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Mon, May 3rd 2010, 12:06

Tanit Parada Tur, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, (4)

MacShane's article gives an excellent insight on the current trend of intolerance that has infected European politics ranging from the UK to Hungary. Unfortunately this is not something new, Austria and France infamous right-wing political leaders such as LePen used demagogy and hate as political tools. I have the impression though, that the economic situation that is Europe facing at present times might help conceal somehow this fact. People who is more worried about unemployment might ignore their leader's use of the "anti-foreigner" campaign and centre their attention towards other issues on the campaign. Fortunately, articles such as this one alert us on the “radical populism” of which MacShane talks about.

Mon, May 3rd 2010, 13:03

Craig Alexander John Russell, Grontmij Engineering Consultants, (4)

Being a UK resident, I have watched the UK election coverage with great interest and I can say, without much doubt, that immigration has sadly become the central campaign issue. This may very well have been aided by the comments of current Labour leader and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who called a women who had raised the issue of immigration with him "a bigot". Regardless, with the opposition Conservative party proposing a definitive cap on non EU immigrants and Gordon Brown, in his bid not to be outdone on being "tough" on immigration, exclaiming support for "British jobs for British workers", the issue is becoming more heated than ever. Unfortunately, a mixture of economic distress and discussion of immigration tends to result in absolutist solutions and right wing reactions. This would be to the great detriment of the situation in Scotland, where a declining and ageing population, coupled with a falling birth rate, put the issue of immigration into an entirely different context than that of England. Scotland has a long history of successfully integrating immigrant communities, be they from Ireland, the sub continent or even merely England, it has also been the staging point itself for centuries of emigration. So with the need for immigration remaining strong north of the border, and with ethnic scots making up significant proportions of the inhabitants in many parts of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it would be most unfortunate and hypocritical if their attitude began to become somewhat more intolerable as a result of the swing to the right of the public perception of the issue in England.