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What is needed is a coherent counter argument that is just as clear and exposes them for the thatcherites that they are.
But it also needs to address the racisty bits. That's the hard part.
Just a bit of wordy reflection:
What people seem to be pushing for is engaging with their concerns as legitimate and trying to assuage fears - perhaps even make promises that accept them as legitimate fears. This has been what Labour and the Tories have been doing ("British jobs for British workers"; referendum on Brexit). It has resulted in a shift to the right, and the normalization of people saying shit things and being horrible.
Maybe the left needs to cut its losses and accept that ignorant racists aren't welcome, instead of constantly agonizing over how to win them over/back.
Of course, as has been discussed in the Brexit thread a number of times, not all ignorant racists are really ignorant racists. But the ones that aren't really ignorant racists are surely more likely to see the error of their ways when their perspectives are dismissed for being the trash they are, rather than legitimizing their concerns and trying to bribe them back in.
Essentially, ignore those who've fled to the right (it's unlikely Labour will be able to out-Right Ukip anyway). Work to help everyone (even the racists) by fighting inequality.
(Which, ironically, may be what your point was to begin with, before I forced in the racist-clause).
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UKIP person I was listening to had this whole 'we're not racist' script based around how many councillors etc were from ethnic minorities. It worked as a messaged if you're not inclined to dig into it more. It's there to be grabbed if you want to vote UKIP but you don't want to feel racist/be racist.
It made me think that UKIP have a real chance to be the party of the working class or the party of the disadvantaged or something like that if they pitch it well enough. Of course the SE based loonies could always undermine it.
I think it was this guy I was listening to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Woolfe
Woolfe, the eldest of a family of four, was born in Moss Side, in Manchester, and grew up in Burnage.[3] His younger half-brother footballer Nathan Woolfe, who represented Bolton Wanderers and Stockport County as a striker.[4] Both his parents were born in Manchester, his mother to an Irish mother and English father and his father to a British Jewish mother and a Black American father.[5]
has the potential to really undermine the Labour vote.
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But the ones that aren't really ignorant racists are surely more likely to see the error of their ways when their perspectives are dismissed for being the trash they are
Disagree quite strongly here. Abusing them drives them further into the arms of the racists and leads to a bunker mentality - I think that's what we saw with the referendum and what we're seeing with Trumpism in the US.
rather than legitimizing their concerns and trying to bribe them back in.
But on this I agree. I think the left needs to come up with an economic plan that reconciles those who have benefited from globalisation with those who haven't, and that plan needs to rise above this petty obsession with migrant numbers and move the debate away from dogwhistle racism. Properly funding our public services to deal with an aging population is probably an important part of that.
A big part of my problem with the Labour Party right now is that they're doing pitifully little to shift the debate (and, frankly, I don't have much faith in Owen Smith either, but at least he might break the current logjam)
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h2o
Farage has quit, I was listening to one of the UKIP leadership contenders on radio 4 and I reckon they may hover up some of the traditional Labour support. All about social mobility and grammer schools and we're for the left behind. A clear and simple message that I think will play well. Not Farage like at all.
What is needed is a coherent counter argument that is just as clear and exposes them for the thatcherites that they are.