Bill Carmichael: The evil twins of extremism

WHEN Aaron Porter, the president of the National Union of Students, attempted to join an anti-cuts rally in Manchester last weekend, he was surrounded and chased by a howling 150-strong mob of far-left activists.

Mr Porter says he was racially abused, and independent witnesses reported that amongst the choicest epithets were “Jew scum” and “Tory Jew”.

To any careful observer of the left wing swamp this will come as no surprise, as racism – particularly anti-Semitism usually dressed up as “anti-Zionism” – is commonplace.

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But some friends of mine were shocked. “How can they be so racist when they are left wing?” they asked. How naïve can you get? This misconception is based on a profound misunderstanding of modern politics. Far from coming from opposite ends of the political spectrum, both far left and far right occupy much the same ideological ground.

They are both authoritarian, reactionary and, as we have seen, deeply racist.

They both want massively to increase the power of the state to control the lives of ordinary people. They both believe in a rigid central control of the economy.

Both are intolerant of dissent and see violence against anyone who disagrees with them as a fundamental plank of their political strategy.

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Both hate the individual liberties that democrats hold dear, such as freedom of conscience and freedom of speech.

Indeed both sprang from the same roots – the collapse of traditional political structures in early 20th Century Europe.

It is no coincidence that Hitler’s Nazis were more formally called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.

Since then the evil twins of communism and fascism have produced the biggest mass killers in history – Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot.

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There may be some cosmetic differences between the two philosophies, but whether you were a European Jew, a Russian kulak or a Chinese peasant, the results were much the same.

This poisonous legacy continues today with the repression and deliberate starvation of people by the despots who rule Zimbabwe and North Korea.

In modern Britain the “far left” Socialist Workers’ Party, and the “far right” British National Party are two sides of the same coin. Red Fascists or Brown Communists? Can anyone really tell the difference?

It is absolutely no surprise that the far left in Britain have found it so easy to make common cause with the reactionary bigotry of extreme Islamism.

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The real fault line in modern politics runs between democrats, who value our individual liberties, and the knuckle-dragging thugs of the SWP and the BNP, who would strip those freedoms away if they ever got the chance.

As Aaron Porter discovered to his cost, moderates in the Labour party have no option but to choose between the two.

Real-time crime

Obtaining local crime statistics from police forces and the Home Office is like pulling teeth. I know because I’ve tried.

So I gave a hearty cheer this week when the Home Office launched a new £300,000 website – www.police.uk – that maps local crime, even though it immediately crashed through the weight of traffic.

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But if could be improved. For example allowing users to compare crime levels over time would be incredibly useful. Also, for reasons that are not explained, sexual offences and murder are not included.

And including details of convictions and sentences resulting from the crimes – as apparently being considered by the West Yorkshire and Lincolnshire forces – would be an excellent development.

Best of all the government should release the raw data to third party developers who may find innovative ways to use it.

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