When they come to ethnically cleanse me/Will you speak out? Will you defend me?

[nanila]

I should be sleeping. Instead, I'm watching the results of the European elections come in, with a mounting sense of horror.

The massive gains by far-right parties in mainland Europe.

UKIP winning its first-ever seat in Scotland.

UKIP topping the polls in England.

And I'm wondering, did I become British just to watch the UK I admired and wanted so much to be part of, crumble in front of my eyes? I don't want this to be so. I very much don't want this to be so.

I voted. What else can I do to stop this seemingly inevitable march towards xenophobia, racism and isolationism?

Welcome to a state, where the politics of hate
Shout loud in the crowd, watch them beat us all down
There's a rising tide on the rivers of blood
But if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence


Pop Will Eat Itself - Ich Bin Ein Auslander

Listen to the victim, abused by the system
The basis is racist, you know that we must face this
It can't happen here, oh yeah?
Take a look around at the cities and the towns

See them hunting, creeping, sneaking
Breeding fear and loathing with the lies they're speaking
The knife, the gun, broken bottle, petrol bomb
There is no future when the past soon comes

And when they come to ethnically cleanse me
Will you speak out? Will you defend me?
Or laugh through a glass eye as they rape our lives
Trampled under foot by the rights on the rise

Ich Bin Ein Auslander, Ich Bin Ein Auslander
Ich Bin Ein Auslander, Ich Bin Ein Auslander

Welcome to a state, where the politics of hate
Shout loud in the crowd, watch them beat us all down
There's a rising tide on the rivers of blood
But if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence

If they come to ethnically cleanse me
Will you speak out? Will you defend me?
Freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
Trampled under foot by the rise of the right

Ich Bin Ein Auslander, Ich Bin Ein Auslander
Ich Bin Ein Auslander, Ich Bin Ein Auslander
Ich Bin Ein Auslander, Ich Bin Ein Auslander
Ich Bin Ein Auslander, Ich Bin Ein Auslander

By the way, I want it on the record that if next year's general election results demonstrate that I'm overreacting here, I will be overjoyed. Because I care far more about compassion and kindness winning the day than I do about being personally in the right.

Comments

[magister]

Horrific, isn't it?

[nanila]

Yes. It makes me even more upset that these new UKIP MEPs are likely to be as deliberately disengaged with the EP as the others. MEPs get paid well to represent their UK constituents in Europe and I expect people who earn a decent salary to fulfill their job descriptions!

[cosmolinguist]

I can only hope that disengagement at least means they won't be making things worse.

[cosmolinguist]

What else can I do to stop this seemingly inevitable march towards xenophobia, racism and isolationism?

I'm wondering this too. I don't think it's inevitable, though. I'm not sure yet what's best to do, but there has to be something.

I should be sleeping too, but even though I can't I'm too tired to be very coherent, especially on this subject.

But I had to say I don't think it's inevitable. And send you lots of love.

[sfred]

This.

[nanila]

I hope you're right about it not being inevitable. Sending lots of love back.

[soliano]

This is why I am so concerned about what is going on with the fringe in the States. The curse of the internet brings whacks together and gets them elected.

[nanila]

I hope the internet isn't just a curse. It also brings like-minded sane people together and every now and then that momentum brings positive change, too.

[soliano]

Like many things it is a two edge sword. Prometheus did not only give us blessings.

[calissa]

What else can I do to stop this seemingly inevitable march towards xenophobia, racism and isolationism?

Another one here wondering the same thing, though in an Australian context.

[nanila]

It seems, worryingly, to be a global trend.

[sunflowerinrain]

I've just blogged through tears and found I couldn't be coherent about the elections.

I feel so ashamed not to have done more. I don't want to go through the ugly future that is looming, even though a time of pain may be the only way, now, to eradicate the fear and ignorance and selfishness. I hope not. I hope this will wake up the moderates.

[nanila]

*shoulder-bump* Tea?

I'm hoping this will spark a big turnout at the general election, I really am.

[major_clanger]

The simplistic answer is to say that we are not facing a V for Vendetta scenario. UKIP has polled high because its supporters buck the trend for low turnout in EU elections, and most credible pollsters are confident that in a UK general election its share of the actual vote would be more like 17%. Even then, it's a 17% that does UKIP precious little good; the party has siphoned support from both Labour and Conservatives, but not to the extent that it (so far as I am aware) has any prospect of winning even a single seat in the next Parliament.

But it's not as simple as that, and there is a lot to worry about. There will be more pressure in the Conservative party to adopt UKIP policies; even more disturbing is the prospect of Labour following suit. The media's - especially, and unforgivably, the BBC's - grotesque love-fest with Farage will if anything get worse. Anti-immigration and anti-immigrant views will increasingly become part of acceptable mainstream discourse, which is a bitter irony seeing as how the mainstream consensus has become astonishingly more liberal in areas such as gay marriage.

There is hope. As this blog post points out, UKIP has no internal coherence, even - if you push far enough - on issues such as Europe. Its dismal failure to impose party discipline or even properly vet candidates has led to a string of gaffes by its candidates that are very revealing about the true nature of UKIP. I would not be at all surprised if UKIP's new crop of local councillors provide endless further examples of just what sort of people a UKIP vote supports.

But then the risk is that a UKIP that is manifestly full of idiots but gets significant support will tempt both major parties to adopt UKIP-lite policies, expressly with the aim of saying "Unhappy about immigration but think UKIP are a bunch of crackpots? Well, now you can happily vote for us!" And that is a prospect I find very depressing.

[nanila]

I found it telling that there were no less than seven different anti-EU nutjobs parties on offer in the West Midlands. I think if those whose votes were spread across those parties had been united behind one, the results would have been truly devastating.

I wish that the mainstream parties, instead of asking themselves, "How can we win back the fraction of voters who switched to UKIP?" would ask, "How can we engage the 64% of voters who are so disenchanted with us that they don't even vote?"

[major_clanger]

The local results suggest that the other anti-EU parties (everything below the Greens on that list) got about 90,000 votes between them, as compared with UKIP's 428,000.

Also, looking at those numbers UKIP were up 10.2% - but the BNP, the English Democrats and No2EU between them dropped 9 points. Add in the slightly less than 4% of votes for the new nutjob parties, and the actual increase in anti-EU share is 5% overall. Still worrying, but a lot of UKIP's supposed rise has been fuelled by the BNP's collapse.

Engagement at EU elections is always a problem. We've now got ourselves stuck in a vicious circle where the only voters who feel strongly about them are the ones who support the anti-EU parties.

[hilarita]

I don't know. I was horrified that one of my friends voted UKIP (I think because they weren't satisfied with the mainstream parties), but if they can't see why it's unhelpful to do so, I'm not sure what'll change their minds. I *hope* they'll be horrified at the amount of power UKIP has gained in this election, and do something more constructive when voting next time. Spoiling the ballot paper is strictly better than voting for racist and sexist parties.
I'm sadly not well enough to go out campaigning as well as doing a(n awesome) full-time job. I don't know how we stop this dreadful 'othering' of people from other countries, other races, other (dis)abilities. I think we can change it - I can remember the mid-90s in the UK, when the right-wing parties were doing well at local and European elections, and there was a big fear that national politics would swing right. But it swung (slightly) left, and the Conservatives were out of power after 18 years. So it is possible to turn it around, provided the parties of the left start providing a consistent, powerful message.

[nanila]

I think you're right about the key being a consistent, powerful message. And I think it will take more than a watered-down version of UKIP's messages to achieve that. Until the major parties stop asking themselves how they can appeal to UKIP protest voters and start asking how they can engage all the people who are so disenchanted with the political process that they don't vote, I don't see that message emerging.

[sunflowerinrain]

The French Nazis (Front National) won 24 out of 74 seats. They may be more dangerous than UKIP because they do actually have policies.

Hello, 1930s.

[nanila]

They may actually be able to form a dissenting bloc strong enough to have an effect on the activities of the EP.

(Also still reeling from the news that Greece's Golden Dawn party now has MEPs.)

[askygoneonfire]

I woke up to it this morning as when I saw the way it was going last night I decided I wanted a decent night's sleep while some hope remained.

I've signed up to help with my local MPs (Caroline Lucas, my lovely lovely Green MP)re-election campaign next year. Only thing I could think to do to make me feel less impotent in face of such hatred and intolerance from voters.

I'm trying to take some comfort in the low voter turnout, I think I saw that UKIPs share is actually only something like 9% of registered electorate. General elections are generally better attended and perhaps this minority party getting so many seats will motivate people to actually get out and vote in May.

I'm feeling desperately sad about the whole affair though, much as you are.

[nanila]

My constituency is a Conservative safe seat (a very safe seat). :/ I'm still trying to decide what action I can take before the general election next year that will make me feel, as you say, less impotent.

[lurkingcat]

It's horrible and I wish I could think of useful way to convince people that voted UKIP that it was a bad plan. Or to convince people that feel their vote doesn't matter to get out there and vote because most of the folk I know that feel that way wouldn't be voting for far-right parties :(

[nanila]

I was a lot less polite than usual at work and badgered my colleagues about voting. Most of them did, although one said he was definitely not voting (for the first time). We all spent the entirety of a lunch break arguing with him. Not sure it changed his mind, but I like to think it at least gave him pause.

I do hope the general election turnout is much better.

[lark_ascends]

The world really does seem to be a terrifying place at the moment. And wondering all the same things here in Australia.

[nanila]

The news doesn't seem to be great for tolerance and openness these days, in any part of the world.

[happydork]

Yes, this.

:/ It's all so shitty. I hate this. I hate it so much.

[nanila]

I really want to help reverse this trend, but I don't know the best way to go about that.