It’s not me who’s ignorant – it’s everyone who took against what I said about racial discrimination

If I’m not allowed to say that British workers shouldn't lose out to migrants, then we may as well tell young people to find jobs abroad

Nigel Farage
Thursday 12 March 2015 16:24 GMT
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Nigel Farage (centre) speaks on stage during a Ukip rally held at the Emmanuel Centre, London
Nigel Farage (centre) speaks on stage during a Ukip rally held at the Emmanuel Centre, London (PA)

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There was some uproar this week, as there always seems to be when I try and defend the interests of the British working man and woman.

The establishment and their corporate allies don’t like that kind of thing, nor do the thousands of “equality and diversity officers” who clutter the corridors of Whitehall, Westminster, and local government.

No, turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. That’s why when I make the case that I think Britain has come a long way on racial equality, and that in 2015 we don’t necessarily need reams of paper in the way of equality legislation, everyone goes bananas – and quite publicly too.

The Prime Minister, and Labour’s supposed leader Ed Miliband tweeted up a storm, announcing that I was the worst thing to happen to this country since the Second World War, or something to that effect. While Sadiq Khan MP said that my comments were “ignorant”.

Well, let’s just take a look at that word – and the reactions of the establishment yesterday. There are some very interesting points to note, and I hope that people will take some lessons away from this incident.

First, it’s worth noting that the Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown made noises to the effect of “British jobs for British workers” sometime in 2009. Was he also ignorant, according to Mr Khan, who was then Mr Brown’s Communities Minister? I’m guessing not.

Because the political classes of this country aren’t interested in consistency and truth-telling – they’re becoming mindless drones, endlessly obsessed with negative attacks on one another. It’s a crying shame that Britain’s once proud politics are being reduced to this.

Second, there appears to be consensus between Labour, Lib Dems, and the Conservatives that nothing can or should be done about the burgeoning unemployment rates amongst British young people, be they black, white, Asian, or otherwise.

If I’m not allowed to make the point that these people – our people – should not be discriminated against in favour of migrant workers from southern and eastern Europe – then we may as well be honest with young people in this country and tell them to go abroad and find jobs elsewhere. So which is it?

Third: it’s quite shocking to me that someone like Mr Khan using arguments that unwittingly reference a segregationist and sectarian mindset. He categorises people, as he did in his BBC interview yesterday, by their race. I don’t, and nor does Ukip. We’re colour-blind as a party.

But evidently Labour still sees things in black or white or brown. They’re interested in putting people in little, convenient boxes so that they can label you, and target you as their spin doctors advise, as a “special interest group”.

Well I’m not interested in any of that. If you’re British, you’re British, as far as I’m concerned. And Britain’s government has a priority towards the people of this country first. Whether we’re talking about labour laws, our National Health Service, or otherwise – a government’s first instinct should be towards the protection and wellbeing of its own people, especially the most vulnerable.

I’m afraid that what this incident has really shown us is that the mainstream establishment, including the press and the media, are perhaps racist themselves. Because when I said “British” they heard “white”, and set a course for the media narrative to pretend I made a distinction between people of different skin colours. This is their own, inbuilt racism. And it’s shameful.

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