Why are the Far Right rising?

LaPennaBianca said:
Yes.

But they also need something to vote for. The social contract risks breaking down otherwise.

Affordable housing and student debt forgiveness at the very least. Infrastructure investment and buy to let landlords thrown in the stocks too.
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If they become active they can start to formulate policy, and there'll be support from the majority of active wrinklies.
 
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Nero said:
I can’t say anything on other places but for Britain it’s political decision making. It would be easy to say Tory Austerity (which is a massive part of it) but the root cause goes to the Thatcher neoliberal agenda.

Selling off massive parts of Britain without reinvestment in industry, allowing large areas of the North to descend into poverty, which has seen massive social issues created, creating ongoing issues for local government.

Removing any control on financial institutions, which allowed them to turbo charge credit. This for a time created the illusion that growth had been achieved, but ultimately it resulted in massive increases in land and property value, which further increased inequality. Cheaper credit allowed normal people to think they were wealthy, but uncontrolled credit resulted in the 2008 financial crises, which very nearly caused the economy to implode.

2008 meant the British government acting like it had to during COVID and creating billions to stop banks going bust. It was the only choice available, but banks withdrew almost entirely from lending. Suddenly, small businesses weren’t supported, bigger business forced into austerity measures by banks desperate for their money back and the knock on effect was recession. Lots of employees were give a choice - take a pay cut or lose your job. Some took a pay cut and still lost their job.

The 2010 election allowed the Tories to create the lie it was Labour’s fault (how that was allowed to stick is incredible). Once Tory Austerity kicked in things really got worse.

Just looking at the state of roads all over England is the symbol of austerity. Local government was massively underfunded causing them to cut back on everything. Proactively maintaining roads was now impossible. Roads are only fixed once they become dangerous.

With local services cut to the bone and all national government services reduced, society started to feel very different. This ultimately led to Brexit, which was always going to be a total disaster.

In light of all that, just blame poor dark skinned people on all your problems. It’s clearly their fault trying to make a better life for themselves in a country many have connections with.
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I disagree with this. I think this explains why the country has gone to the dogs but not necessarily why people would turn to the right to solve their problems.

The right are good at marketing. They convince people that they have something and then make someone trying to take it away the enemy. In fairness to the people that do get suckered in (they are nearly always of the same demographic) which is the race/nationality of their country, working class and male. Those people are competing for jobs and a standard of living in a different world to their parent's generation. Where they used to be the majority of the workforce they are now competing with women and immigration. There is far more focus by employers on representation and diversity and to improve those things the existing dominant group by default is the one that loses out. Even the ones that do have a job are not able to do what their parents did and buy a house and support their family on a single income. It's really no wonder that anyone appealing to this group of people will find support. The sad thing is that the political parties that should be appealing to these people have ignored them. In the UK these people should be Labour's bread and butter but they've abandoned their roots which was protecting workers in favour of businesses, equality and diversity.

On the face of it social progression and increased equality is definitely the right thing to do but far more focus has to be on those that will inevitably lose out because for a long time now white, working class boys have seen their performances in schools, their subsequent opportunities in the workplace and their standing in society slipping all the time being told that they have been privileged in the past.

Where should they turn? If Labour aren't prioritising them in any way then someone is going to offer them something. Even if it is based on nonsense and falsehoods, it will appeal to them. Give them a group to be a part of and they won't fear voting for a party that the majority would ridicule.
 
Without net immigration of around 200,000 our population would actually be falling. I believe it is actually declining in Redcar and Cleveland and Middlesbrough Borough Council areas even with net immigration of 500,000. As we know many Brits have left the UK and follow the Boro from Spain, NZ, Australia, USA on here. Of the net 500,000, many have visa to study here and bring money here for their fees and living expenses or come to work in the NHS or Care sectors. OK there are some people who are immigrants that don't add to the proserity of the the UK, but they are in the minority in my opinion.

We do have problems in this country with enough trained professionals willing to work full time. I would even include myself (and there will be others on here) who are not 67 and not working full time now. Over the years the rewards declined (9 years frozen pay, but increased tax) and the conditions became worse (working in classrooms without windows or too small), putting in lots of free overtime. The amount of effective training, support etc significantly dropped, but was required. The amount of doctors training is controlled by the BMA and the supply has been restricted. Nurses now have to take degrees and have had fees to pay.

Holland's wealth to some extent came from immigrants, the diamond/jewellery trade was set up by Jewish people from Spain and Portugal. Holland's wealth also came from international trade, even more so than the UK, look at anglo-dutch companies Unilever (started off making soaps and margarine from palm/veg oil and Shell (oil exploration and processing) now World leaders and massive global businesses.
 
Nano said:
I disagree with this. I think this explains why the country has gone to the dogs but not necessarily why people would turn to the right to solve their problems.

The right are good at marketing. They convince people that they have something and then make someone trying to take it away the enemy. In fairness to the people that do get suckered in (they are nearly always of the same demographic) which is the race/nationality of their country, working class and male. Those people are competing for jobs and a standard of living in a different world to their parent's generation. Where they used to be the majority of the workforce they are now competing with women and immigration. There is far more focus by employers on representation and diversity and to improve those things the existing dominant group by default is the one that loses out. Even the ones that do have a job are not able to do what their parents did and buy a house and support their family on a single income. It's really no wonder that anyone appealing to this group of people will find support. The sad thing is that the political parties that should be appealing to these people have ignored them. In the UK these people should be Labour's bread and butter but they've abandoned their roots which was protecting workers in favour of businesses, equality and diversity.

On the face of it social progression and increased equality is definitely the right thing to do but far more focus has to be on those that will inevitably lose out because for a long time now white, working class boys have seen their performances in schools, their subsequent opportunities in the workplace and their standing in society slipping all the time being told that they have been privileged in the past.

Where should they turn? If Labour aren't prioritising them in any way then someone is going to offer them something. Even if it is based on nonsense and falsehoods, it will appeal to them. Give them a group to be a part of and they won't fear voting for a party that the majority would ridicule.
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I think there is a lot of racism around and, even those who are not racist fear the impact of mass immigration and culture change on their lives.
 
Sadly it is a well worn path that we fail to learn from. Politicians realise the rich pickings to be had in demonising and blaming the ‘foreigners’ in the country for the challenges the proper pure people of our lands face. These are generally the white people. These foreigners use our hospital beds, our school places, our council houses, even daring to go out with our women. Add on some further horror stories - 80 year old poppy sellers being attacked etc and stir the pot gently. They ignite the spark quite easily in older folk who remember a time we only had one or two blacks and want their country back as it was in the good old days. But worryingly it resonates and triggers a latent racism and follow the crowd mentality in people you would have thought had a wider grasp and understanding. It doesn’t take long for the demonisation to transfer into hatred and violence for those who don’t look like us and populist figures like Farage in the UK and those in Holland, Slovenia, Argentina, Hungary etc assume greater and greater support. Throw in economic challenge and rising deprivation and you have the perfect storm for the far right to exploit. All deeply worrying and depressing and I really do fear for this country if the Tories somehow win the next election.
 
the other thing to add here is the general narrative these days that everything is black and white. Every problem has an easy to identify cause and solution. We have been spoonfed this for so long now. People buy into it because we like easy solutions ... blaming the immigrants and whatnot is easy, we have a villian to hate and something to rally around and this time finally everything will be golden. The reality is of course, nothing is simple, its all a horrible murky grey and often the solutions are hard and complex ... this doesn't sell papers or win votes.
 
In this country I think declining standards of living, poorer access to housing, and declining employment opportunities in certain areas of the UK has caused anger in the last 20 years. People do see great bridges around the World built on Teesside and now know that will not happen again. Its left voids. Thats why I think its so important that there is al ot more economic development in the region.

The racism of the past was often centred on the East and South London, Central Birmingham and Central Manchester - this was where the BNP/National Front/Blackshirts marched and often recruited - now the far right focus on places like Hartlepool, Stoke on Trent, ex mining areas etc. They stoke up the anger and amplify it.
 
I’ll say it if you think this is racists then I must be. I agree with controlled immigration but do not agree with uncontrolled immigration. I do not know what the answer is but just to call everyone far right or racist is not the answer or just blame the conservatives
 
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Omega said:
I’ll say it if you think this is racists then I must be. I agree with controlled immigration but do not agree with uncontrolled immigration. I do not know what the answer is but just to call everyone far right or racist is not the answer or just blame the conservatives
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Well the vote to 'control immigration' ended in more immigration, while the 'open door' system of the EU meant we had less. So be careful what you wish for?
 
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