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Sol Campbell, "the Black Vote", "Race Deficits" and the 2015 General Election...
Other | Friday 10th October 2014 | Osh
Former England, Spurs and Arsenal defender Sol Campbell has announced he is considering joining the Conservative Party, beleiving his name can significantly help in securing “the black vote”.
Campbell retired from professsional football in 2011 and took to the field 73 times for England in his career. He revealed a week ago that he is thinking about joining the Conservative Party, primarily in order to fight Labour’s proposed introduction of 'mansion tax' should Ed Milliband's party win in next year's General Election.
The comments were made at the launch of his biography at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, hinting that he is considering becoming more politically active within the Tory party. "I think it is very important for the black vote. I am for getting people from my background to vote.”
At first glance there's something that seems a little patronising in talking about 'winning the black vote', as it almost implies black people in this country don't vote on issues and policies but on race. It brings to mind the condescending tone of mainstream US news coverage of Barak Obama's first presidential race in which black voters were portrayed as voting for Obama only because of his skin colour and not because of issues or policies. This mainstream attitude in the US towards 'the black vote' is famously parodied by Chris Rock in this stand-up clip.
Even the term 'the black vote' is patronising; calling it that paints it as somehow a separate vote from the rest of the population. However, this might be a knee-jerk reaction to wording and language (brace yourselves - there's even more annoying wording and language coming up). But looking beyond that surface language and its connotations, there may actually be a serious point to Campbell's language.
Recent studies have been talking about a 'radical demographic shift' meaning that the UK's "ethnic minority vote" might determine the result of next year's General Election. Research by a cross-party organisation called 'Operation Black Vote' (OBV) revealed that the number of seats where black and Asian voters could determine the election's outcome had risen by 70% in comparison to the last General Election in 2010.
This research is of special worry to David Cameron and the Conservatives who openly admit that they have failed to win friends in the 'ethnic minority vote'. The Conservatives secured 16% of the minority vote at the previous election; Labour on the other hand won 68%. Political analysts predict that trend will continue and will alter the dynamics of British politics.
The evolution in the ethnic make-up of the UK may already be enough to deprive David Cameron's party of victory in the next election. It is estimated the Conservatives' "race deficit" (seriously - their language, not ours) will cost them between 20 to 40 seats in 2015, according to calculations by Oxford University in a study of 'ethnic demographic changes' and how they are effecting elections.
Labour has always traditionally had the larger share of the minority vote. In 2010, even in Labour's second worst overall result ever, Gordon Brown's party still battered the Conservatives in the ethnic minority vote, their 68% contrasting the Tories mere 16%. And while that 68% of ethnic minority voters favoured Labour, only 31% of white Britons did.
The fact 168 seats could be decided by non-white voters in the coming General Election gives the political parties, especially the Conservatives, reason to be worried. In the 2012 US Presidential Election it was actually the Hispanic vote even more than the 'black vote' that is considered to have contributed massively to Barak Obama winning a second term in office. The more conservative Republicans had virtually no relationship with the Hispanic voters and it cost them; a fact admitted by Obama's Republican opponent Mitt Romney at the time.
Although it's UKIP that is now widely seen (fairly or unfairly) as the party with racist undertones, the Conservatives have a long history of racially insensitive comments and provocative language. Examples? Tory MP John Townend's 2001 speech in which he spoke of Britain's “homogenous Anglo-Saxon society" being seriously undermined by the "massive immigration, particularly Commonwealth immigration, that has taken place since the (Second World) war.” It also came out via BBC News that this was in fact a watered down statement, the original drafts having referred specifically to “coloured immigrants."
Famous former Conservative party chairman Norman Tebbit openly attacked Britain's transformation into a "multi-cultural" society. In a display of cultural insensitivity that might make America's Republican Tea Party blush, he called for a “cricket test” on nationality, suggesting that those from ethnic minorities not prepared to cheer for the England cricket team in test matches should not be allowed to live in the country!
Possibly topping that (or possibly not), in 1998 Conservative MP Teresa Gorman suggested unemployed Bangladeshis in the UK should've been looking harder for jobs in Indian restaurants. Most of all is the notorious "rivers of blood" speech delivered in 1968 by Tory politician Enoch Powell, warning that immigration policies meant the UK was “heaping up its own funeral pyre.”
It's fair to say the relationship between the Conservatives and the country's minority communities isn't fabulous. Communities have long memories, particularly when they've been offended that many times.
Quite how the Conservatives are supposed to appeal to the 'minority vote' between now and next year is anyone's guess, particularly given that their main worry is losing portions of their traditional supporters to UKIP, which means needing to appeal to a primarily white male demographic and not the 'minority vote' at all. Having well known figures like Sol Campbell come out in support for the Tories is probably useful to them at this time.
But Campbell citing Labour's mansion tax as his main issue is hardly speaking to the masses, is it? The Mansion Tax, favoured by Ed Milliband and Labour, proposes that people with properties worth more than £2 million will face an annual charge. Oh, boo-hoo. Not exactly something that most of us voters are going to relate to. And therefore not something that's going to speak to the 'black' or 'minority' vote and more something that speaks merely to the Tory vote. Which makes him talking about the 'black vote' a bit meaningless.
And we have to say honestly that all this language - 'race deficits', 'black votes', etc - is irritating and not a particularly grown-up way of talking about things. Nor is it likely to encourage involvement from the elements of 'minority' communities that are frequently accused of have a low voting turnout.
