So, the Tories have won Henley, no real surprise there then ! Anywhere that voted in Boris Johnson ( I know what you're thinking and yeah , ok he's better than Ken and his Cronies) has to have been a conservative stronghold! - what I think is more important from the by-election is the huge blow to Labour coming fifth- as most of you know I'm not a big fan of Labour, but for this major party, however inadequate, to be beaten by the British National Party is a real disgrace, and a worrying display from upper-middle class England.
Labour was also beaten by the green Candidate, a result in which Mr. Blackall I'm sure will share my delight. I can see why people would be annoyed that the greens achieved such a high level of votes, as they are often seen as a single-issue party. However I don't feel that this is comparable to the BNP's proportion of votes. - Now I'm trying to write this in a way that doesn't make me sound like the more passionate delegates at a NUS meeting, but How can people be so dissolutioned by migration that they are led to vote for a party who have racist views?
I have two theories, Firstly. the way in which the BNP have glamourised racism, making it seem acceptable to 'respectable middle class families' - no longer hailing it's 'vanguard' of skinhead yobs as heroes, but taking a more sinister and dark path of seemingly 'gentle' racism, with an image of 'tea and sandwiches' with the vicar. This, twinned with the McCarthyist Hysteria that is Xenophobia today. I've said this before in previous blogs, so go there for more information, but Multiculturalism is a GOOD thing!
