Labour beaten into 5th place in Henley By-Election.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7476703.stm

Surprised no-ones posted about this.

Amazing and frightening that Labour came BEHIND THE BLOODY BNP.

So the Tories won it. Whoopdiedoodah. It's a safe seat for them, they could have stuck a blue rosette on a monkey and it would have won. But the headline is how badly Labour have done.

Mark.

I can't see Labour being able to recover to beat the Tories in the next election now. And I'd expect a Tory absolute majority, unless the Lib Dems can do something special to recover.

Still, at least the Greens beat the BNP.

Unless something quite extraordinary happens I can't see how they can win a 4th term.

Also I'm wondering if they bothered to campaign at all in Henley. I know that they make no effort round my neighbourhood and when I have asked Labour members why they have replied that I won't hear anything from them as I live on "the Lib Dem's patch". If that's the case here then is a safe Tory seat with Lib Dem's in 2nd place really going to be much better?

Not that they lost to the Tories (inevitable in Henley); but that they came below the BNP!

What is it about people???!!!!!??????

I'm seeing a lot of anti-immigrant rants, especially against Muslims.

Seems to give the lie to the suggestion that the BNP are "respectable" only to "working class voters".

An interesting response to the re-emergence of fascism here:

http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=233

The Skin

You have the RW talk-shows; we have the RW tabloids.

And anti-immigrant bigotry has always been the biggest sort of bigotry in the UK. In fact, in the UK Islamophobia tends to be secondary to it: people mosly don't so much hate immigrants because some of them are Muslims, as they hate Muslims because many of them are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. They hate other immigrants (currently often East Europaeans ) almost as much.

some Polish immigrants were going home, and the reaction was overwhelmingly, "That's too bad. They're so hard-working and dependable."

The Times is conservative, but doesn't usually pander to the EXTREME right; plus its readership includes a fair number of upper-middle-class businesspeople who may like the relatively cheap labour they currently get from Poles.

The tabloids on the other hand whip up a lot of hate against Poles and other Eastern Europaeans. The Daily Mail got some serious complaints from a Polish-British organization because of it - for once they'd picked on a community that *does* have a little bit of clout to defend itself. But the Hate-Mail hasn't changed much.

I'll admit that the tabloids generally treat immigrants even WORSE if they aren't white than if they are.

although it's comments sections can be pretty hairy at times.

But your tabloids are downright unnerving.