Its not often I will say that something on The Guardian website is a must read, but you must read the comments on this article below by Salma Yaqoob ;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/11/housing-immigration-bnp
Here are some of the comments ;
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Lutetium's profile picture Lutetium
11 Jun 09, 4:06pm (about 2 hours ago)
It is quite clear that the BNP has got your undivided attention - good!
It is not just housing it is every kind of social privilege which is being disproportionately consumed by immigrants. The NHS is probably the prime example. It is pointless to say that immigrants pay taxes too. They do not pay them in sufficient quantity and your very own Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities are the worst offenders since they are the least economically active ethnic groups in the land (next to the even more unfortunate Somalis).
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DeeBarnes's profile picture DeeBarnes
11 Jun 09, 4:06pm (about 2 hours ago)
Unfortunately it's not just about housing. In fact, most of the time people seem to complain about jobs, women covered from head to toe, honour killings, hymen reconstructive surgery, the disrespect of our troops and the studies that talk about the frighteningly high percentage of people who sympathize with suicide bombing.
Because of this, I don't think more houses are going to beat the BNP, unfortunately.
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colinthestoat's profile picture colinthestoat
11 Jun 09, 4:09pm (about 2 hours ago)
Merely stating something does not make it so.
I think that many people voted BNP because a bunch of crooked MPs kept telling them not to.
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aboveusonlysky's profile picture aboveusonlysky
11 Jun 09, 4:11pm (about 2 hours ago)
You're all just soooooo racist for.....pointing out the 60 or so terrorist plots by Muslims in Britain.
Housing? FFS!
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thetrashheap's profile picture thetrashheap
11 Jun 09, 4:11pm (about 2 hours ago)
I'm sorry but your just lying.
Immigrates take jobs especially none skilled jobs and they reduce the wages for these jobs. Also immigrants can push up rents and asylum seekers have jumped the queue for houses. Pretending this isn't true against people own experiences is exactly why we've got into this mess with the far right in the first place.
My champagne socialist brother thinks immigration is great as diversity is amazing and that anybody who opposes it is racist and my right wing brother loves it because he likes hard working cheap labour. Those who are losing out in competition for jobs, those who are seeing their communities change, those who are seeing there wages suppressed are all working class and is no bloody wonder they feel alienated and ignored with no political party to turn to.
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qwerty99666's profile picture qwerty99666
11 Jun 09, 4:13pm (about 2 hours ago)
Build more houses? Ok fine and dandy, where? As it is obviously racist to oppose unfettered immigration where do we next build the homes to house the next group and the one after that, then the one after that?
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Sabraguy's profile picture Sabraguy
11 Jun 09, 4:14pm (about 2 hours ago)
It is not accidental that the BNP have focused their attacks on the Muslim community. It is fertile ground for them, and much of the spadework has already been done on their behalf.
Indeed it has. By George Galloway, the SWP, and their Islamist freinds. It would be really helpful if you would admit your own role in creating the identity politics which have stirred up the racial divisions in this country.
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NapoleonKaramazov's profile picture NapoleonKaramazov
11 Jun 09, 4:16pm (about 2 hours ago)
Salma there is not that much room in this country. We cannot build indefinitely. But yes, we need more.
I would support new buildings, just no more 1970s style soviet council estates, we need a mix of local authority and private to prevent ghettos of marginalised people.
Also, why cannot working people live in council houses, instead of the marginalised as is largely current.
Perhaps a moratorium on the right to buy for the medium term.
I like the idea of preservation of the contryside, but I think many of that persuasion are very elitist and Tory.
Instead, think of Japan. Roughly the same size as us but with 120 million people. Yet they have some beautiful unspoilt country areas. They make a trade off, big cities full of high rises, in exchange for open and unspoilt space, with easily accessible and affordable public transport.
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MiskatonicUniversity's profile picture MiskatonicUniversity
11 Jun 09, 4:17pm (about 2 hours ago)
The BNP have certainly been handed a gift in the form of Islamists and their rhetoric around "Muslim lands", celebration of suicide bombing, or talk of "reprisal attacks" in relation to suicide terrorism.
I'm not sure this article is putting its best foot forward either, with its complaint that: "anything and everything Islamic is viewed with increasing suspicion as a potential threat to national cohesion and identity" and the next minute talking about a "Muslim community" as though people were defined solely or primarily by their religion (or lack of one).
The reality is that Muslims, or nominal "Muslims", are as politically diverse as everyone else and can be found right across the political spectrum.
The Respect party I belive had hopes of harnessing some kind of "Muslim" voting bloc, but in the event dwindled and is now done to only 500 members nationally. I notice that your party didn't even contest the last council by-election in Birmingham, presumably due to lack of local support?
That's not exactly offering an alternative to the BNP, is it?
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mestizo's profile picture mestizo
11 Jun 09, 4:18pm (about 2 hours ago)
We'd need to build roads and railways too, as it goes.
I just can't understand where all these crazy ideas come from, "the BNP got more votes because of this or that", "all of a sudden there are more racists around", it's rubbish. A lot of people are at the rough end of inward migration, suffering the lack of infrastructure needed to sensibly take people in, lacking the top-down pride in their own culture that used to, in the days my grandparents came here, require the immigrant to learn about and adapt to the British way of life. They have no other voice, the only thing they have left to do, to defend their own interests, is vote the only party talking about it.
Stop judging them, stop making up your own crazy reasons for why vast swathes of the post-industrial north must be full of racists, and listen to them.
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Rumi's profile picture Rumi
11 Jun 09, 4:18pm (about 2 hours ago)
'Attacks on the Muslim community from mainstream politicians and newspapers have left a bitter taste. Anything and everything Islamic is viewed with increasing suspicion as a potential threat to national cohesion and identity'
And a few muslims have helped to encourage this suspicion. A majority of the British population wish to see an end to mass immigration. A majority think that there are too many immigrants in Britain now. Almost 50 per cent believe that the people most discriminated against in this country are white people. They may be wrong - but's that's what they think. None of the main parties represent their views, so they vote BNP. Building houses won't stop them believing it either.
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NapoleonKaramazov's profile picture NapoleonKaramazov
11 Jun 09, 4:22pm (about 2 hours ago)
It is not just housing it is every kind of social privilege which is being disproportionately consumed by immigrants. The NHS is probably the prime example.
I doubt it, in fact I say they put more into it than they take out. Been to an NHS hospital recently?
I mean, FFS, here on a remote island in the Outer Hebrides, perhaps half the doctors here are from the Subcontinent.
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DisillusionedLiberal's profile picture DisillusionedLiberal
11 Jun 09, 4:24pm (about 2 hours ago)
"Anything and everything Islamic is viewed with increasing suspicion as a potential threat to national cohesion and identity."
That sort of feeling is not exactly helped when people refer to the 7/7 atrocities in London as "reprisal attacks", eh Salma.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salma_Yaqoob
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WhatTheThunderSaid's profile picture WhatTheThunderSaid
11 Jun 09, 4:25pm (about 2 hours ago)
I'd take lessons on the BNP a little more seriously from someone a touch more integrated.
Try doing what my parents did when they came to Britain Salma - give up the ways, the views, the garb, the outward appearances of cultural and religious difference and separateness. Join in with mainstream British society. Become part of it - indistinguishable from it.
Start respecting us - including those of us of recent immigrant stock - and we'll start respecting you and listening to your views. In the meantime, I struggle to understand why we should.
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WhatTheThunderSaid's profile picture WhatTheThunderSaid
11 Jun 09, 4:27pm (about 1 hour ago)
I mean, FFS, here on a remote island in the Outer Hebrides, perhaps half the doctors here are from the Subcontinent.
What island would that be?
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Ebert's profile picture Ebert
11 Jun 09, 4:27pm (about 1 hour ago)
A significant factor in this growing acceptability of racism is the ideological assault that has accompanied the "war on terror".
I'm not so sure about that. My memory goes back to the 1960s and I don't think there's ever been less everyday racism. Things are a bit more complicated, as the writer makes clear she understands in other parts of this piece.
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JohnYardDog's profile picture JohnYardDog
11 Jun 09, 4:28pm (about 1 hour ago)
Gutted. The headline led me to believe that this was an article with tips on how to beat fascists at Monopoly.
If we're going to be building more houses then we should probably also pay for more railways and utilities. And maybe a few hotels.
Also, I get to be the hat.
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