No Platform isn’t working – it’s time to put forward the case for immigration

By Olly Deed

The election of two British National Party MEPs points towards a failure in approach to their politics. No Platform isn’t working, hasn’t worked in the past and will not work in the future and the sooner those of us on the left realise this then the sooner we can win back those two seats in the European Parliament and smash the dishonest dialogue on immigration and multiculturalism.

The BNP has been making modest gains in local elections for the past few years. This should have been accompanied with a change of tact from mainstream political parties and particularly Labour.

The BNP are picking up our disenfranchised voters, so we have a moral imperative to address this situation. This view may be hard to digest but a No Platform policy is not an effective tool for fighting the BNP; throwing eggs at their leader is not an effective tactic in combating them; running scared from the debate on immigration is not the answer.

Why are Labour ministers unwilling to raise their heads above the parapet and defend the immigration system? Why won’t they defend the honest hard working immigrants who contribute to our economy? And where is the defence of the immigration policy that the government has employed?

Instead of that defence, on election night Andy Burnham talked about the concerns people have about immigration therefore conceding ground to the far right politics of the BNP. So therefore, the government has to engage in the debate on immigration, but should try to frame the debate around the positive impact that immigration has had in Britain and will continue to have in the future.

This leads me back to the No Platform policy, which in the face of increased media coverage for the BNP needs to be re-assessed. The policy fails in many ways. It legitimises the claims made by Nick Griffin that they are different from all the rest, which they no doubt are in the context that he talks about. It gives the BNP an opportunity to extol its anti-immigration, neo-fascist nonsense unchallenged. And it turns the BNP into the ultimate protest vote in places like Yorkshire and Humber and in the North West, where voters are infuriated by the inability of the mainstream to function properly and are taken in by the diluted rhetoric of Griffin.

Let’s take them on. The reason why we’re so angry with the election of the BNP is because their policy prescription is so abhorrent. So what are we so afraid of? Meeting the challenge head-on is the only way we can win back the two seats the BNP snatched from Labour.

The Labour Party should rethink its no platform policy immediately. Otherwise we’ll have a repeat of Sunday evening time and time again.

Olly Deed also blogs at Deedo Dictates.

Related posts:

1. This might be the right time for Labour’s untainted generation to step forward
2. Labour’s doorstep narrative isn’t working
3. Britain has to look back before it can look forward if it hopes to build diplomatic relations with Iran
4. Rumours that Blears brought resignation forward after Downing Street briefing against her
5. How can progressives support those working for peace in the Middle East?