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When Dina Begum visited Barking and Dagenham in East London, she was alarmed by signs of racism and intolerance
First on posters plastered all over multi-ethnic areas nationwide; then slowly taking up more and more inches of column space; and now in my dreams. It seems the BNP are everywhere these days. One minute they’ve joined the newly formed English Defence League protesting outside a mosque in Harrow, the next BBC Question Time is inviting them to be a panellist. I’m not questioning their democratic right to be in either place but I can’t help but wonder if I am the only one noticing this increased tension that seems to be rearing its ugly head everywhere.
These dreams had picked up on a few random thoughts, namely the memory of my ‘Very Long Walk’. This was really my first visit to the Dagenham part of Barking and Dagenham; in essence a derelict neighbourhood built around a square patch of faded green grass with identical looking squat terraced houses. My preconceptions about the neighbourhood were eerily pertinent. The quiet stillness was nothing but uninviting and even worse was the gang of teens hanging around the tube exit taunting people as they went in and out of the tube station. As I hurriedly exited the station I could almost picture a band of skinheads ready to come charging at me at any moment, telling me to "go back home".
Equipped with the bearings of an upside down compass after being thrown in water, I naturally sought out a friendly face to point me in the right direction. So I spotted an elderly white gentleman whom I’d seen just a moment ago patting a dog that passed by near a housing estate, and stopped him to ask if he knew where my destination might be.
As soon as he saw me, he recoiled in horror as though I had the plague and rushed away saying he didn’t know the area – which I doubted very much. A part of me wanted to run after him just to convince him that I wasn’t scary and another part of me felt hurt, humiliated and a little shocked.
Just a few months ago even the most apathetic British Asian (myself included) hurried along to their local polling station in order to cast votes that we hoped would diminish the rising presence of a party that did not respect them and even hated them. This year was the first time I voted, for a reason that I believe is crucial to the fabric of any civilised society – to keep out any sort of extremist, hateful or prejudiced doctrine from casting a malignant shadow over our daily lives.
This increase in votes was less an exercise in fulfilling civil liberties and more a lesson in fear. The outcome of the local elections hasn’t really inspired much hope. Barking and Dagenham council has eight BNP councillors and there is a chance that the Labour administration will be defeated in the coming year. If this happens the BNP will take hold of their first borough. An alarming prospect not only for the people that live there but for the nation itself.
I used to enjoy reading my local paper back in Tower Hamlets; however these days a jolt of apprehension runs down my spine when I see the familiar colours of the Barking and Dagenham newspaper lying inside my porch. The paper looks fine if you don’t live in the area and would receive top marks for its articles on the multiculturalism in evidence (if there was a prize for most politically correct local paper...) yet flip over a few pages and the glossy sheen starts to fade.
You might scratch your head and wonder if you should meet your local councillor to complain about those antisocial louts trying to tear down the fence near Mrs what’s-her-face’s garden, or the way a party carried on until way after eight. But then you scratch your head and forget the idea. The letters BNP occur prominently after a name, then another name, until you are forced to close the paper in panic, realising that maybe it’s not such a great notion meeting your local councillor after all.
I noticed a piece of bunting that read ‘Barking and Dagenham for Peace’ tacked opposite my local London Underground station recently. A celebration of all things peaceful I suppose. I had thought that the days of holding events to inspire peace were over. Change is happening, yet not in the way that would have us rise up as a collective filled with hope. This change is intangible, easily hidden by a fast-paced city life and outward displays of unity. Do more people than I thought want me to ‘go back home'?
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Comment and Analysis 
Lot of truth in what you say. But the BNP recruiting a Sikh - who has long been regarded as a nutter by his own community - is not progressive, and certainly not reflective of British Sikhs generally. It is a PR stunt by a party under legal pressure over its refusal (until this week) to allow non-white members. A party of far-right whites has found a far-right Sikh. That's all that's happened.
It's residents often suffer from living in 'anti-social' developments which gives rise to the same predictable problems of the 1970s.
The residents are from various backgrounds and ethnic groups but it's the working-class whites who feel threatened and don't relate to these often 'newer' migrants (having also been ignored for so long by 'their own'). This only causes more divide amongst their neighbours and harbours HATE which is easily exploited by the BNP and used by other political parties, looking for new angles to the same old problems they're unwilling to do much about.
It's sad that the 'working man's' party, the Labour lot have distanced themselves so much from their core supporters, recruiting 'token ethnics' in their midst, waiting to roll out their brown faces when the issue of integration and diversity pop back onto the agenda to reassure us: "there, there, all's fine, they like us really". But now the 'Bloody Nasty People's' party has gone one better and recruited their own Sikh [their own 'Paki'] in a turban as a new mascot.
Is it a desperate move, a progressive shift or has the turban become the new symbol for British Neo-Colonialism?
Despite the PR efforts of Nick Griffin, the BNP is still fundamentally a racist organisation. Most of their policies are based on racist ideologies. They can't help themselves from dragging race issues - sometimes thinly disguised as a faux respect for "British" values - into everything.
Even if one were to ignore the racism, their policies are at best ludicrous, more often abhorrent. They talk about liberty and democracy, but their every policy seems to adocate tight state control of education, industry, the media and anything else they can think of. Not only are they grotesquely illiberal, they would hae a disasterous effect on the British economy and our place in the world. Take a good look at their web site: if you can get past the shameless pandering to prejudice and bigotry the stupidity of their policies is plain to see.
There are many good reasons not to support the Labour Party, but there is not a single good reason to support the BNP.
It's a sorry day that I see labour as the racist party and the BNP a party i can perhaps change.
I cannot change new labour, with removing money from the sick the disabled removing DLA from the over 65 sick and disabled I've decided to join the BNP what a state of affairs.