"Today we announce a new policy." These were the words Zia Yusuf used to introduce Reform's intention to set up networks of "detention centres" for deporting tens of thousands of people at a time. Their precious promise? To ensure none are situated in constituencies with Reform MPs or local authorities run by the party. They will, by and large, be placed where there are Green councils or Green MPs. In doing so, Yusuf was able to win the attention wars for the morning of Bank Holiday Monday in the most repugnant way possible.
There is a mass market for political thuggery, but that market doesn't extend beyond the 15-20% of the electorate that are the party's base. And it might give its softer "I'm not racist, but ..." some pause ... before they vote for Reform anyway. It does, however, limit their appeal beyond this. Strategically speaking, ahead of a set of local elections that look poor for the Tories and cataclysmic for Labour, it might be read as a call to turn out their supporters. A bit of racism, plus a poke in the eye for clueless middle class do-gooders that don't live with the consequences of mass migration. This is the vibe Reform are trying to ride. The problem they could encounter here is boosting the support for the Greens, which already has had some success with the "it's us or Reform" framing. Of course, Reform know this too. They've reasoned that in places not like Gorton and Denton, left wing politics and defending migration is much less palatable than themselves, and will put disaffected centre-leaning voters off from lending them their support. A strategy Reform thinks could cement divisions on the broader left they can capitalise on. We will see.
Reform are also teeing up for another summer of shouting loudly about immigration. Improving conditions in the Channel means more small boat crossings, and with it another round of tabloid hysteria. Months of right wing efforts at re-stoking the 2024 summer riots lie ahead. Unfortunately for Reform, and for everybody else, the cost-of-living crisis is to spike as the American/Israeli stand off with Iran remains unresolved. This, not Labour "getting tough" on immigration, is why immigration has fallen down priority list. And because the Gulf isn't about to sort itself out, and is looking more fraught at the time of writing, it's not likely another round of scaremongering is going to work as a distraction from a crisis cooked up between Washington and Tel Aviv. And that's a problem for Reform, because they have nothing that can address this crisis and, as Keir Starmer mentions every time he's near a TV camera, Farage wanted the UK to back the US-Israeli war on Iran in the first place.
Reform has plumbed new depths for British politics. A reminder to Labour's clever, clever strategists that it can never out-right wing an extreme right wing party on race and immigration. But, like the Tories before them with their awful Rwanda deportation plan, Labour have stirred the pot by scapegoating refugees and refusing to challenge the lies put out by the press, cultivating an inchoate, atomised, reactionary mob who find embers of collectivity and connection through spite and by punching downward. Who'd have thought jabbing an endless river of toxins into politics might have resulted in something entirely malignant that, in turn, threatens to consume them. They made this politics possible, and I might have said serves them right. If the results of their poison didn't threaten us all.
Image Credit
No comments:
Post a Comment