Big BNP win in London

BNP candidates won a completely unexpected 11 seats in the Council elections in Barking, a borough (area? parliamentary district?) straddling East London and Essex. The BBC calls it “a breakthrough for the British National Party in London, on a scale significantly greater than anyone had predicted.” Unfortunately the story doesn’t tell us the total number of seats in the Council, which makes it impossible to judge the significance of an 11-seat win. (See explanation below.) In any event, Richard Barnbrook, a BNP leader, is now one the Councillors of Barking. Or is he a Barking Councillor? (Are we separated by a common language, or what?)

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I asked Jeff in England to explain the local councils to me, and he replied:

A local council is exactly like the New York City Council, voted in from various areas (wards) of that particular city (or county). A councillor is like a New York City Council member, representing his/her local area (ward) of that particular city. When elected, he/she takes his/her “seat.” This has nothing to do with the national elections. Council housing is public government housing owned by the local city council, originally built for poor people. Thatcher brought in new laws saying tenants could buy their rented “council housing” flats and sell them on as well, which has undermined the whole purpose of council housing.

In London, the councils are divided by borough, as in New York City. For example, the BNP did well in the borough of Dagenham and Barking (one borough). I believe Labour still has the most seats in that borough. However unlike New York, there is no such thing as the London City Council. There used to be. There is a London Assembly but it has limited powers. Rather, the boroughs rule themselves via their own councils. That is a big difference to New York government, which has a New York City Council to rule all of New York.

There were 51 seats up for election in the London borough of Dagenham and Barking. If the BNP won 11 or more (final results not in) that would be significant. Almost all the gained seats would be at the expense of Labour. As I’ve said the BNP is hardly (economically and culturally) a conservative party and many of its voters are closer to the left wing Labour Party than any other party. This makes it significantly different from anti-immigration oriented parties in the U.S. In addition , as I’ve said, a surprisingly high number of ethnic voters have been saying they would vote BNP. While very few white Eastern European recent migrants are known to be BNP supporters. Don’t ya love it!!

LA replies:

Well, it seems to me one big difference from America is that these councils are both legislature and executive. It seems there is no separate mayor, in many cases. They seem like faceless, collective bodies. I wonder if this has something to do with the depression that seems to affect all discussion of local politics in Britain. It’s always, the councils this, and the councils that. No leaders, just these huge collective bodies. The very expression, “council housing,” is depressing. It conjures up the image of a dreary, collectivist state, like the description of London in the opening pages of Nineteen Eighty-Four. It makes me think of broken-down, impoverished England at the end of World War II.

Matthew H., an American living in London, writes:

The BNP might pick up more than 25 seats nationally, the BBC, (as usual) is only telling part of the story. This is significant victory because there was such a concerted effort on the media to smear them even more than usual, and that is a tell-tale sign that people are not buying the brainwashing anymore. In Barking and Dagenham, had the BNP put up 50 councilors, they would of probably converted every single one of them into seats. There were reports from polling stations of people complaining that they didn’t have a BNP councilor to vote for and were therefore casting a “spoilt” vote in protest.

Some people are blaming the media for giving the BNP the “oxygen of publicity” as the big reason for the surge in support. I don’t see it that way. If you lived here, and you saw how truly doomed this country is, even the softest “American” liberal types would be tempted to beat the BNP drum. The everyday political and national headlines are enough “oxygen” for anyone to want to stop breathing. The BNP are a gas mask for this problem.

Jeff, an American who has been living in England for decades, writes:

Please remember that there is an elected mayor of London and that he is extremely colourful (and pro-immigration). It really isn’t like a “1984” situation … it was in the 70’s but not now. You’d have to be here to feel the difference. Maybe it’s the mobile phones or the i-pods (seriously) but the vibe is very different in the political or cultural sense. Matthew tends to exaggerate how bad things are. London, whatever one feels about multi-culturalism and immigration, is the greatest and most vibrant city in the world. I love New York but I think London now surpasses it. I wouldn’t have said that in the seventies. It actually does work. Oxford where I live is a small chunk of paradise. As you know, I am hardly a person NOT to point out what’s going on crimewise, immigration wise etc. Yes there are problems in England and the rest of the UK. And I stick by my feelings that out of control immigration is changing Britain irrevocably. But it still is a great place to be. Brixton, the most famous black area in Britain, is the home of many white actors who simply love it, my Royal Shakespeare Company friend among them. I’ve tried to tell him to move but he loves it and when I visit there I can understand why. Great markets, clubs, theatres, restaurants. And that’s a “bad” area. In many ways, Dagenham and Barking is an exception rather than the rule. Even the much criticised NHS is amazing, as I can testify personally. If it wasn’t functioning I would have been dead by now. The British New Age type markets are the most exciting in the Western World. The UK festivals are the best. The UK theatre is the best. The UK pop music is the best. Ditto the classical music. Intellectual life is booming. England’s football and cricket is world class. There are problems in education but I still rate it better than America. The UK restaurants were recently voted the best in the world including the number one last year, THE FATTY DUCK in the countryside It is easy to get things out of perspective as Matthew often does. He paints a picture of total doom which just ain’t the case. It says a lot that he is still here!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 05, 2006 01:59 AM | Send