Though Cowards Flinch

I’ve blogged on the subject of Sayeeda Warsi, Conservative Community Cohesion spokeswoman, before but now she is back in the news and continuing her worrying trend of justifying the political extremism of the BNP. Having told the Sunday Times that immigration is out of control, Warsi is now facing rebellion even from those groups of which she was formerly a member, including Operation Black Vote.[1]

Warsi has replied,

“I was talking about people who have been duped into voting for the British National Party because they feel that some of the concerns they are wanting to talk about are not being dealt with by the mainstream political parties.”

The underlying point that she makes by such a comment is that people are voting for the BNP because their concerns are not being addressed by mainstream parties. Mainstream parties, to remedy the situation, should address the concerns of such people. We can add this to Warsi’s comments about “out of control” immigration and to the policies of her own party – policies to which she wholeheartedly subscribes.

As a result, we should should be left in no doubt that by “tackling” the concerns of such people, Warsi feels we should crack down on immigration.

The assumption which underpins Warsi’s logic is the same as that which underpins the logic of the BNP – and thus people are right to denounce her for giving a platform to that sort of reasoning. Her assumption is that in order to address concerns, one cannot simply look at the positive aspects of immigration and argue that the people attacking immigration are wrong. Her assumption is that the concern is a valid one and must be tackled by imposing yet more stringent legislation on immigration.

That is exactly what the BNP say.

This should not be a surprise to the eagle-eyed follower of politics however. This is the same Sayeeda Warsi who sent Muslim voters pictures of Bush and Blair covered in blood along with denouncements of the Iraq War, but to white voters sent leaflets covered in a British flag and denouncing immigration policies.[2] If ever there was a party to use the race card as an electoral weapon it is the Conservatives.

They’ve simply become more insidious about it since the days of Powell’s rising tide speech and Monday Club collaboration with fascists.