Bigotry in Bournemouth

My home town, Bournemouth, has been in the news lately. A small but noisy mob of protesters have been screaming at a pair of hotels which have been housing asylum seekers. Who knew? I had no idea that there were any asylum seekers in Bournemouth. In fact, the first I knew of it was when swaztikas and St George flags were being graffiti’ed across the town. Folk will tell you that the English flag isn’t racist. And it isn’t. But it’s hard not to notice that the folk waving the flags are the same folk painting the swaztikas. I tend to avoid wearing clothing with the St George cross for much the same reason I tend to avoid wearing clothing with swaztikas. Which is a bit of a shame, but that’s where we are.

When quizzed for the article, a lady, who claims to know the town well, suggests the whole atmosphere has recently changed in town. You don’t see any white British people any more. It’s disconcerting to hear foreign languages spoken everywhere. Which I found strange. Because Bournemouth has been filled with foreign languages students from spring to autumn for decades.

Along with tourism and finance, it’s one of the main job supporting industries here. And yet. There are still hordes of white British’s people everywhere. Swarms of them. Plagues, in fact. I did begin to wonder whether she really knows the town at all. Or is she in fact – whisper it – a racist. That would explain her concerns at not specifically seeing white British people, as opposed to other types of British people.

It gets no better on the Next Door app. That online place where locals can communicate with other locals for whatever reason. There’s a few members who insist they aren’t racist, but they can’t ignore what they see with their own eyes. And then they post AI generated videos of Bournemouth beach covered solely with black people, dressed in the style of Africans, going about their day almost as if they were actually in Africa. Which I guess was the intended point.

Then we had the Unite the Kingdom march a few weeks ago. Ambiguously named to allow people to join in on the basis of their own favourite cause. Be it free speech, stop the boats or various shades of anti-Starmer hysteria. These folk will also tell you they’re not racist, despite the fact they’re on a white supremacist march organised by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a white supremacist. He’s also trying to co-opt Christianity into his cause despite his being a card carrying member of the other side.

The fact of the matter is, there are, always have been and always will be a sizeable chunk of bigots in society. Few of them will openly declare their prejudices in polite company. But you don’t have to prod them hard to get them to reveal their inner feelings. A sneak peak at a social profile of someone insisting they possess saintly tolerance reveals that they are anything but. I chat to them as they pass through my place of work. Starting with a bit of banter to draw them out. Finishing with a barbed comment to let them know where I stand.

Twenty years ago, these people were less obvious. We in the West had developed a system of manners and civility. The racists objected to this system, calling it ‘political’correctness’. What they were really saying is that they wanted it to be ok to say racist things. Today, they gnash and wail about things like ‘woke’. What they are really saying is that they want to do racist things. They’re like Jacks-in-the box, these people. Ready to spring out the moment someone presses the right button.

Keir Starmer recently pointed out that Nigel Farage is just such a button pusher. And he’s right, he is. But fans of Farage are outraged at this sudden outbreak of calling a spade a spade. Although if you prod these fans a bit, have a look at a social profile or two, you won’t struggle to find them insisting a woman with a willy must be called a man…