Wicked

Howard’s campaign on immigration is just plain wicked. His campaign is devious and malicious, drawing upon the very worst of human nature in a desperate attempt to gain electoral advantage.  For every word of the headline statements, there is an unspoken parallel text of racial resentment, cultural antagonism.  And for those of us who know the situation “on the ground”, the campaign is also deeply dishonest, in ways which demean democratic politics. This is wickedness of a very high order.  

I agree with Howard that the global movement of populations is a central political issue.  It ought to be on the electoral agenda – indeed, it is there already, whatever he says or does.  The issue engages all our futures, and the entire quality of our children’s lives.  The issue challenges our imagination, our generosity, our philosophies, our creativity. 

And I must acknowledge that my own Party does not come to the issue with clean hands.  Political pressures have dismantled the moral inhibitions of earlier generations.  My Government has clearly schemed to make life nastier and nastier for asylum-seekers, to the despair of those us working to assist them in their distress.  For me (as a human rights lawyer) it is particularly distressing to know that my Government has suborned our judicial and legal-aid systems, in the pursuit of nastiness. 

But through all this, it is vital that we find the right language in which to debate these profound issues.   My Labour Government has sought to keep the temperature of public debate low, keenly aware of its societal explosiveness.  Under Blunkett, nastiness to asylum-seekers was balanced by liberal immigration strategies elsewhere, with work permits and other entry schemes.  And Blunkett deserves great credit for his EU Workers Registration Scheme.  

Howard has rejected all caution, to unleash the forces of racism and xenophobia.  His Australian advisers clearly hold out great electoral returns, as a racist electoral dividend.  Ignore the measured “reasonableness” of their text: it is the sub-text that matters.  Howard is clearly praying that “immigration” will carry him into Downing Street, upon a tidal wave of racial antagonism and cultural resentment. 

• That is why this
  campaign is wicked.