THE Conservative Party is clearly in chaos, as demonstrated at its conference. The poll results do not suggest that they can easily turn around and win the next election. As a result, it is personal ambitions, rather than key ideological differences, that are creating even more divisions within the party.
But they are all united in a vile and reactionary campaign of increasing racism.
The headlong charge into the sewers is being led by the Home Secretary, who is happy to peddle complete lies to pursue her racist agenda and her own personal ambitions.
But it's worth noting that no senior Conservatives publicly criticized her and Rishi Sunak was even said to have personally approved of her absolutely divisive speech. Either that's the case, or he's too weak to reprimand her after the event.
The truth is that the Conservative Party as a whole supports a racist agenda ahead of the next election and is happy to ramp up the rhetoric in support of it. Without further ado, they apply themselves with a racist label.
From the Conservative Party's perspective, this is a natural result of the party's crisis and a reactionary banner around which they can rally. It is a product of the dead end to which they have led the economy. Growth remains elusive, price increases remain stubbornly high, living standards are falling and public services are in crisis.
Their response to this is essentially a warmed-over version of Thatcherism, in which deregulation and tax cuts for the rich are supposed to get us out of this mess, even though, along with privatization, they are the policies that got us here. . Apart from the gradual privatization of NHS services, which is underway, there is little they can identify that is not already privatised.
No one seriously believes that cutting or eliminating the inheritance tax will encourage economic growth. All it will do is create another deficit in government revenue.
Similarly, the idea of โโcutting welfare payments has nothing to do with improving public finances. Its purpose is to effectively starve people into taking low-paying jobs, which will especially harm disabled people.
Thus, the increasingly racist rhetoric led by the Home Secretary is a conscious strategy to distract the population from the disastrous effect of the Tories' terrible policies.
The effect is twofold. The first effect, of course, is to increase the misery and oppression of blacks and Asians in this country. Lives are ruined and ended prematurely by this rhetoric and these terrible policies. At the same time, it moves the political agenda away from the crisis and into reactionary territory that blames others for the effects of conservative policies.
It is the โdead catโ electoral strategy so beloved of the Conservative electoral strategist, Lynton Crosby.
The vanguard of the racist campaign is the completely erroneous promise to "stop the boats." But Suella Braverman lied when she said that the majority of people who arrive here in small boats from across the Channel are economic migrants.
Data from his own department, the Home Office, shows that between 75 and 80 percent of all asylum applications are eventually granted, after many unnecessary delays. These people are desperate and are genuine refugees.
The demonization of these poor people completely ignores their reality and the turmoil in their countries of origin. This is caused by war, repression, persecution, climate change and many other factors that Western countries like Britain have done so much to encourage.
The widespread claim that opponents of this draconian system have no alternative policy is completely false. And supporters of government policy know it.
Many of us have long argued that safe and legal routes should be created to come here.
In northern France, this would mean the creation of a British asylum processing centre, which French authorities have said they would allow. This would avoid the need for dangerous crossings, as once the request is granted, refugees could travel here by legal means.
This would save lives and deprive human traffickers of the vast majority of their customer market. But it would also deprive the Conservatives of their main tool for gathering votes.
There is an ongoing Conservative campaign against immigrants and migration, despite presiding over record numbers of legal net immigration.
However, the anti-immigrant campaign is only the current vanguard of the conservative racist campaign. It would be a mistake not to recognize other key aspects and fight against them.
This includes racist policing, whether it be the disgusting case of the treatment of Boy Q and other children, the vast majority black, who have been strip-searched in our schools.
It also includes discriminatory stop and search and deaths in custody. In the case of Chris Kaba, an unarmed man fatally shot by police, both the Home Secretary and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner have effectively argued that police officers should be above the law.
But because racism is so pervasive in our society, almost every step back under this government will exacerbate the discrimination that Black and Asian people experience, whether it's the lack of funding for our schools, discrimination against lower-paid patients in NHS intensive care, the housing crisis or Jeremy Hunt's threats to cut benefits. All of them will affect blacks and Asians the most.
In a recent large survey, the vast majority of black Britons, well over 80 per cent in each case, said that discrimination in education was the biggest obstacle to the achievements of black people, who had experienced racism, including in the workplace, and don't trust the criminal justice system.
All of this under a government that claims institutional racism does not exist, ignoring the evidence of people's lived experiences and saying nonsense that this is โthe best place in the world to be black.โ
Naturally, it is in the vital interest of the labor movement and the Labor Party to oppose each and every one of these manifestations of racism and the crude efforts of the Conservatives to intensify them.
One of the reasons the Conservatives are able to make this sharp turn to the right is that these policies and rhetoric are not being challenged by the Labor caucus.
There was no criticism of Braverman's lies about economic immigrants. There will be no response to his Enoch Powell-style claims that we are facing a โhurricaneโ of international migration.
Instead, the shadow home secretary's criticism focused on the Tories' failure to stop boats and knife crime and shoplifting. This is an attack on the most reactionary Home Secretary of the modern era, but politically he is to the right of her.
This is morally bankrupt. It's also political nonsense.
We will never be able to surpass the conservatives by competing with them on their reactionary and racist agenda. Some Labor people have tried this in the past and it didn't work out well for them.
Reactionary conservative voters simply don't believe us. And, often completely ignored, a large portion of our voters are disgusted by this.
We must never give in to racists.
Diane Abbott is the independent MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newingtonand has been a deputy without interruption since June 11, 1987.
