Political Viewpoint

BY Coun Martin Terry Leader of the Independent Group on Southend City Council.

 MY article comes at a time when political turmoil is the theme of the moment.

 After many years of government failure, loss of direction, alleged corruption and the rise of populism, we are in a political pickle.

 The conservatives have been decimated, split in two. Brexit wasn’t the panacea that populists would like to have you believe, in fact an act of economic self harm. We are all worse off and this will inevitably continue.

 Laying behind the turmoil is global migration. Migration is an issue being felt across the whole world and populists, such as Reform’s Nigel Farage are not going to solve this. All they do is scapegoat individual issues, such as Europe. That failed, so now it’s full on immigration.

 We all know that we must have better controls and limits, but using hate narratives and scapegoating people by ethnic origin only stokes up hate and division.

 The inevitable outcome of this was the disgusting riots and attempts to murder people in a hotel.

 Much of this, in my view, was stoked up by Farage, questioning the police’s comments on the Southport murders, suggesting that the perpetrator was of Muslim origin.

 How does this all relate to Southend City and Leigh?

 Following the recent collapse of the Conservative Party, two of their elected councillors have decided to betray their voters and join Reform, without a single vote being cast for Reform.

 On top of this, Reform are now fielding candidates for Leigh Town Council as an attempt to gain a foothold in Leigh.

 Sadley, I am old enough to remember when Enoch Powell came to speak at the then St Clement’s Hall on Rectory Grove. Hundreds of decent Leigh people turned out to object to this racist populist. I hope that Leigh will reject these right wing populists once again.

 I make no secret of the fact that I thoroughly dislike Nigel Farage, in my view, a jumped up grifter who totally sows hate and division wherever he goes or speaks.

 The problems we face as a nation are built on decades of economic mismanagement by parties of all colours.

 The problems we now face are not born out of immigration at all, probably, more out of lies.

 For example, the last year the UK government issued 1.4 million legal visas for student’s families and care worker families, whilst in the same period small boats crossings were about 30,000 in total.

 And yet, His Majesty’s government decided that ‘stop the boats’ should be their main theme? This is tantamount to deception and fraud, on a grand scale.

 We do have massive economic issues and problems for younger generations. Where can they live? How, if ever, will they get a good home of their own? How will they get a long term sustainable job with a salary commensurate to financial sustainability?

 This is the challenge facing us. The answer is not scapegoating individuals based on their ethnicity or religion.

 Those representatives of Reform have signed up to Farage’s hate and division themes, scapegoating others for their own failures.

 I hope that Leigh rejects this populism, just as it did when Enoch Powell soiled our doorstep.

 We should not give in to the forces of darkness. It has been seen before, it will lead to disaster.

Read More

Leigh On Sea News.

Visit: https://leigh-on-sea.news

Contact us. Email: [email protected]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leighonsea.news

Twitter: @leighonsea_news

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leighonsea.news