Labour MP Simon Danczuk, the MP who recently clashed with Owen Jones on the Daily Politics over the Spending Review, has a piece in today's Telegraph in which he writes that the politics of the Labour left "should be viewed in the same way as we view the views of the BNP".
Labour MP Simon Danczuk, the MP who recently clashed with Owen Jones on the Daily Politics over the Spending Review, has a piece in today’s Telegraph in which he writes that the politics of the Labour left “should be viewed in the same way as we view the views of the BNP”.
This is a shame, and it appears frustration has got the better of Danczuk, because putting aside this absurd comparison he makes some good points in the piece.
But no, the Labour left should not “be viewed in the same way as the BNP”. The BNP are a racist party who, amongst other things, would like to forcibly repatriate non-white Britons. If Danczuk had been comparing communists to the BNP then there might have been an academic argument to be had (Stalinists killed more people than fascists, after all), but he only refers to the “Labour left”.
In other words, Danczuk is comparing people who use their time and energy to try to improve the lives of working people – usually for nothing in return – to racist thugs and holocaust deniers who firebomb “P*ki shops”.
As well as being extraordinarily lazy, this is a disgraceful slur on many fine activists.
Sure, some of the Labour left’s ideas about nationalisation may be a little naive; but this does not make them comparable to a party that promotes sinister racial theories and hates people based on nothing more than the pigmentation of their skin.
Danczuk is right to highlight the economic illiteracy of those unreconstructed Bennites who have failed to learn from the failures of the post-war settlement. He is also right to criticise those in the Labour Party who view “Blairites” as the main enemy, rather than the Conservative Party. But comparing the Labour left to the BNP is not the way to make that point.
Being wrong is not the same as being racist, and it’s remarkable that anyone (least of all an MP) should need to be told that.
27 Responses to “Message to Simon Danczuk MP: Being wrong is not the same as being racist”
Matthew Blott
Simon Danczuk is fed up with middle class bien pensant lefties with an overly romantic view of an industrial working class that barely exists anymore and who make a lot of noise but do not live in the real world. We do have a dreadful vindictive government but anyone who has experienced living on a council estate knows there are piss takers and arguing “the bankers” doesn’t cut it when most people only see one end of the scale. Sure, there are plenty of greedy bastards doing the same at the top end but two wrongs don’t make a right (believe me, that’s the response I get from people when I point out the excesses of the wealthy).
RogerMcC
Yes – and I am second to none in my loathing of Respect and other pseudo-leftists.
Because there is stupid and wrong and then there is mad and evil – the pseudo-left is stupid and wrong, the BNP and far right are mad and evil.
Sure if George Galloway somehow became dictator he and his minions would create a hell on earth but that will never happen and so all he and they can be are annoying windbags.
The far right however are violent racist psychopaths who beat and bomb and kill because that is what real fascists and racists do.
RogerMcC
Troll.
Stephen Henderson
“middle class bien pensant lefties”.. is that supposed to be me? Does that make me worse than the BNP or ….what? I’m lost now.
Anyway.. the challenge stands. Explain without recourse to calling me a stalinist or a nazi or an asparagus chomping liberal :
What is the point of making people wait another 3 days on top of the ~3weeks before they receive jobseekers allowance? Why is this a good idea? What does it achieve?
Matthew Blott
My Disqus account informed me you’d responded to my comments and I noticed you’d asked a couple of questions so I shall respond in kind …
My reference to “middle class bien pensant lefties” was not specifically aimed at you but was directed towards those in the public sphere such as Owen Jones, Laurie Penny et al who think a return to 1980s style identity politics is a fruitful strategy for achieving power (actually I’m not sure they even believe it will achieve power, they just think it should be done regardless). I do not know you so could not comment as to whether you are a member of this tribe or not (are you?).
I am not in the habit of calling people Nazis and Stalinists (unless it is true as would be the case, for example, with the Guardian’s resident Stalinist Seumas Milne who complains that Stalin gets a bad press and doesn’t get enough credit for his achievements). That is usually the tactic of the lefties I am criticising here. I admit however that I may call you an asparagus chomping liberal if I could verifiably prove you eat asparagus. And if I could prove you eat asparagus, no, I do not think that would make you worse than the BNP (I was not even calling you a dickhead myself – I suggested, since you were making disparaging remarks about Simon Danczuk, he might not have too big an opinion of yourself).
Your last question, what’s the point of making Jobseeker’s wait another three days? I don’t know, I didn’t realise we were debating a specific policy. It may well be a stupid policy – this government isn’t averse to stupidity – I was framing my argument in broader terms as I believe Simon Danczuk wanted to: i.e. looking at the welfare dependency culture and ways to reform it. I actually think benefits in this country are pitifully low but need to be better targeted. Owen Jones, I believe, just thinks we should funnel government money towards the benefit bill come what may. Any more questions?