Pretty sure that was in the BNP manifesto a decade ago
Get on with it, Corbyn!
I guess itâs interesting heâs a Welsh MP (or maybe he should just know better) as when people talk like this about âBritish peopleâ or âBritish valuesâ, they invariably mean âEnglishâ.
And you wonder why they lost Scotland, eh.
apart from anything else, the semantics of this is bizarre. âAssimilationâ ffs.
âthe british people: RESISTANCE IS FUTILEâ
This is vintage. Ultimate failure in trying to square off the 2 concerns du jour for centre-left folk - âconcerns about a leftist obsession with âidentity politicsââ colliding with âmeeting the electorate in the middle with their âconcerns on immigrationââ. The use of the word assimilation in this context just highlighting how ill-equipped Labour is to deal with this sort of thing. It makes for both fascinating and crushingly depressing viewing.
In other words what I think this quote is attempting to do is to go âletâs not talk about our differences letâs just talk about EVERYONE, regardless, of background under the umbrella of Britishnessâ. Which is fair enough. Quite why youâd then go on to suggest not using a perfectly acceptable and established word for it in favour of one that is hashtag problematic is anyoneâs guess.
Thatâs my reading of it anyway.
#LEGITIMATE CONCERNS!
If you read the other tweets from his speech itâs pretty clear he hasnât got over the New Labour desire to triangulate on every policy - which means that his reflex is to seek common ground by offering up mild versions of BNP views while talking up Paul Nuttallâs appeal.
If thatâs not what heâs doing, then his use of language is so ham-fisted and so muddled that he shouldnât be anywhere near politics anyway.
Utterly self-defeating and self-sabotaging. The Progress conference has revealed them to be totally fine with abandoning any progressive principles if it means they can appease xenophobes.
is that S Kinnockâs words then? jfc. I thought it was a generic progress statement written by an idiot intern, that theyâd sort of directed at him?
Regardless - taking it to mean britishness evolving to include facets from other cultures, rather than a desire for britishness to triumph over otherness is a fairly generous interpretation of a shit tweetâŚ
Blairites officially worse than Tories
Trouble is, even if this is the case, itâs exactly the kind of hamfisted messaging and obliviousness that much of Progress and similar groupings were trying to oust Corbyn over. Different topic, obviously, but given theyâre the self styled âcompetentâ wing of Labour, itâs surely not too much to expect them to engage their brains a bit further before putting out things with this kind of language?
It doesnât serve to give me much confidence that Kinnock or Progress have done any thinking since the leadership election as to why triangulation has failed Labour in recent years