Friday, July 20, 2007
"Respect": laugh-a-minute
Couldn't resist putting this one up - from the "Respect" website:
Repect rules the streets of Ealing Southall 18/07/2007
With the implosion of main party enthusiasm since last weekend it is Respect's supporters who dominate the streets of Ealing Southall constituency with one day's campaigning left.
Our leaflets, speaker-cars, stickers and window posters are everywhere because our message of peace, justice and equality chimes with voters' mood. "Because we do not insult the intelligence of this electorate with petty personality politics," explained Respect agent Richard Brackenbury, "we find that voters listen to what we say about war, privatisation, tuition fees and civil liberties."
They got 588 votes (1.6%).
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PS: Weirder still was Respect's attack on Tory candidate Tony Lit - not for being a right-wing, rich, corrupt bastard who'd clearly sell his own grandmother to get into Parliament, which party not being particularly important - but for not speaking Hindi or Punjabi. They protest that "He doesn't speak any community language! Yet he claims to be a local."
Now Ealing Southall has a very large community from the Indian subcontinent, but there are many people living there who don't speak Hindi or Punjabi - some of them of Indian or Pakistani origin. Effectively calling someone a hypocrite for not "speaking a community language" is not only bizarre, it's communalist politics of the worst kind: singling out people of Indian and Pakistani origin, calling them enclosed "communities", separate from "us" (like "Respect agent Richard Brackenbury", who I bet doesn't speak a word of Hindi or Punjabi). Given the lack of enthusiasm for "mainstream" politics and the comical antics of the Tories, i'm sure "Respect" would have done much better had they stood on a socialist platform, rather than effectively on a communalist platform.
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Repect rules the streets of Ealing Southall 18/07/2007
With the implosion of main party enthusiasm since last weekend it is Respect's supporters who dominate the streets of Ealing Southall constituency with one day's campaigning left.
Our leaflets, speaker-cars, stickers and window posters are everywhere because our message of peace, justice and equality chimes with voters' mood. "Because we do not insult the intelligence of this electorate with petty personality politics," explained Respect agent Richard Brackenbury, "we find that voters listen to what we say about war, privatisation, tuition fees and civil liberties."
They got 588 votes (1.6%).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PS: Weirder still was Respect's attack on Tory candidate Tony Lit - not for being a right-wing, rich, corrupt bastard who'd clearly sell his own grandmother to get into Parliament, which party not being particularly important - but for not speaking Hindi or Punjabi. They protest that "He doesn't speak any community language! Yet he claims to be a local."
Now Ealing Southall has a very large community from the Indian subcontinent, but there are many people living there who don't speak Hindi or Punjabi - some of them of Indian or Pakistani origin. Effectively calling someone a hypocrite for not "speaking a community language" is not only bizarre, it's communalist politics of the worst kind: singling out people of Indian and Pakistani origin, calling them enclosed "communities", separate from "us" (like "Respect agent Richard Brackenbury", who I bet doesn't speak a word of Hindi or Punjabi). Given the lack of enthusiasm for "mainstream" politics and the comical antics of the Tories, i'm sure "Respect" would have done much better had they stood on a socialist platform, rather than effectively on a communalist platform.
Labels: Bizarrerie
