Yes there is that side. I do blame the main parties for the rise of far right. It was Labours failure to create jobs and homes for the white working class that meant that the BNP did well.

Anybody catch Newsnight (can't remember if it was Monday or Tuesday) with the head of the EDL on it.
He emphatically denied any links to the man responsible for the shootings/bomb. However, watching it I felt that the EDL bloke was basically saying 'it's terrible but he was right about the Muslims' (paraphrasing a bit there obviously). He even went os far as to suggest that the same thing could be on the cards here in a couple of years if his issues weren't addressed, at which point Paxman asked if that was a threat.

All very worrying.

BBC this morning were saying that the Norwegian Intelligence bods were satisfied he wasn't linked with any international group and was basically a lone nutter. The problem is of course he doesn't have to be linked to them, they just have to see his actions as some sort of model or example. That can happen without him ever talking to anyone.

Jon

Norway gunman making 'unrealistic demands', says lawyer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/au ... ik-demands

Surely it was Thatcher's failure to provide them with decent education that rendered them a pile of helpless illiterate chavs whose only hope of a fulfilling existence requires "indoor relief" (a reference to the boring world of subsidised jobs, rather than the exciting one of happy-ending massages; another industry which I understand relies heavily on imported labour).

Yes I agree they did start the slide but Labour did not correct the mistake. I am trying to be fair here. Both parties enabled the BNP to flourish, and the Tory attitude towards benefit claimants does not help.

Imported labour FTW - I'd love a "massage" right about now. It's been a crap week already!

*browses for Latino Porn*

I was just kidding. Thatcher may have a lot to answer for, and selling off all the council houses without building more was a bum move. But the problem of dirty racist scum is caused by there being lots of dirty racists, who happen also to be scum. I don't want to buy their loyalty, I would rather sterilise them and import more Poles, who are far more resourceful than some of our decaying British dregs.

Course there are no racist Poles, so that would be a perfect solution.

Jon

Sure some of our scum are racist but not all. look at the numbers of interracial births to see that is not true of all scum. What has angered them are the lack of opportunities for them. Both parties have let them down on that score. My family are from all over the empire but even so I do think that the White working class have been left behind economically. That is wrong. They and British minorities should be given assistance.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk.

The poor deserve assistance - fine. Why has it become the fashion to single them out by ethnicity though? Because some of them are racist pricks who take no responsibility for themselves, and believe that immigrants have stolen their birthright.

Their grievance about immigration is rubbish, but we placate them anyway, with scandalous disregard for the consequences to all the asylum seekers that we deport to despotic nations. We impose nasty immigration quotas for them that only harm business. And what do they offer in return? More racism.

The fact that the pay for these jobs is so low that you cannot have a decent lifestyle on one job means that family life suffers. If the minimum wage was set at the level of the living wage then I suspect that you would find people considering them. Do not forget that years of education policy has meant that you need a degree or are considered a second class citizen by many. And expectations of people are raised so much higher now that working as a labourer is considered menial.

I'm not inclined to blame even Thatcher for people's unrealistic expectations, nor any other government. And apart from murmuring general platitudes about carrying on regardless, I don't see what can be done about it.

In the meantime we can amend the benefits system to eradicate poverty traps and do something about the housing shortage. But pandering to racism in some attempt to disarm it is both pointless as it will serve only to reinforce it, and corrosive to the only truly important legacy this nation has.

Perhaps next time we are having that irrelevant debate about teaching the important facts of British history to school children, instead of 1066 and all that, we should give them a little less industrial revolution mythology, and a bit more free trade and open society stuff.

I would look far more at Tony Blair than Maggie for the aspiration of going to university.


Yes but the coalition are not doing anything that will ease that. They have slashed the housing budget and are not building enough homes. As for benefit changes it might mean well but they are going to put more people in poverty than help. The marginal tax rates from someone coming off benefits is still much higher than a premier league footballer faces.


We should teach both. Without the context of what came before much history is meaningless.

I am not commenting on whether the current set of policies are good or bad. I am saying it is morally hazardous to make, defend or explain policy on the basis of what effect it will have on alleviating the facile concerns of racists.