The white working class - just another ingredient in the multicultural soup

Returning to this blog after a long absence I noticed that it has taken on a life of its own. Even when I don't post anything, readers continue to take lumps out of each other in the comments boxes. Good show folks; keep it coming.

In a month or so, when I've finished what I've been doing for the last half-year, I will be able to tell you where I've been but for now you'll just have to get used to the prolonged absences, if you haven't already.

Somewhat against the trend, Pub Philosopher's hit rate shot up yesterday after Laban Tall posted a link to my Ben and Chloe post from four years ago into the comments thread on this Guardian piece about the white working class. Judging from the subsequent comments, it still strikes a chord with people even now.

Symon Hill's piece starts well:

When mainstream politicians sit down next to the BNP's Nick Griffin on Question Time next week, they will be facing a monster of their own creation.

True enough. But he goes on:

The main parties' constant pandering to rightwing agendas, their failure to speak up for the benefits of immigration and their devotion to the interests of the wealthy have all contributed to the far right's electoral success.

The last bit of that is right, in that Labour has abandoned the working class in favour of cultivating rich elites, but if there has been any pandering it has been several decades of giving special treatment to ethnic and religious minorities at the expense of everyone else. The impact of the series of policies that became known as multi culturalism has fallen disproportionately on the working class.

The UK's peculiar brand of multiculturalism has its roots in this country's colonial past. The British establishment dealt with troublesome colonial minorities by doing deals with local leaders in which favours were dispensed in return for a degree of loyalty and help in keeping their followers in line. When large numbers of immigrants appeared in this country the establishment's response was to do the same by bigging up so-called community leaders. The instincts of the old establishment were reinforced by the new left-wing establishment that began to capture town halls in the 1970s. Inspired by a Marxist-influenced liberalism, the new establishment wanted to atone for the past crimes of imperialism by giving preferential treatment to the descendants of those who had suffered. The combination of the colonial policies of the old establishment and the ideologically-driven policies of the new gave us unelected community leaders, special grants for cultural minorities, housing policies giving preference to immigrants and laws preventing people from saying unpleasant things about ethnic or religious minorities.

The result of the economic and social engineering of the past four decades has been to wreck the once-cohesive working class communities leaving white working-class people feeling particularly aggrieved. With no community leaders, no grants, no special laws to protect them and no preferential treatment, they have been left exposed to the harsh realities of twenty-first century Britain with its casualised labour market and competition for jobs and resources. The community cohesion and working-class pride that sustained their ancestors through hard times in the past has been destroyed. To cap it all, where once they were the salt-of-the-earth, now they are demonised as chavs, or, as Michael Collins showed, airbrushed out of the picture altogether.

“They don’t mention us English,” says the old man, “You wouldn’t think we’d ever existed would ya?”

It's no wonder some of them are angry enough to vote BNP.

So should we welcome the latest initiative to help white working class communities with extra government money and community initiatives? At one level this is a welcome development; poor white communities have long been neglected and it's good to see them getting some of what other groups have been getting for years, even if it is a piffling amount.

But step back for a minute; look at the broader implications. This whole programme is taking place within the framework of multiculturalism. Specialist treatment is being given to a community seen to be disadvantaged and a potential source of trouble for the colonial administrators.

Until recently, the white working class were the majority in Britain. For a few brief moments during the twentieth century they even looked as if they might take over the running of the country completely. Now, they are just another cultural group competing for the largesse and patronage of the liberal state. No white working-class community leaders have emerged yet but it is surely only a matter of time.

Far from being a recognition that multiculturalism has failed, this government initiative represents the latest stage in multiculturalsm's onward march. The white working class is to be treated as just one of many religious, cultural and ethnic groups that make up multicultural Britain.

Comments

[Tom Paine]

Nick Griffin is every bit as legitimate a "community leader" for the white working class as his equivalents for other interest groups. He's self-selected, he's extreme and most of his "community" think he's an ass.

[Esmerelda Weatherwax]

Despite River Ward in Dagenham where I used to live being one of the areas named under the scheme to benefit I don't expect the £12 million to be spent on actually building anything practical - like getting white boys interested in reading at Rectory library through using local history, the West Ham FC connection, the story of local men like Alf Ramsey, Terry Venables and George Carey. Local and family history is a growing fascination - work on it.
At one time the two most important men in the country, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the England manager were both from Barking.
I fear from this article in the Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ministers-to-spend-16312m-fighting-white-workingclass-extremism-1802824.html that it will be spent on trying to manipulate perceptions, not tangible stuff.

Ministers are to spend £12m reassuring 130 "traditional communities" across the country that immigrants and non-white residents are not unfairly taking their jobs and houses. The community initiative follows growing concerns that extremist groups such as the BNP are feeding on fears and myths that the white working classes are victims of social injustice.

Patronising toads!

[asquith]

This is typical Labour & a good indication of why I'm against identity politics.

I don't think we should have had immigration on such a large scale as we've had, & I certainly think it should be reduced now. But if we are going to have immigrants, why rub everyone's face in the fact that they're different & try to create voting blocs of people who won't be treated as individuals, but as part of a great big lumpen mass?

The logical conclusion, after spending taxpayers' money on bugger knows who & what, was to go after people they consider BNP fodder. I am white & working-class, & don't really think the descriptions of what "the white working class" think in the right-wing media really match me. In fact I find the whole thing rather patronising.

As I said, typical Labour behaviour through & through. It should be opposed- they shouldn't be strewing money around, or setting up voting blocs to buy off, & I can't for the life of me see it being well spent.

Weirdly enough, I read a report in the Groan that mentioned the estate I live on as one of those that will benefit. It is a fairly shite place, but not one of the worst in the city. The worse estates generally have all BNP councillors, whereas we have none- have they given up on the existing BNP areas & decided on strategy of containment or what?

I've drifted towards your view on things like immigration but I've never really stopped being a liberal at heart, & haven't changed my underlying philosophy. So it may be that I'm more affronted by this than yourself because I'm less communitarian by some, but the phrase "the white working class", the idea of identity politics of any kind, the patronising tone, will all set me off.

Definitely worth further & further examination but I dislike it on sight.

PS- Do you use twitter? I am on there as "asquith" if you're bothered.

[asquith]

With further reference to "voting blocs". It will blow up in Labour's faces because a lot of blacks & Asians are natural conservatives. A lot of them live in areas that suffered under Thatcher, but they're still not anyone's idea of a reliable left-wing bunch & I wouldn't be surprised to see a new generation of Tories from ethnic minorities. Sayeeda Warsi is an example I've had my eye on for some time because she really typifies this sort of thing.

Not to mention the fact that so many are socially conservative & authoritarian... which, of course, is bad news for me as I am a firm atheist & secularist, & that's one reason why I'm against importing people with such reactionary attitudes.

[Joe]

What asquith said. I look forward to the day when we can dismiss ideas by slapping them with a label of 'identity politics' like we currently do with 'politically correct'. Lazy thinking I know, but it seems to be the kind of thinking that people respond to.

[Greg Tingey]

Asquith has a definite point.

Crawling to the amazingly backward "community" - meaning RELIGIOUS self-selected, self-elected "leaders, who want to make women third calss-citizens (on a good day) and have separate laws for differnt sections of the "community" is a garuanteed recipe for disaster, but gory brron the Presbyterian reactionary can't see it!

[Edwin Greenwood]

"The white working class is to be treated as just one of many religious, cultural and ethnic groups that make up multicultural Britain."

I'm not sure I agree with this, Steve. It implies that the WWC are destined to be treated as equal partners at the multicultural table.

I'd say they are seen more as noisy hecklers who, regrettably, cannot yet be excluded from the room for tedious logistical and administrative reasons. Until this minor difficulty can be overcome, the indigenous population are thrown the occasional sweetie to keep us quiet.

[asquith]

"I look forward to the day when we can dismiss ideas by slapping them with a label of 'identity politics' like we currently do with 'politically correct'."

We'll have to wait until most members of minority "communities" realise for themselves that it's a load of shite & isn't helping them.

Regrettably the present government seem determined, consciously or unconsciously, to prevent such a thing ever happening.

[Ed]

£12M to buy votes back off the BNP in working class communities.

£60M in aid to Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

They just don't get it do they.

[George Miller]

What’s the best thing that government can do for all of us? Laissez-nous faire! Just end social engineering all together; don’t switch from letting touchy Muslims control the country to letting touchy BNPers control the country.

When the force monopolizers use their unique position to start trying to control behavior and thoughts that’s when the trouble starts. I don’t think talking about “the working class”, “casualised labour market”, “competition for jobs and resources“ (a new phenomenon? Has there never been competition for jobs and resources?), “liberals” (I must say you have a strange idea of what constitutes a liberal) or whatnot isn’t the answer; just get off our backs and leave us ALL alone!

[Gareth]

Labour are fire fighting - each time a group makes a din they get money. Every time a self-appointed representative of a group makes a din they get money. Some groups keep making noise and keep getting money. Labour firmly believe that money is the solution to all ills.

When you have destroyed communities by playing ethnic and religious groups against each other you will not fix it again by throwing money them. There is little to cement disparate peoples together. Is this what they wanted or were they just short-sighted in wanting to rub the Right's nose in diversity: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6418456/Labour-wanted-mass-immigration-to-make-UK-more-multicultural-says-former-adviser.html ?

There are lots and lots of people from different backgrounds all kept quiet with taxpayer money. There is little community spirit to hold us together when that money runs out. A grasping sense of entitlement runs rich from Westminster downwards.