In his first interview since finishing third last week in the [Clacton] election, Owusu-Nepaul insisted he had fought hard, and said he understood the need for the national campaign to take priority. But he warned that Reform should be a cause for concern “because of the type of politics they represent”.
“It was my first time standing in a parliamentary election and I would be lying if I said that at times I didn’t feel concern for the safety of those around me on the campaign,” he said.
“I am not saying this was a direct consequence of Farage but from his supporters there was vitriol and from the very beginning a sense of intimidation. I had people tear my leaflets up. We had people come out and spit at us. I had my name constantly interrogated about where I was ‘really from’.
“On social media I got a torrent of abuse all day, every day. It has only given me further resolve to keep going because it made me realise that there are many people online, trolls or whoever they are, who want to silence me and silence others who share a similar belief system.”
He added: “It felt like I had become a proxy for some of the things they hated. My profile had kind of got bigger and with that there was endless abuse. It was from people who were quite explicit about their intentions and who they were going to support, and that was Reform.
“The campaign was never about me. It was about ensuring that principles and values were communicated to voters. But I did learn a lot about the role of ethnic minorities in public life.”
[…]
Owusu-Nepaul said he believed the political atmosphere had permeated through to the local community. He said: “I spoke to a lady who was telling me her eight-year-old son was beginning to experience racial abuse in the playground. She said that [I] have to vote for you because Nigel Farage’s party has been whipping up emotions. She was desperately sad and angry.“That really brought things home to me, the extent to which divisions were being stoked, and they were even manifesting in the school playground.”
He echoed Neil Kinnock – who has warned Labour not to ignore the nationalist threat posed by Farage – and said he believed the best way for the left and progressive politicians to defeat the surge in support for the populist right was to address people’s material concerns.
“In Clacton I saw the type of endemic poverty which is a problem all over the country and goes back generations. It’s also been juxtaposed with a lot of over-promising and under-delivery. It’s become ingrained while the scapegoating of others has become a way of avoiding doing anything,” Owusu-Nepaul said.
He predicted that Farage would be a “one-term MP” because he would use the platform to serve his own ideological interests while local people in Clacton would lose out.
I’m an immigrant (not in the UK), so I don’t know if people just don’t say the quiet part to me or if they really don’t know. What’s the problem with immigration(outside of racism)? Is it significantly different in the UK?
Obviously, at some point, there could be a problem. If everyone in the world wanted to live on the British isles, that wouldn’t work (sorry if the phrasing is weird, I was trying to avoid a cheap empire joke). But it’s nowhere close to that.
Your country has the low birth rate common for highly developed nations, so immigration is a positive, no?
I’m not trying to attack your auntie, but she specifically separated immigration from racism, so there’s probably another angle I just can’t see.
It’s racism. The media have stoked the populace for years with talk of “illegal immigrants”, “foreigners taking our jobs” and the “country is full”. It’s all reactionary bullshit to sell papers, get clicks, and propel the media’s chosen politicians into power. But ultimately, underneath the headlines it’s all driven by racism not facts. Immigration brings in younger people, increases the workforce, boosts the economy, helps pay for an aging population. But those facts don’t stoke outrage and sell papers.
Personally I blame Gordon Brown. He should have stood up to that “bigoted old woman” during the 2010 election campaign instead of caving in. He legitimised the narrative and we have paid and are still paying the price.
Everything in the country has been going to shit over the past 15 years thanks to the Tories general policy of, frankly, “fuck the poor”. Public services that the less well off rely on more get stripped to the bone and made more expensive to access. Economic suicides that only really benefit the Tory donors, such as Brexit, Liz Truss’ whole fuck-about, austerity, etc., all make life harder, and things like housing and food more expensive or unattainable.
The right-wing dominated press in our country wants people to not see why it’s happening (as their owners are those same Tory donors), so they do the classic right-wing brainwashing tactic of blaming an other. This other is usually the immigrant boogeyman who is allegedly ruining the country by simultaneously taking all the jobs from British people and also being lazy leeches taking all the benefits. Which is obviously nonsensical.
Of course, all the data suggests these are false conclusions and that immigration is of a huge benefit to everyone in this country. However, the people who don’t pay much attention beyond where they get their news, keep getting fed the lies and you see this stuff as a result—people voting against their interests because they want to harm an imaginary foe that they see as the single cause of all their problems. When measures are taken to appease the group, they don’t see the problems they’re upset about resolving and keep pushing for stronger and stronger measures. In turn those will keep not resolving their issues, because they actually have nothing to do with their problems (and in the case of things like the NHS reduced immigration actively makes things worse)
Got a bit longer than I intended there, but tl;dr people citing immigration issues have been either been conned by the right-wing and turned into useful idiots or are just actual full blown racists. I think most fall into the former category though
Racism is definitely a huge part of it, but I thinks it’s too simplistic to say it’s just racism. The problem is the press in this country is dominated by monied interests and has a very incestuous relationship with power, so it’s generally in their interests to distract from actual causes of issues and instead to blame immigrants.
To give an example, when Farage blames immigrants for the housing crisis, the BBC reports in it but the companies like Blackstone, who buy up vast swaths of Britain’s housing to rent, rarely, if ever, get mentioned.
I don’t think most people become anti-immigration because of racism. I think they get into it through some economic problem they’re facing that only right-wing pundits in the media mention when talking about immigration. It’s just being in anti-immigrant circles exposes you to a lot more racist ideas, ideas the average person doesn’t have the knowledge to see the issues with.
I’m not trying to attack your auntie, but she specifically separated immigration from racism, so there’s probably another angle I just can’t see.
No worries. I love her obviously, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see when she’s buying into problematic narratives.
when Farage blames immigrants for the housing crisis, the BBC reports in it but the companies like Blackstone, who buy up vast swaths of Britain’s housing to rent, rarely, if ever, get mentioned.
It’s true that the media are a problem but that’s not to say immigration doesn’t also cause problems with housing. Last year (2023) there was a net 685,000 more people in the UK. That’s a ridiculous amount of people who need housing. I can say from experience that it’s an utter nightmare finding anywhere at all to live, and was so even before those hundreds of thousands of people turned up.
