I DON’T need to ask what the right and far right of UK politics stands for. For me, it’s writ large every day on our streets. The black clothing, the masked figures. And worse, when they come armed with lethal weapons, determined to do what … protect women, children? Very brave against the vulnerable with more to lose, starting with their lives.
We are witnessing the normalisation and acceptance of violence in the name of loyalty if not to an actual country but to some historical identity that is based on “us” but not “them”, defined by borders of exclusion, fear and brutality against our neighbours where rioting can be expected as an automatic response. If we needed the visibility of it all, no-one appears to have rioted when a white politician was jailed for crimes against women and children.
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But who can be surprised? It’s the natural progression of months, years of language that has employed firstly twisted ridicule – “letter boxes”, “towel head” – followed by the normalisation of the degradation of individuals, the imposition of mass identities based on the supposition of religion, clothing, names, appearance, arrivals versus birth rights. Mark you, birth rights too are now under discussion.
Who remembers 2019, when a hate-crime monitoring group reported a significant increase in street-level, anti-Muslim incidents – specifically verbal insults using the term “letterbox”? No-one? No matter, but I suspect most do remember that it came from a certain establishment figure, Boris Johnson. Shrugged off, with jokes of that ilk, aimed at those less likely to respond, called “banter”. But that was just some of the unchecked incremental steps left unchallenged, resulting in increased race hate, race aggression. Fast forward, and if the leader of the free world can go to war unilaterally with no apparent checks or balances within a so-called democracy then threaten to wipe a whole country, an ancient civilisation, off the map, what’s a bit of street violence across the UK or down the road from me?
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It’s become acceptable to displace genuine worry, concern and anger onto “others”. Resorting to soundbites like “take back control” without addressing growing poverty, unemployment, in-work poverty, failures of institutions, hospitals, water companies, cost of living increases. Will a few freebies over the summer holidays really compensate? I doubt it.
You don’t need an Eton education to recognise the growing gap, the inequalities that are proliferating. But to query the cost of an Eton education for a future king to be taught to cut ribbons, walk through doors and open some buildings is considered the politics of envy. No it isn’t, not with summer holidays looming, and families wondering how to cover the costs of those school dinners, and maybe the breakfast clubs, too. I doubt tax dodgers salting it away off shore and embezzlers on yachts are bothered.
Refugees and asylum seekers haven’t stolen the jobs. Where has been the required growth over the years? Neither did they get houses quicker than you or I. Where have the required housebuilding programmes been? But they are easy visible targets!
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Edinburgh has just witnessed what the organisers claim was 5000 people rallying after the latest racist assaults across Edinburgh culminating in Leith. My father was arrested in the 1930s when he and his chums, all from India, smashed tables and chairs in an Edinburgh cafe which had “no dogs, no Indians” displayed in its window. My son was knifed on the Bridges one night, called a P***. His brother was stopped and searched by police. I got a grudging apology when I established the perpetrator they were looking for was not an Asian school boy.
So yes, we were there on Saturday. But that we needed to be there at that event, with more planned over the summer – after all the work undertaken: community, institutional, legal, educational – is not merely depressing, it is indicative of the need to stand against the return of racism: not disguised and not to be shrugged off.
There needs to be political action, no doubt, but as ever, we need to mobilise, to unite, to challenge the misreporting, misrepresentation, to safeguard our commonalities, our very future, through our trade unions, schools and workplaces because it’s been said time and time again: for evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.
We cannot afford to do nothing, and if anyone doubts the success of such marches and rallies, join the next one. There is the energy, the resolve, the knowledge that you are not alone, and that the struggle will go on. We will not allow hate and violence to take over our country.
Selma Rahman
Edinburgh
FARAGE is under increasing pressure. Reform UK will implode, and it will be a joy to watch. Of course, those that have been manipulated by the party will be left without direction. They will have anger; they will thrash out at any and all that they regard as not being of pure blood or ideology. Their bots, hacked accounts, and deranged social media posts will proudly proclaim that they are defending their country. Which is ironic as very few have worn their country’s uniform; even fewer would have the spine to wear it.
Cliff Purvis
Veterans for Scottish Independence 2.0
