Mass Immigration was a Labour core policy

This was the week that Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time and there have been the predictable recriminations from mainstream politicians on whose fault it is that the BNP have amassed a degree of support. Of course the proximate cause of that has been the huge rise in immigration that Labour allowed over the last decade. Now it has emerged that this wasn't a mistake. It was deliberate policy, decided at the highest level for purely political reasons. Apparently the idea was to make Britain more multicultural and so somehow marginalise the Right, the Tories that is not the BNP because before Labour started on this crazy course of action the BNP was absolutely nowhere. This is a disgrace, an appalling abuse of power, gerrymandering a whole country for political reasons. It has also backfired spectacularly in both policy and political terms. The unrestricted immigration policy was ended last year, but the government couldn't claim much credit for that without explaining what they had been doing up to that point. Meanwhile, the BNP has gained the most support in traditional Labour areas, displacing the people's party as the natural choice for some white working-class voters. The immigration debate has killed multiculturalism as a general philosophy and the trend in British politics is and will be for tighter immigration controls. So, by abusing their power Labour have lost their own argument and gutted their own support.

That's justice at least.

Gordon Brown and Labour give us the worst Recession ever

It gives me no pleasure to write this, but Labour's hollow boasts that Britain is better placed that other countries to recover from the recession was today exposed as wishful thinking. With six quarters of economic contraction, this is now the worst recession since records began.

Gordon Brown had calculated that he could be the optimist to David Cameron's pessimist, and so sound hopeful against the voice of doom. The continuing recession wrecks that strategy because David Cameron sounds now like the realist and Gordon Brown sounds as if he has been at the drinks cabinet. My prediction is that Labour will tack away from the economy for the next few weeks in the hope that people forget government claims of imminent recovery. Expect the smokescreens to start emerging from no.10 any time now.

Griffin gets a kicking

So, Nick Griffin wasn't desperately good on question time, quelle surprise. The man has a charisma of a walnut, and I mean the sort of walnut you bite into and then realise its gone off. It is true that the program was one-sided, but a someone better would have risen to the occasion. He bombed instead, especially when confronted by some of his own quotes, weaselling and evading on issues like Holocaust denial where an inability to be straight told us all we needed to know.

The fact is that Griffin being so useless is a great stroke of good fortune for our country. Under his leadership, the BNP is going nowhere, anyone can see that. The real problem would come if he were to be replaced by someone a bit more talented and a bit more normal. Unfortunately, there are a few such people in the far-right abut fortunately their poisonous internal politics will probably keep Griffin at the helm for a good few years yet. That is time enough for a Conservative government to address the most serious policy failures that Labour have heaped on communities that are supporting the BNP in any numbers. Then with a bit of luck the BNP will spiral away down the plughole.

Green Agenda at Basildon Council

Nick Clegg gave the local Liberal Democrats a call, or an email, or something and so a motion for Basildon Council to sign up to the 10:10 campaign found itself on the agenda for Basildon Council's meeting last night. This asks people, businesses and organisations to sign up to a 10% cut in carbon emissions by the end of 2010 and you are probably asking what could possibly be wrong with that? Quite a bit, unfortunately. You see Basildon's Conservative administration has been working hard on carbon emissions for years now, with a large number of measures already in place. So, a pledge would really mean a pledge to cut by 3% by mid 2011. It also excludes recycling, which is extraordinary. There is also the small matter of hypocrisy. Liberal Democrat Councillors have repeatedly voted against measures to reduce the Council's carbon footprint. They voted against the refurbishment of the Civic Centre, which allowed us to close another whole building, and they voted against the new Sporting Village, which will allow us to close two more old, hugely energy inefficient buildings.

Anyway, we amended the motion and cue outrage from the Liberals. I suppose being told there was a difference between gesture politics and getting on the job must have offended their delicate sensibilities.

BNP on Question Time tonight

This is the BNP's take on Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time tonight, send out to everyone on their mailing list:

Question Time is scheduled for 10.35pm tomorrow evening (Thursday) and will be a milestone in the indomitable march of the British National Party towards saving our country.

Our violent opponents on the far Left have promised to lay siege and barricade the studio venue, because they know only too well that this could be THE key moment that propels the BNP into the big time.

Never before have we had the chance to present our patriotic, common sense solutions to Britain's nightmare situation to the public at large in such a prominent fashion.

However, members and supporters must be aware that this show will be a stage-managed farce organised in a specific way to leave several impressions:

• The audience will be hand-picked and overtly hostile - thus giving the impression that the British people at large must be hostile to BNP views.
• The panellists will be overtly hostile, even the non-political guests will be hostile. Everyone will be hostile - this will leave the impression to non-informed viewers that BNP views have minority status.
• I will, no doubt, be interrupted, shouted down, slandered, put on the spot, and subject to a scrutiny that would be a thousand times more intense than anything directed at other panellists.

It will, in other words, be political blood sport.

But I am relishing this opportunity, and I know that, despite the stage-managed hostile audience and panellists, YOU, the ordinary members, supporters and voters of the BNP, will be in the studio with me as I take on the corrupt, treacherous swine destroying our beautiful island nation.

It is an appeal to alienation and hostility, and also a careful attempt to manage expectations. Griffin knows that he is unlikely to shine, and so he is getting his excuses in first. He is a poor speaker with an incoherent argument and so a verbal kicking is the only likely outcome.

The note is also a pretty good illustration why the BNP is not likely to get very far in British politics. Using the phrase 'corrupt, treacherous swine' may have been a winner in pre-war Germany, but in 21st century Britain it sounds a bit bonkers.

Lisbon Treaty amendments

Now the Slovaks have joined the Czechs in asking for an amendment to the Lisbon treaty. Both are concerned that the treaty as it stands might open them to claims from ethnic Germans evicted after the second world war. In both cases they are a bit late, but the row is delaying ratification much to the consternation of the European establishment. This can only be a good thing, and it raises the very faint hope that the argument will stretch until the UK general election, which might see a Conservative government. That would mean the referendum on the treaty that we were promised by Labour, a promise they ratted on without even bothering to make up a plausible excuse.

An interesting question is what the effect on the general election would be if a referendum on the treaty was a live issue? That would present the Conservatives with a bit of a dilemma, as it would certainly be a good campaign theme, but would risk over-shadowing other policy areas. David Cameron's greatest achievement has been to stop the monomania on Europe and so there would be a careful balancing act required to manage the prospect of a real referendum on Lisbon during an election campaign. Having said that, a problem for the Conservatives is a nightmare for Labour and the Liberal Democrats, who would find themselves on the wrong side of the argument and having to explain why they weren't in favour a referendum to a largely eurosceptic public.

Of course, the best case scenario is that this is exactly what happens and that we finally get a referendum on Lisbon from a Conservative government. I am pretty sure what the result would be of that.