It’s Saturday afternoon, and I can’t quite shake the chill that came over me when watching Friday’s Newsnight. They were still on how Margaret Hodge suggested giving Brits priority over immigrants for council houses. They had Keith Vaz MP attacking her – and for the defence, Nick Griffin, head of the BNP, debating like a presidential candidate. I’ve never seen him before being interviewed as a serious commentator on an issue of national debate: it represented a new, ominous level of respectability. He was there because no Westminster party is willing to back Ms Hodge. Proof that a vast tract of political territory has been ceded to the far-right.
The same Newsnight interviewed a bunch of Labour-voting, elderly ramblers and asked what concerned them. Immigration was their number one concern. What Hodge said is backed by 69% of the public. This is how far-right parties rise: when mainstream parties are too politically-correct to reflect the clear public view.
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