Mr Cohen spoke of the need for a broad alliance against the far right.'Disaffection
with the current political situation, including the decline of the Conservatives
and the Government's expediency - by backing the US for war and being too
slow to deliver reforms, has created a dangerous climate which the BNP uses
to grow. Major sections of the national press are promoting them, just as
they did the Nazi blackshirts in Germany in the 1930s.'Pointing out that a
'climate of fear' has been engendered, which includes 'Islamaphobia', Mr Cohen
said there are now 63 recorded racist attacks in this country every day.But,
he said, 'It is the hysteria about asylum which is the glucose sugar for the
BNP. They lie about it with false links to crime when they are the criminals
themselves.'
The MP acknowledged that the Immigration Service was poorly managed
and that some policies like cutting cash benefits and losing track of individuals
who have been 'dispersed' was counter productive. He forecast that the idea
of detention centres, if it was implemented, would be too. They would be hugely
expensive and breed resentment of a 'not-in-my-backyard' kind.'But if the
administration is bad', said Mr Cohen, 'the perception and politics is even
worse. The theme from the Prime Minister down is that 'we have to act tough
now against asylum seekers to cut off the rise of the BNP.'That amounts to
appeasement', he said, 'and it does not work. The racism just gets worse.
We need to stand up for what is right and argue for fairness, decency and
tolerance.''The perception that immigration and asylum damages this country
is plain wrong. The NHS would collapse without migrant workers. 47 per cent
of nurses in London are migrants. Migrants contribute 10% more in revenue
than they receive in benefits; and 18% of migrant workers are educated to
degree level against 13% of the population as a whole. They also prosperity.''Members
of the BNP are racist, incite violence, violent themselves and criminal. Their
antecedents, and heroes, are the Nazis. They want segregation and apartheid.
As Britain is multicultural, this would mean massive repression and killing
right up to a holocaust.'We have to re-focus on equality, justice and cohesion
and stand up against racism, the BNP and their so-called respectable friends,
including the media, wherever they appear. It is time for the established
parties to show leadership in this regard.'