I have been thinking about writing this post for days now.
The main reason is that, so often recently, I have got into conversations with
people about politics. Perhaps it is because I am autistic, but sometimes I
fail to get my arguments out in time in face-to-face conversations or, when I
do, the point comes out in a way that is unintentionally harsh or insulting to
those I disagree with, because I don’t have time to translate my thoughts into
socially acceptable language. (Yes, this does sometimes take time because the
autistic mind often comes to the answer long before it remembers the social
scripts that are often so natural for the neurotypical community.)
I am genuinely afraid of the world we now live in. It seems
more and more unpleasant, almost by the day. It also seems that we are becoming
more and more divided. I believe that there is a very high probability that our
next government, after the next general election, will be led by Reform. At
least, I believe that this will be so unless those who would oppose Reform can
come up with a robust alternative to what people perceive the Reform party to
offer.
In 2016, the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to decide
whether the United Kingdom would leave the European Union. I was passionately against
leaving the European Union and still am. It seemed to me that the main reason
people voted for Brexit was to regain control of our borders. Those who voted
for Brexit believed that being part of the European Union prevented us from
being able to take control of our borders effectively in order to reduce or prevent
the immigration that, as they saw it, was causing so many problems in our country.
In other words, our country was, and is, as they argue on its knees and we need
strong and effective government to reduce or end immigration, dealing
effectively with those who are causing the problems we are all having to live
with. We are effectively pinned down by unsustainable amounts of immigration.
Nine years later, we are no better off in terms of immigration. If anything, it
has increased. And so many people are suffering as a result of our leaving the European
Union. However, they will argue that it is not Brexit that has caused us these
problems: it is the immigration that our governments have been unable to
control. We need, as they argue, to take back control and deal with those
people who come into our country: if we get rid of them, we will be able to
make our country great again.
As a linguist, who went to University at 18 to study French,
German, and Italian in my first year at Lancaster University, I had to study
history and literature in those languages. I remember studying a play called Furcht und Elend des dritten Reiches [roughly translated as Fear and Misery of
the Third Reich]. It was largely, as I remember, about life in Germany
during the rise of Hitler. One of the things that I took away from that and
from my other study of the inter-war period and the Second World War, is that
Hitler didn’t rise to power because Germans were evil or racist: Hitler came to
power because he knew how to say the right things to the right people at the
right time.
Not only this, the Nazi party created a culture of fear and
intimidation: those who opposed it were scared and/or intimidated into accepting
Nazism. Germans were told to work together for the Vaterland, and convinced
that the only party working for the good of the Vaterland was the Nazi party,
and only their policies would save Germany from the situation it had found
itself in between the two world wars. The enemies were the Jews, gypsies,
gay people, disabled people, political opponents: they were the people who were
keeping the German nation on its knees. In order to show love and devotion to
the Vaterland, one had to unite under the Nazi flag and deal with the problem.
If you weren’t prepared to unite under the flag, and against the nation’s
enemies, you were part of the problem.
Are you seeing the link? Are you seeing why I am so afraid
of the world we now live in?
I am told that I cannot and should not compare Reform to the
Nazi party of Germany in the 1930s. The two are completely different times and
sets of circumstances. Perhaps I am somehow ignorant or unable to understand,
but the two situations look alarmingly similar to me.
In a village not too far from where I live now, local residents
have been putting up St George’s flags. I know that it is part of a wider
movement to celebrate our identity as English people and we are encouraged to
take pride in our national flag and unite in celebrating who we are, and
working together to rebuild our nation. Ok, that is different to what was happening
in Nazi Germany. I admit. (Oh wait!) Those who give of their time are called “patriots”:
working together for the good of our nation. Some people have taken down some
of the flags and those people have been labelled “traitors”. No, still not like
Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
For me, the European Union grew out of the Second World War
when Europe said “Never again!” to fascism. The most effective way of
preventing leaders like Hitler rising again was to unite and work together to
build a Europe-wide community, in which we all worked together. And, as a linguist,
who speaks a lot of European languages, it was amazing to be able to travel so
easily within the European Union and buy books from other European countries.
One of the countries that I was able to buy books from before Brexit now no
longer ships to the United Kingdom.
If you’re still reading, well done, and thank you. I am
coming nearer to the end.
Of course, if I make these comparisons, people get very
angry. How dare I compared the United Kingdom in the 2020s to Nazi Germany in
the 1930s?!
This week, there has been lots of coverage about Nigel
Farage making anti-semitic and other racist comments to other children when he
was a teenager. One of which, if I remember correctly, was saying to a Jewish
child that Hitler was right, making noises resembling the hissing of gas being
released. When confronted, Nigel Farage claimed that those comments were not
meant in a bad or insulting way. What other way could such comments be interpreted?
“Hitler was right to get rid of all your relatives whose lives were taken by
the Nazi regime in the Second World War. But you are ok.” You see, it just
doesn’t work. He also accused the BBC of making racist and homophobic
programmes in the 70s and 80s. However, most of them, or at least the ones I
remember actually take the mickey out of the people portrayed as racist or bigots.
And so Nigel Farage’s reply is completely unsatisfactory. If he really does not
hold those opinions, it would be easy for him to say “Yes, I said things as a
teenager that I now regret. I repudiate those sentiments now. I apologise to
anybody I hurt at that time.” But that is not what he said. He, like so many of
his supporters, simply get upset about being called racist. For those people
who, like me, are afraid of Reform and their intentions, we don’t need to be
called “snowflakes” or “Lefties” or “traitors”: we simply need to be persuaded
that those views are not part of what Reform stand for. I am not yet persuaded.
I just see the parallels and the dangers. Am I the only one?
I forget which one it was, but I saw a clip of a Reform
member on television stating that Reform would detain people who arrive in this
country and then deport them if they do not have a valid claim for asylum.
Where might these people all be detained? Our prisons are full, hotels are not
really a suitable solution, so what would be? Perhaps the best option might be
to build camps in which we can hold immigrants while the government assess
their right to be in this country. Our economy cannot support providing them
with an even minimal income to live on in this country. And so I wonder whether
the best strategy would be for camps to be built to house immigrants, where they
will be kept on a sort of bare minimum to keep them going while their claims are
assessed.
Do you see my problem with this? Where has this happened
before? I wonder. (*cough* Nazi Germany *cough*)
Now, as far as I am aware, Reform has not suggested a policy
of building prisons, or camps, that could hold immigrants when they arrive.
However, it isn’t a completely unreasonable thing to think about, if our prisons
are already overfilled, and hotels too expensive an option. However, if this
starts to be an option, we are in danger of becoming like the German people of the
1930s. We need a place to house and control the people who are the largest
problem that our country faces.
Do you see why this is an issue?
Also, the St George’s flag: the English flag. We need to
unite under the English flag and protect our English identity, language and culture.
From what point in history do we trace this sense of identity, language, and
culture? Is it before the invasion of the Celts, the Romans, the Angles, the Saxons,
the Vikings, or the Normans? All of these groups were foreigners at one point
in our history, and we tried to fight many of them off, or get rid of them.
Didn’t we? Have I got that wrong?
I was born and raised in England and have lived here all of
my life apart from two short periods of living in Africa, but where do I fit
into all of this? I am a Celt. One of my grandmothers was born in Wales and
moved to England during her childhood. My other grandmother, I have recently
discovered, definitely came from a Welsh family. One of my grandfathers, from
whom I get my surname was from Birkenhead, but I think we can be fairly sure
that he was part of the migration from Ireland, most likely during the famine.
Yes, my grandfather’s family were, more than likely, immigrants. As were my
grandmother’s families.
But Matthew, we don’t have any issue with immigrants from
Ireland or Wales.
Tell that to the Irish immigrants who were not allowed jobs because
“No Irish” was place on a notice on the door. Or even if they were able to find
work, were mocked mercilessly and made the butt of 1,001 “Paddy and Murphy”
jokes. Or the Welsh, equally mocked and called “sheep shaggers”—no I won’t
apologise for the profanity—or the butt of “Taffy” jokes. The same can be said
for Scottish people too. (But I don’t have any Scottish blood, as far as I know,
although “McMurray” could also be Scottish.)
But Matthew, they are just jokes! Have a sense of humour! I
didn’t mean any offence, and I didn’t say it with any intent to hurt or upset.
Oh shit! Where have I heard that recently?
Those jokes are very funny, when I think about it.
Well, they’re funny if you’re English. We don’t tell a lot
of jokes taking the mickey out of English people though, now I am thinking
about it. If you are part of a group that is constantly the target of jokes,
you are not really accepted.
And what of the language and culture? Does Reform and its
supporters also stand for and want to protect and celebrate the cultures and language
of the Celtic Nations? (Wales, Cornwall, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Ireland) I
now speak Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Cornish.
But Matthew, these are all part of our nation and the
English support them.
What about the Welsh Not? The fox’s head in Scotland? What
about all those children who were punished for speaking their mother tongues?
What about all those children who had their mother tongues and their cultures
quite literally beaten out of them.
But Matthew, that was all a long time ago. We have moved on
from that.
“One in three children in Glasgow do not speak English as their first
language.” Where did that come from? It doesn’t mean that one in three children
do not speak English. Is he counting children who speak Gàidhlig as their first
language? After all, 10% of the whole population of Gàidhlig speakers are found
in Glasgow. Is speaking English as a first language the hallmark of truly
belonging to our nation? What about those born in Welsh-speaking communities or
Gàidhlig-speaking communities? Or Cornish-speaking communities? Yes, there are
children now in Cornwall who are raised with Cornish as their first language!
Perhaps I am being unfair. Perhaps Reform and their
supporters are fully embracing of the communities within the United Kingdom who
speak another language as their first language. I suppose it would only be fair
to mention that some of those languages are older than the version of English
that we speak today. Far be it from me to be facetious, but couldn’t those communities
say that English is the language of immigrants?
And Cornish has just been given the same status as Welsh,
Irish, and Scottish Gaelic. Is Reform committed to supporting the language and
culture of Cornwall?
And so I need a lot of convincing that Reform is the answer
to our nation’s problems. The parallels with periods of history that should
never be forgotten, and never repeated, are too frightening. I need a lot of
reassurance. As a Celt, I find it difficult to stand under the flag of St George
with my ancestry, even though I was born and raised in England, not because I
don’t love England and being English (by birth and upbringing). I am certainly
no traitor but I have too many questions.
And yes, I am afraid. Very afraid.
