Bigoted Woman – The Culture of Offense

As the story breaks that Gordon Brown called Gillian Duffy, a Rochdale resident a ‘bigoted woman’, now begins the start of the media twisting it out of all proportion. Whilst her level of bigotedness is unknown at the moment, the BBC said the pair were discussing immigration so it’s more than likely that the view wasn’t reasoned, informed and measured to say the least.

Within the time it takes to rewind a tape, the media have already blown it out of all proportion; my guess is that by the end of the day, the story will have been changed so that the poor old defenseless lady will have been kicked to the floor by the Prime Minister and had the word ‘BIGOT’ carved into her forehead, whist Mr Brown stood triumphantly and laughed.

When she was pounced on by the media after this occurence, her head still intact, she didn’t seem to be as offended as the media have been making out. Whether it was her northern hardiness shining through or her ability to see that people are allowed to have an opinion, she was happy to live and let live. But valiant as ever, in rode the media to her defense! The one hundred miles per hour groupthink spewing junket blew past the stranded sense of perspective garbling things like: “She must be offended. This is the PM. I’m offended. Apology. Britain is offended. This is the worst thing ever.”

One reporter, the lead stalker shall we say, asked a rather leading question about an apology. Whilst the PM should indeed express sorrow for any offence caused, the media stuck some Grade A explosives under it and made it appear that Ms Duffy was sobbing into her handkerchief over the incident and would accept nothing less than Mr Brown lying  prostrate and to pull himself from London to Rochdale in order to apologise. Her attitude was much more laissez-faire, unless her real anger was hidden deep inside.

Obviously ‘bigot-gate’, as it is being hopefully ironically called in the Guardian,  is going to be the main story rather than an exploration into the discussion the pair had and the reasons behind Mr Brown making the ‘bigoted’ comment. A lack of explanation on this issue, and what might be described as ‘journalism’ (a concept quite lost on most news agencies) would play perfectly into the hands of far-right hateful politicians. I’m looking at you BNP and UKIP! They can stand up and once more herald themselves as the voice of the outsider, those not in the political establishment, the bigot. Instead this story will rumble on rather superficially, ignoring the elephant in the room (should that be the bigot in the room) which of course is what was actually said between Mr Brown and Ms Duffy.

Want a Future Fair For All? The shit on the BNP from a great height

St George’s Day saw the launch of the BNP manifesto, of course it did, because only the most English of parties would wait until the feast of the Middle Eastern born patron saint to declare an “end to immigration from Muslim nations“. Maybe they should have started with the man dressed as the dragon slaying Saint.

The BBC manifesto summary (link given above) gives a rather charming and reasoned sound to their policies, rather than the rabid, just-wiped-the-foam-from-the-mouth feel that is found on their website. The lack of costing is painfully clear from the commitment to withdraw from the EU (cherry picking the ‘policies’) with thousands of people depending on the European market for trade purposes, so to beat a hasty retreat would commend the economy to the doldrums. The commitment to a ‘greener’ Britain (calling the actual Green Party”a front for the far left of the Labour regime”) whilst simultaneously calling the research behind climate change an “unproved science” smacks of duplicity.

In their moment in the spotlight, the BNP were clamouring to state that their policies are not just on immigration yet immigration forms the backdrop of all their policies: “we’ll improve the economy – just get rid of the foreigners; we’ll stop terrorism – just get rid of the immigrants; want the perfect lasagna – kick out those who have come over here and nicked all the bechamel sauce”. It’s shallow, scaremongering and racist to make such claims, but we know that; they know that.

The BNP speak for those who feel disenfranchised, and this is a claim that cannot be ignored. With Labour moving away from their working class roots, they lost the right to lead, the right to set the direction, instead all they gained was a nice comfy position in the back pocket of Big Business. This left the BNP to encroach on to old Labour ground, to whisper sweet nothings (in this case ‘nothings’ is quite apt) into the ears of the workers and unfortunately some took the bait.

The BNP only lead through lies and misinformation, not trust and confidence, which is why the battle to regain their supporters is one that is not futile. Organisations such as HOPE Not Hate form the necessary vanguard against this new cleverer brand of racist bigotry, tackling the BNP head-on wherever they decide to stand. The success of HnH shows the message of positivity can triumph over that of hate, that the tables can be turned, that Britain is not how the BNP see it. And it is that last point which fills my heart with joy. The sheer number of people who are willing to give up their free time and volunteer for anti-fascist organisations is phenomenal, and the results that are achieved are tangible.

But that does not mean the race has been won, not by any stretch of the imagination. This election could possibly see the first BNP Members of Parliament, or the first BNP run local Council, so work needs to be done. This is my appeal to you, if you have any free time please see if there is any way you can help HnH pull the rug from under the feet of the racists, if not please vote and tell your friends, family, neighbour, other secret family that no one knows about, to vote as this time every vote truly matters.