Anti-immigration Sentiments Alive and Unwell in Britain

'A spectre is haunting Europe', so begins the Communist Manifesto, 'the spectre of communism.' But communism has given up the ghost (yes, pun fully intended) and no longer roams the continent clanging about claiming to be the voice of the people, of the common man and the worker. It's place has been taken by a new phantom, one which is potentially far more terrible than the old Marxian spectre. All over Europe, from Sweden, through the Netherlands and Belgium, into France and around the old Eastern bloc, the extreme right wing is making a resurgence. For over sixty years it had lain dormant and we could all think it had been banished from Europe's streets by the Soviets in the inferno and ruins of Berlin, but, no, it has risen anew.

Even in a country as seemingly tolerant as Britain the tendrils of extremism have spread into the farthest corners. A report, due out tomorrow, shows that almost half of all Britons 'would support an anti-immigration English nationalist party if it was not associated with violence and fascist imagery[.]' The report contains a few more surprises, most significant of which is that anti-immigrant sentiments are not merely harboured by white Britons but by other ethnic groups as well:

'According to the survey, 39% of Asian Britons, 34% of white Britons and 21% of black Britons wanted all immigration into the UK to be stopped permanently, or at least until the economy improved. And 43% of Asian Britons, 63% of white Britons and 17% of black Britons agreed with the statement that "immigration into Britain has been a bad thing for the country". Just over half of respondents – 52% – agreed with the proposition that "Muslims create problems in the UK".'

 The report hints at the origins of these fearful attitudes: 'This is not because British people are more moderate, but simply because their views have not found a political articulation.'

Is Britain, so long sheltered from the worst outporings of hatred seen on the Continent, on the brink of falling prey to elected racists sitting among our representatives in Westminster? Jon Cruddas, the Labour MP who saw off the threat of the BNP taking his seat in last year's election, thinks so. He points to a 'very real threat of a new potent political constituency built around an assertive English nationalism.' Fortunately for those of us who stand with Mr. Cruddas on the bulwarks of tolerance and anti-racism, the British electoral system of first-past-the-post will prevent parties like the BNP or a Geert Wilders-like figure winning more than a handful of seats in the House of Commons. But if the voting system is changed to the alternative vote, what then?