So let's try a different approach. They're not just racist, they're morons and they're lazy. Whenever they win council seats, they fail to turn up, don't do the work (being a councillor is both boring and difficult) and get angry. My suggestion is that we tax the new MEPs with details. Ask Griffin where he thinks the PSBR should be set, how he feels about set-aside, whether gilt auctions are currently under-subscribed, or PFI penalty clauses: all the really boring, massively important things that you need to know about to be a decent political party. He can't blame Jews/Kosovans/homosexuals for any of those things! It'll show them up utterly because they've no ability to conceptualise the world in any way other than identity politics.
4 comments:
I think we either do two things:
1) Like you say, tax them. Get Griffin on TV as much as possible, and make him talk, talk, talk. Hopefully people will see more clearly what a cretin he and his party is/are.
OR
2) Just ignore them. I can't help thinking that all this talk about them (particularly from New Labour) doesn't help, and just increases their oxygen of publicity. Ignore them, stop telling people not to vote for them, and hopefully they'll just fade away. At the moment, Griffin is loving all the publicity he can get, no matter what it is, as well as all the Govt. angst directed his way.
"...identity politics" I like that...I've never heard that term. May I use it?
Jaded: Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' discusses identity politics in an accessible but critical fashion. Her point - and I'm not completely convinced by it - is that the left became too involved in defining oppressed groups who demanded attention, which capitalism 'solved' not by ending racism/homophobia etc, but by marketing to these groups, featuring them on sit-coms and so on. She feels that challenging capitalist hegemony should the primary cause of the left and will lead to the emancipation of minorities, and that 'identity politics' became a game of one-upmanship amongst the left.
I think it's true that representation is not victory - but I also think that some identity battles need victories - such as Civil Rights. It's a bit more complex than that though - but it's early and I'm not very bright.
Ewarwoowar: good point. And it's particularly cowardly of Labour to base their electoral appeal on 'Vote for us despite war, corruption, reduced workers' protection etc. etc. OR THE NAZIS WIN'.
Quite agree - exposure to reasoned debate is by far the best approach. Too many politicians are afraid to take them on on actual issues...
Post a Comment