(UK) Searchlight poll finds huge support for far right 'if they gave up violence'

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Huge numbers of Britons would support an anti-immigration English nationalist party if it was not associated with violence and fascist imagery, according to the largest survey into identity and extremism conducted in the UK.

A Populus poll found that 48% of the population would consider supporting a new anti-immigration party committed to challenging Islamist extremism, and would support policies to make it statutory for all public buildings to fly the flag of St George or the union flag.

Anti-racism campaigners said the findings suggested Britain's mainstream parties were losing touch with public opinion on issues of identity and race.

The poll suggests that the level of backing for a far-right party could equal or even outstrip that in countries such as France, the Netherlands and Austria.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/27/support-poll-support-far-right

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Hmm. Don't the Republicans in America have a lot of support because of rhetoric like Sarah Palin's crosshairs ad?

[dipsydoodle]

1. I'm not in the least bit surprised at the outcome of that poll

and the mix is pretty much what I would expected too @ 39% of Asian Britons, 34% of white Britons and 21% of black Britons other than the fact I have would expected the black percentage to be higher. I guessing that the black percentage was influenced by a division between those whose families emigrated here from the Caribbean as opposed to those from Africa.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Here's my take on it based on two visits to the UK in recent years

The UK was one of the few places to allow free migration of workers from the Eastern European members of the EU, especially Poland.

As a result, almost every place I stayed at had Eastern European workers (cleaning staff, bellhops, dining room servers) in every position except front desk, and restaurants and coffee shops had Eastern European waiters and waitresses.

After a while, I began to wonder where a young British person from a poor family would find a job, given that Margaret Thatcher started the process of deindustrialization and wiped out that avenue of upward mobility.

Of course it's the fault of greedy employers, not the Eastern Europeans themselves, who are only trying to make a living. However, I think that many working class British people have the same type of resentment against Eastern Europeans that working class North Americans have against Latinos.

In other words, the immigrants are used to drive down wages and serve as handy scapegoats for people who are frustrated at their inability to get ahead.

There's certainly some xenophobia involved, and I'm sure that someone who had xenophobia would be intimidated by London and other large cities. The city has at least as much ethnic variety as New York, but with South Asians and Middle Easterners predominating instead of Latinos.

Despite the xenophobia, I think there's a lot of economic motivation to the prejudice, too.

[dipsydoodle]

3. There also is a side issue

to the number of East Europeans whatever working in bars. To some extent they're actually occupying some of the jobs that those coming over from Ireland used to do to get themselves on their feet. In some areas that hasn't passed unnoticed. That's also certainly not a B/W issue : its a simple W/W issue.

[Turborama]

6. What about the Australians?

I remember hearing a LOT of Australian accents in London. Is there as much animosity towards them "taking our jobs" as there is towards the Eastern Europeans?


Something else I remember, British plumbers were really scarce in London 10 years ago.

The only ones available for emergency work were qualified South Africans/Australians and then the Polish plumbers arrived a few years later, undercutting everyone and offering a just-as-good-if-not-sometimes-better service.

What's the plumber situation like nowadays?

:hi:

[dipsydoodle]

7. I'd forgotten the Aussies.

but that goes back to the 1970's. They come and go while trolling around Europe. Most I come these days across have got work permits for 2 years or so - reciprocal agreement with Oz I think.

"just-as-good-if-not-sometimes-better service" - yes that was the Poles. They quickly got a good reputation and just settled into the scenery. I think they gained favour by not sucking air in across their lower teeth, like builders do, when asked "how much would that be " :rofl:

[Doc_Technical]

4. "Waiting for the worms."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ysgG3zNUOg




Ein! Zwei! Drei! Hammer!
Ooooh, you cannot reach me now
Ooooh, no matter how you try
Goodbye, cruel world, it's over
Walk on by.

Sitting in a bunker
Here Behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come
In perfect isolation
Here behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come

(Megaphone: Will the audience convene at one fifteen
outside Brixton Town Hall where we will be...)
Waiting (to cut out the deadwood).
Waiting (to clean up the city).
Waiting (to follow the worms).
Waiting (to put on a black shirt).
Waiting (to weed out the weaklings).
Waiting (to smash in their windows and kick in their doors)
Waiting (for the final solution to strengthen the strain).
Waiting to follow the worms.
Waiting (to turn on the showers and fire the ovens).
Waiting (for the queens and the coons and the Reds and the Jews).
Waiting (to follow the worms).
Would you like to see
(backgr: Would you like to see us rule again, my friend?)
Britannia rule again, my friend?
All you have to do is follow the worms.
Would you like to send
(backgr: Would you like to send them home again, my friend?)
Our colored cousins home again, my friend?
All you need to do is follow the worms.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Here's the entire section from The Wall Live in Berlin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzfaNXj_O4A cuts out a few lines before the end.

You prompted to look for my own stuff : the double CD, and the DVDs of the film and the Berlin Concert. Can I find any of them ? No I fucking can't. But on the bright side I did manage to find the Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces DVD "Let's have A Ball" from 1987 which had eluded me for a year or so. :)

:hi:

[sulphurdunn]

5. Non-violent far right

is a new oxymoron. It's kind of like killer Gandhi.

[shaayecanaan]

8. I find this absolutely shocking....

Not so much at anti-Muslim sentiment amongst white people, but at the high amount of anti-Muslim sentiment amongst Asian Britons.

Roughly 13% of South Asian Britons are Muslim, the rest (87%) are Hindu and Sikh. There has always been very strong anti-Muslim sentiments amongst the Hindus in particular; however I am shocked that a near majority of Hindu Britons think that immigration should be stopped permanently.

The support for anti-immigration parties is not surprising. The only reason that the far right has done poorly in Britain is because the BNP are a joke. Most nationalist Britons idolise Churchill and his fight against the nefarious Hun - the neo-Nazi streak of the BNP appalled them.

It remains to be seen whether the English Defence League can throw off their rump of neo-Nazi and football hooligan supporters. If so then they might be successful in establishing a presence in municipal elections in the UK - it would still be very difficult for them to win any seats in parliament due to Britain's first past the post voting system.

[dipsydoodle]

11. Nothing new there

Their issues between each other have been going on over a 100 years.

http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t3w30pakistanindia.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. I think your figures are for ethnic/religious origin from India only, not South Asia

From the 2001 census:

Among other faiths the largest groups were Pakistani Muslims (658 thousand) and Indian Hindus (467 thousand) followed by Indian Sikhs (301 thousand), Bangladeshi Muslims (260 thousand) and White Jews (252 thousand).

The Indian group was religiously diverse. 45 per cent of Indians were Hindu, 29 per cent Sikh and a further 13 per cent Muslim. By contrast the Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups were more homogenous, Muslims accounting for 92 per cent of each ethnic group.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=395

"A near majority of Hindu Britons think that immigration should be stopped permanently" is not really accurate, therefore; first, the figures for stopping immigration are "stopped permanently, or at least until the economy improved". It's quite possible that many, of whatever ethnicity, said "until the economy improves". Secondly, you don't know how the Asian Briton category that did express that divides up by religion; it's quite possible that Muslims are just as keen as Hindus to stop immigration, since, for instance, one of the reasons given is economic. It's fair to assume it wasn't Muslims saying "Muslims create problems in the UK", but we don't see a figure for how many Asian Britons said that. The full poll is published tomorrow here, I think, but it may not break down the replies by religion at all.

That's not to deny that there can be bad feeling between Hindus, or Sikhs, and Muslims; but what we know so far of these poll results isn't evidence for it.

[shaayecanaan]

13. I suppose I was assuming that anti-immigration sentiments would be less prevalent

amongst the Muslims. It is true that this was simply a guess on my part.

I would be interested to see the full results. I have not been in the UK for some time and I dont really know what the current migration trends are - I suppose that would largely inform the results.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Results here:

http://www.fearandhope.org.uk/project-report/themes

I can't find the raw results, but that page has quite a lot on it. It doesn't say anything about the Asian response to 'Muslims create problems in the UK', just divided up by the categories they have named 'mainstream liberal' etc. Interestingly, there are results for other religions 'creating problems' too.

For the 'stop immigration' question, 10% Asian Britons said permanently, 29% said 'until the economy improves'. The White figures were 19% and 15% respectively. More Asian Britons think immigrants have put their job at risk, and make it harder to get a fair wage for their work, than white Britons do.

[panzerfaust]

10. but then they would not be the far right