe that the two events were unconnected , but no one knows for sure.
In an interview last week, Mike Jempson, the Director of MediaWise said that since March the organisation has had a series of phone calls from traveller and gypsy families who lived on settled sites with a series of new and worrying concerns. One woman complained that her children were now being abused at school. One man recalled how he had withdrawn his children from school because of the abuse they were getting. A person complained that tradesmen were suddenly refusing to visit their long-established site. These actions are the hidden side of inflammatory press and political language, argues Jempson.
The end result of victimising immigrants, asylum-seekers and gypsies is that Britain will become a more introverted xenophobic nation, which treats foreigners with mistrust and disdain. The more we try and close our borders, the more we close our minds. What was once unacceptable will become acceptable. Racist language will flourish. So will racial hatred and violence. And if we use violence against them, expect them to use violence against us. And a spiral of hatred will begin.