Should we be worried about right-wing populism?

daphnedil.....I have ONE identity only,and have never been affiliated to one party.
I keep a very open mind on politics and vote for the party which I feel will deliver the best outcome at the time.
I felt elated when Tony Blair was elected,and elated again when he was kicked out.
I find do find unquestioning devotion to one party ,blinkered.
My family and friends are entirely split on the EU referendum,but we are able to discuss without any animosity,which is not the case with some on this site.

Your suggestion that I could be linked in any way to Britain First,is simply not worth a response.

Well said, granny2016.

Looking at the populist nationalist right wing Nick Cohen has a good article in the Observer.

I paraphrase
"The true scorn of the right is for the people it presumes to represent. In the name of defending Britain,Brexit will destroy Britain, if Scotland then leaves.
In the name of defending Britain, Johnson, Farage, and Gove will break the unity of (Europe) and put a wolffish grin on the face of Vladimir Putin.
In the name of defending Britain, Brexit will start a rolling economic, constitutional, and diplomatic crises, which its authors do not have the smallest idea how to resolve.

The air is foul now. But imagine how much fouler it will become as the nationalist right invents ever more fanatical conspiracy theories to explain away the troubles it has brought upon us all.

If you love your country, or even if you think it isn't a bad place, do not hand it to sly men who betray the best of the (British), whilst seeking to incite the worst in us.

Well said.

I was obviously following on from thatbags.

I cant help thinking that if immigration numbers are controlled once more, most of the other problems will ebb away.
Britain will be calmer once more.

What I have found most surprising about the referendum, is that uncontrolled immigration has managed to surpass the economy in what is most important for people.
I didnt think anything could surpass money.

Though I suppose uncontrolled immigration does indeed affect money in peoples pockets as well as a whole heap of other matters-housing schools hospitals etc.

Why are you playing the man and labelling again, ww? It's that kind of thing that puts people off threads like this.

I'll check out the article.

I posted a link to this article by Niall Ferguson on the Jo Cox thread. I'm reposting it here because of what he says in it about large movements of migrants and the effects they have. I do not get the impression he is arguing against human migrations, only that for them to work without causing too much social disruption to the receiving countries, they need to be controlled. Floods, both literal and metaphoric that affect human societies, are nearly always problematic. That view does not make him or me right-wing.

Another myth of the nationalist right.

The Brexit campaign is fuelled by a mythology of England "standing proud and alone" just as we did against the Spanish Armada and Hitler. But this is overwhelmingly not the case. Britain has alwYs been part of a larger entity.
Anglo-French
Global Empire
EU.

We have been on our own for only about 300 years of the past 1200 years.
First was the 10th century under Athelstan
Second between 1453 and 1603 when we gave up France
Otherwise we have always been part of a larger entity and not just "little England"

We are much less used to our own devices than the nationalists would like you to think we are.

Brexit are quite clear about who the them are - Brussels. It's the "us" bit that they are a tad unclear on.

Thanks to Mr O'Toole

Here is a link to the article by Nick Cohen that ww referred to. I haven't read it yet. Am just about to do so.

Will Hutton

"The millions of working-class voters thinking of voting Brexit beware. Immigrants who boost our economy are not the cause of our ills. The lack of cheap social housing, the underinvestment in public services, the non-building of roads, the inability of weakened trade unions to defend wages and the wider failure to develop vigorous local economies are not the EUs fault.
What is wron has is minted in Britain and must be put right here.

Moreover, the values that will make our lives better are mutuality and generosity - not telling others to go home and turning our backs on the noble if derided EU. To leave is it indulge the worst side of our natures, to believe fantasies about what constitutes democracy and to chase an economic chimera.

To remain is a double win - to be part of something good and get richer in the process

Think before you vote"

Thanks bags I can't do blues. But I also think sometimes they are a double edged sword.

It's a well written article. Cohen always writes well. How anyone who has read his writings can label him right-wing is beyond me. Perhaps because they disagree with him on something(s) he has to be labelled thus. As niggly was saying up thread. Hey ho.

I think one edge is blunted if one tries to give a précis that might encourage people to read.

Whitewave.....I expect Nick Cohen will be voting to remain then.

Who has labelled him right wing bags? If you think it was me can you put a comma after "right wing" in your minds eye then read it again.

...I thought it was actually the weather that defeated the Spanish Armada; lets hope the weather is in a favour over the next few weeks/months/years but, alas, I fear a mighty storm is brewing...

I am surprised though that someone would post a link to arn article they have not read?!

The lack of funding in the NHS has nothing to do with immigration of course- but the fact that the UK has always (I believe) chosen to spend a smaller % of GDP on health care than most other developed countries- and that this government has chosen to cut this even further, again and again. THAT is the problem- it is a clear political choice. Same for education, where the per head capita is also much smaller than most developed countries. Again a clear political choice and not a fatality. All that needs to happen is for politicians, and the 'people' to be prepared to pay for both adequately.

What worries me about immigration is the fact that we are a relatively small island with sixty million people or thereabouts living here, with enormous problems, housing, health education provision and so on. But over and above that what concerns me most is the fact that there are in the shadows of society, if it's to be believed, hundreds of 'baby Peters' being mistreated, tortured and killed by their Parents/carers, falling through the net of our beleaguered social workers, so how on earth can we successfully cope with an influx of unaccompanied vulnerable children from overseas without some falling into the hands of the very people we're trying to protect them from, particularly older children who will inevitably go out and about unaccompanied? Having worked in social care (the elderly) for many years I know only too well what a stressful job this can be. The cruelty inflicted on old people was at times just horrible, but a tiny/bigger child, in a foreign country that is unable to cope with home grown tradgedies is for me a great worry. I hope none of you perceive this as racist, as I assure you its not. If we were a big country with a bottomless purse it would be absolutely fine, but we're not and that's a serious issue. What do others think?

I do totally understand this- but education, NHS, and lack of housing is a man-made political choice- and not a fatality.

Parts of the UK are indeed over crowded, but overall not at all. I can drive from our flat in the East Midlands either East or North for hours and only encounter small villages- and this is even more so further North.

Many European countries, like mine and Holland, etc, are much more densely populated- and the great majority of people do not have their own home with a private garden. London is massively spread out due to private house ownership- which would be impossible for most elsewhere due to lack of space.

Map and population of area's might open some people eyes instead of presuming

world.bymap.org/LandArea.html

Land area has little to do with the land area which is habitable. If your country is made up of mountains and lakes which cannot be lived in/on, with little land to grow crops- the area is not much good to you.

Interesting article by Dan Hodges in the Mail on Sunday, which (unlike its stable mate) has come out for Remain:

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3648708/DAN-HODGES-Brexit-opened-Pandora-s-box-destroy-Britain.html

@ granjura

Exactly! Good luck to anybody who wants to live in Northern Russia, Antarctica or Saudi Arabia!