The Far Right is in the mainstream!
JVL Introduction
Perspectives on the 2024 General Election (18)
Kenan Malik writes about the rise of Far Right in many countries on the European mainland and perhaps even more important are his concerns about the normalisation of their ideas and what Malik calls the disintegration of working class organisations. This normalisation is reflected in the politics of the 2024 election in the UK too. Controlling immigration is firmly part of Labour as well as Conservative Party commitments and we have the rise and rise of so called Reform, now under the leadership of Nigel Farage who has done much to lead that very normalisation. And while it is crucial to emphasise the dangers of these approaches and the risks of these ideas becoming even more prominent as a Labour government is unable to improve people’s lives while operating within a self imposed fiscal framework that also retains the failed privatisations of every government from Thatcher on.
Beyond Europe too, we have the spectre of Trump to come as well as Modi in India. And we must also remember that Modi, despite his advocating something close to Hindu supremacy, has succeeded where other governments have failed to dramatically improve the sanitation in villages throughout that huge country; Farage is advocating for a tax threshold of £20,000 (it is currently frozen at £12,500 until 2029) and an end to the two-child benefit cap
which would make a real difference to addressing poverty whereas Labour is relying on economic growth that a) it can do little to control and b) is arguably bad for the environment and climate change whereas redistributive policies – as well as, of course, genuiunely green jobs, would make more of a difference. Farage is offering neither of these and Starmer far fewer green jobs than were originally advocated under the £28 billion programme that he has modified.
LL
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Sun 16 Jun 2024. Read the original here.
Far-right policies don’t become palatable just because mainstream politicians adopt them
The normalisation of ideas once confined to the fringes is cause for concern, not complacency
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Nigel Farage speaks for the same set of interests that labour and the Tories do. He’s just a better salesman than Sunak and Starmer but he’s just as much an enemy of our class as they are, although JVL and some other Labour left will have you believe its Starmer thats the issue, rather than the actual Labour Party.
I am completely staggered! But 18 months ago I said this country would turn into a fascist state! I did not foresee, however, Farage and his far right allies filling vacuum! Starmer & Tory Party moving so far to right, opened the door to Reform! My fear is that should Starmer fail in his first 5 yrs then we may usher in Reform!
We are fools if we do not recognise the sheer horror of such an awful future!
Neoliberalism, a culture centred around ‘I am around Jack’ has led to neo-fascism, who would have known ?
Annie, btw, you are spot on !