South Oxhey, Watford Gives the BNP a Chair and asks Racism to "Have a Seat"

2:57pm Thursday 18th June 2009

By Connie McCall-Young

I had thought that my first community article would be some light hearted feature on a local Watford festival, event, or even my observations of Friday night Watford Club goers. However, politics has reduced my choice of commentary to only one extremely uncomfortable topic: The BNP getting its first council seat in my home town of South Oxhey.

Firstly, I would like to offer all right-minded residents of South Oxhey an apology – I did not vote in the 4th June elections. In fact I think I have only voted once since being eligible to vote, and only then because it was something I was allowed to do, like being able to drink at 18, or becoming tall enough to ride the Nemesis at Alton Towers and then vomiting profusely until it stopped. This is not because I don’t care how the country is run, but because I don’t think it makes too much of a difference to me personally who out of the main parties, (Conservative, Labour and Lib Dems) runs the country. I can hear all the boos I’m getting from the newly recruited anti-labour committee members saying that Labour is to blame for the current financial crisis etc. If the UK had been the only country affected by recession and general financial doom and gloom I would probably agree with you, but the fact that it is a global crisis and all the worlds finance markets are affected by each other, I would think we would have hit a financial iceberg even if Alan Sugar had been Prime Minister, Richard Branson Deputy Prime Minister and all the winners of Mastermind, University Challenge and PR guru Max Clifford were cabinet ministers. It is more reasonable to say that the Conservatives are to blame for the current Social Housing crisis by introducing Right To Buy. But this is an apology, as I said and in the case of the recent European and Local elections I and other non-fascist and ethnic minority residents of Oxhey South were totally wrong for not voting, and shall now pay the price for it by the placement of a member of the British National Party as our local councilor. I’m not against nationalism at all, the principle of Britain looking after the British first does not trouble me in the slightest as long as we retain a financial duty to welcome those from other countries who can genuinely positively contribute to British society without draining its resources, and a moral duty to assist and support those whose lives are genuinely in danger in the country where they live as far as our resources comfortably allow. My problem is the BNPs definition of what being British is. My understanding is that although I was born in Hammersmith, and my grandparents were asked to come to this country from their Commonwealth Caribbean Island to help rebuild the country after the 2nd World War, that I am not considered British because I am not white. This would mean that if I went to see my friendly BNP councilor over some local issue I had, I would not be given assistance or advice as surely if I am not British I clearly am not one of their constituents. The BNP, have for a long time tried to hide their racism behind policies that would attract the general British public and which do sound quite plausible. Slogans such as “British jobs for British People” are welcomed during a period where unemployment is at its highest point in the last 12 years, and where it may seem to the uneducated that every bus driver, cleaner, and security job is occupied by a non-white person. I agree that the seeming preferential treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers over the past decade or more needs to be looked at by the government, but the BNPs proposed remedy of “voluntary” re-settlement of those 3rd and 4th generation non-white British people back to countries some of them have never seen, and their policy of banning non-white British people from joining a so-called democratic political party has the stench of racism all over it.

The BNP would disagree saying that they are just as racist as any organisation in this country whose policies apply only to people from a certain ethnic background. They even name Watford Asian Community Care, who promotes social and health care for the Asian community as one such “racist” organisation. In the absence of a comment from a representative of WACC, my humble opinion, however biased you may think it is coming from a member of an ethnic minority is that organisations such as this are not saying that a particular ethnic group should come before another. In this case, the WACC are not promoting Asians to be given any priority or preferential treatment over non-Asians. All they are highlighting is the added need for support to access social care and health for a community who may have barriers to these areas due to language and cultural differences. It is worth mentioning here that the Asian community has probably offered the greatest financial contribution to the British economy of any ethnic minority due to their good business sense, hard working attitude, and generally family orientated values.

The above organisation, again in my perhaps biased opinion is the same as other charitable organisations that campaign for those such as the disabled or ex-servicemen. Similarly, these organisations are not saying they should take preference over another group, they are just acknowledging that these groups may need different and/or additional support due to their personal circumstances and minority status.

The BNP therefore cannot compare themselves to minority organizations such as these as their policy is that white Britons should come first over Britons from other races for no other reason than the fact that they, as descendants of the first British settlers from Norway and other similar countries are the indigenous people of Britain. I therefore question whether when they are doing their voluntary repatriation campaign, should they then also encourage the British descendents in South Africa, Australia and other countries repatriate to Britain, and leave those countries to its indigenous peoples? I would probably think not, as the flood of people who could come through UK borders would probably amount to more than five times the number of immigrants who have come into this country in recent years. So as not to ramble on, which I’m very capable of doing, I’ll end by saying that the recent election has resulted in a realistic threat to myself and other residents of this area of Watford being treated locally as equal British Citizens. As I have said I only have myself to blame as well as the other 27 eligible voters needed to prevent the BNP’s win by turning up on June 4th to put their “X” in the box of a more suitable party. As for the 783 people that did vote for the BNP, I hope this was for reasons of patriotism and not racism.