So the far right made progress – on D-Day so why? Firstly maybe the left and centre need to stop flinging racism around so much? Is it racist to prefer or want to be surrounded by people with similar beliefs and culture? There was an attempt a while back to establish what constituted British Culture – I believe it failed miserably! However if we look at how the English language has attapted and incorporated new ideas and words without losing the essence of what constitutes English and we can get a notion of what society should be doing to adapt and include?
I think it is natural for people to be unsettled by change and to hark back to “old ways”. It would therefore be natural for people across the varied nations of Europe to reject traditional parties that are seen to be over welcoming to “foreigners’ or migrants. This will be especially true of countries with an ageing population like Hungary or where the opportunities for the young are perceived as being diminished or the numbers of migrants are perceived as being too high (Germany?) or where there is less integration (France?) or where there is economic/political atrophy (Eastern Europe).
So whilst I relish calling Farage a fascist little prat, but maybe I should be more wary of the ways he taps into peoples subconscious fears of change and particularly the unknown! I suspect therefore that people are not voting for fascism, but voting against the status quo – Brexit was the prime example of this! The Daily Mails ranting about the National Trust and references to slavery, and generally wokeness, are an attempt to heighten this fear of the different.
It is ironic that the typical thick working class boss will complain about foreigners coming over here to take “his/her” jobs (which they refuse to do! The NHS has a vast number of migrants and could not function without them, and yet the right wing media perpetuate the myths of migrants taking jobs and filling hospitals with patients and schools with students whilst claiming benefits. Can honesty be returned to the press and to politicians (Johnson totally ruined belief in honesty in public service – how do the newest politians recover this lost respect)?
So I have sort of described the problem (and the far right is a problem with no doubt) – obvs. I have no magic solution, but would return to my analagy of the English Language. Migration needs to be at levels where people can be assimilated into the traditional society without necessarily converting to whatever, but accepting, and being accepted by the status quo..
Perhaps the lessons from history in the past need to be learned anew – allowing areas of cities to develop as migrant ghettos (rather than hubs) has led in the past to pograms across Europe. Greater integration with the emphasis on positives (perhaps the right wing press needs to have to justify claims in court?) – or maybe defunded by foreign magnates? Honesty and discussion is essential and if that means calling out the likes of Murdoch and Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere and Sir Paul Marshall; and holding them to account. A free press is essential and is the 5th estate on which democracy is based – but it, like the others can be subverted!