Margaret Hodge, MP for Barking, employment minister and former leader of Islington Council, has ventured into racial politics again, concerned about a handful of working-class votes drifting from Labour to the British National Party in the East End of London.
When Hodge says that eight out of ten voters in her constituency are contemplating voting BNP, it's not clear whether she blames this on black and Asian immigrants, the white working classes, or the Labour Party itself. In politics, such vagueness always conceals mischief.
She ignores matters much more fundamental, notably the exodus of members from her own party and the even larger defection from the electoral process by the working classes of the inner cities. Blacks and whites are united in their alienation from Labour and from local democratic politics. It has nothing to do with racism.
A visitor from another planet might think this tiny drift to racist politics in east London was new. I was barely out of my teens when dockers marched with Enoch Powell as he called for the "repatriation" of Asians and West Indians. "Paki-bashing" began when white gangs attacked Asians on Hodge's own parliamentary turf. Nearby, too, under the noses of the unions and the Labour Party, a kind of apartheid flowered at the Ford car factory, aimed at excluding black and Asian workers from the better jobs.
In each case, blacks and Asians were in the vanguard of resistance. Hodge parachuted into Barking long after the dust had settled and victories had been won. Now the old enemy has reappeared to pose a very mild threat to race relations.
I will not speculate on her reasons for raising this issue now. The BNP may increase its share of the vote in the local elections, but even it does not expect to win control of any local council. It is possible, however, that Nick Griffin's gang will split the Labour vote and let in some confused coalition, or, in time, a new MP for Barking. In that case Hodge will have nobody but herself to blame.
