Immigration, immigration, immigration

It's deja vu all over again: the rise of a xenophobic nationalist party upsetting the established political parties, who then feel they have to compete in demonstrating their anti-immigrant credentials. This is a recurrent scenario in a number of European countries, especially England. This article revisits the 1960s and 1970s, Powellism, the National Front and the British National Party (BNP), the Conservative immigration controls of the 1990s and New Labour's attempts in the 2000s to balance populist hostilities to immigration with the fact that immigrants and migrants are vital to the UK economy. It brings us round to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), a party which asserts that it is not racist, but which unites anti-European Union stalwarts with anti-European migrant, anti-refugee and anti-asylum seeker elements, and those who remain determinedly 'anti' long-settled former colonial citizens, into a toxic brew which may get worse before the next election. The article draws out the long history of the problem the left faces in trying to compete with populist anti-immigration activists, while retaining a commitment to liberal beliefs in tolerance and equality. Adapted from the source document.