Quote: chipolata @ April 27 2010, 11:17 AM BSTYou're right that the three main parties have pretty much avoided the subject of immigration, but the BNP have hardly supplied any realistic options on the subject.
Realistic proposals or not, they're the only ones who openly tackle the issue and engage with the public. The three main parties have started talking about it a little of late, but to no great ends, and are talking down at the population, not with them. The BNP's strength is perhaps not so much WHAT it says as that it dares mention it at all.
Quote: chipolata @ April 27 2010, 11:17 AM BSTAnd part of the reason the political elite don't like to talk about it is that whenever immigration is discussed it's hijacked by the right-wing press, who specialise in hysteria and misinformation. It would help us have a proper debate on the subject if we had a proper grown-up press.
The right-wing press will always go on about immigration: it's the liberals who scream "racist" every time the subject is approached that stifles discussion. If they weren't there then the press couldn't gain that footing.