The British National Party (BNP) may be in decline, but to what extent are the main parties just taking up its concerns and its discourse? A recent by-election in Barnsley continues the trend of the BNP being humiliated at the polls. But could it be that the decline of the BNP is connected to mainstream
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New writing on Cable Street
The 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street in Stepney, East London on 4 October, 1936, has provoked a batch of powerful books published by the Nottingham-based Five Leaves Press. The books celebrate the mass resistance of East Londoners, whose self-organised opposition prevented a march vaunted by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists
Annual march against custody deaths
This weekend families from across the UK will match on Downing Street to protest at the increasing numbers of deaths in custody. The annual march is organised by the United Families & Friends Campaign, which is coalition that campaigns for those that have died in the custody of the police and prison service and secure
Jimmy Mubenga remembered
Last week, over fifty campaigners joined the family and friends of Jimmy Mubenga in a vigil on the first anniversary of his death. Jimmy died on 12 October 2010, after being restrained by private security guards from the company G4S on a BA flight at Heathrow airport during a deportation attempt to Angola. Jimmy’s wife,
Whatever happened to Norway’s incitement laws?
Freedom of speech and laws prohibiting incitement to racial, religious and other forms of hatred are not incompatible if we move away from absolutist definitions. When the so-called racism paragraph (§ 135 (a) in the Norwegian General Civil Penal Code) was first introduced in 1970, it was as a direct result of Norway’s adoption of
Supreme Court dashes marriage rule
The Supreme Court has condemned the raising of the minimum age of entry for spouses and partners to 21 as a ‘sledgehammer’. The Home Office protested that the sole purpose of the November 2008 changes – which raised the minimum age of entry to join spouses and partners settled in the UK from 18 to
Other victims of the Oslo massacre
The fall-out from Breivik’s attacks finds yet more victims. It is nearly three months since the Oslo massacre. Politicians have focused on the need to modify their language, with the extreme-Right Progress Party (FrP, which scored its worst result in twenty years in the September local elections) indicating that it will modify its stance.(The message
Black History Month 2011
A selection of events taking place in celebration of Black History Month 2011. London wide Black History Month – a wide range of poetry readings, musical performances, documentaries, workshops and more. More information available here. Black History Month Southwark, London – a series of free literary events, film screenings, musical performances and more. More information
Tamil returns: ‘UKBA is not aware of any difficulties’
The deportation of up to fifty Tamil refused asylum seekers to Sri Lanka on a charter flight on 28 September once again focused attention on what happens to those returned to torturing states, and who monitors them. The charter flight went ahead in the teeth of warnings of torture from organisations including the Sri Lanka
Stoking racism fears
Unpicking one tabloid story shows how the campaign against the Human Rights Act works by stoking fear, racism and jingoism. ‘Nigerian rapist can’t be deported because of EU judges’, screams the Mail headline[1], managing to resurrect a fearsome folk devil (the image of the big black sexual predator was a potent stereotype a generation ago),