UK election results: The poor are suicidal

Dec 14, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Why would any working class UK citizen look at the manifesto of the Labour Party in the just concluded election and vote for the Conservative Party? Well they did. The election results were a tale of horror and terror for the Labour Party. In large swathes of the working class world in the UK, Labour lost.
Overall, Labour had one of its most horrible nights in its history. Make no mistake; Trump’s victory in the US had absolutely nothing to do with the man Trump. I emphasize the adverb, “absolutely.”
In the US, people went for the message not the man. Trump simply milked what people desperately wanted. And he promised them that.
If there wasn’t Trump, another presidential newcomer to the Republican Party offering the same recipe that Trump highlighted would have beaten the Democrats. Race played a huge part in Trump’s victory and it did in Johnson’s success across the ocean in the UK.
The Boris Johnson type would have easily succeeded in other European countries like Italy, Greece, and Holland but certainly not in the UK. The British have long been viewed as the most conservative people among the white race across the globe. A Boris Johnson was unthinkable in a country like the UK. How then did he make it?
The British election was about race and Brexit. It was not about the contrast of two men – Johnson and Corbyn. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, assaulted British immigration policies in ways no other British leader has done before. She did this as Home Secretary under a Conservative regime.
What happened was that the Conservatives had become an anti-immigrant party. One of the reasons for wanting to leave the EU is that the Conservative Party sees Britain as being ethnically transformed from a predominantly Anglo-Saxon society through its continuing membership in the EU.
Race feelings against non-Anglo-Saxon Europeans were harboured by Mrs. Thatcher and allowed to roam freely until it climaxed under May and Johnson. Mrs. Thatcher was deeply anti-German. The Conservative Party is anti-German.
International security arrangements, which have brought the UK and Germany together since 1945 are unrelated to how the British upper classes and their Eton-trained politicians feel about the Germanic people.
The Conservative Party woke up one morning and found out that Britain was being overrun by Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, Slavs, etc. The seeds of Brexit were planted there and then.
The election, yesterday, was not about Boris Johnson. Johnson had done enough in terms of faulty character display to become the most ostracised politician among the upper classes of British society.
But those elites wanted Brexit and Johnson was the most vociferous demander of “get the UK out of the EU,” so they adopted him as their cheerleader. Johnson became increasingly popular when he took over the Brexit slogan in his party.
A majority in English society wanted Brexit. The English in this election voted for Brexit not for Johnson. It wasn’t about personalities but issues. The most vivid example of why the Conservatives won the general election lies in Scotland.
In England, Brexit is popular. In Scotland, Brexit is a bad word. The election results for England and Scotland were diametrically the opposite.
In England, Brexit candidates won by a landslide. In Scotland, Brexit was defeated. The pro-European party, SNP won a landslide. Their leader Nicola Sturgeon, even before the official results were declared, was demanding Scotland’s right to have an independence referendum.
Brexit and race helped Johnson. Readers should consult The Sociological Quarterly (Vol. 60, issue 2, 2019) for a very good analysis rejecting the potency of the economic factor in the victory of Donald Trump.
The study argued that White Americans from all backgrounds and those who voted for Obama changed to Trump and the decision was based on race.
The British Labour Party is uniquely multi-racial. It is the most multiracial of all the major parties in the developed world maybe challenged only by the Liberal Party in Canada.
Johnson is the English version of Trump. The UK conservatives are the English version of the American republicans. The rhetoric of Johnson on immigration was more pronounced than any other major leader in his party.
There is no doubt that the Tories picked up plenty seats because of the race factor. Britain has become hostile to non-white immigrants and Johnson didn’t hide his feeling as Prime Minister and during the election.
The really sad feature of the UK poll was the devastation of Labour. Corbin is definitely gone. But equally sad too, may be the demise of the enduring democracy the world has seen from Britain for hundreds of years. The world is changing for the worst.

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