EDL women....

The success of the EDL and it's sister organisation UKIP both of which share more in common than the BNP is a worrying development. Whilst on one level both organisations are a badly written unfunny joke on another level they point to failures within the mainstream political arena to give a voice to those who feel disenfranchised.

Working class people as a whole have been demonised over the last 30 years. Where it was once a badge of honour to come from the working classes and although there was condescension towards working class people in the media now there are attacks and all out character assassination. Post Thatcher any notion of an equalitarian society where ability and effort could create social mobility has year on year decreased. Where once at least one political party reflected the needs and desires of working class people and was made up, of largely, working class people. That party has now all but abandoned them and it's MPS now seem to, by and large, come from the middle/upper class political elites.

Trade unions existed to defend the rights of ordinary people and let them voice anger and frustration and local chauvinism and then attempted to channel the anger into developing a more just society. With the destruction of our manufacturing industries and the emasculation of unions there ability to perform this role has been severely diminished.

The Conservative party once thought to be the domain of the 'aspirational' working classes has reverted to being once more dominated by public school educated millionaires without the slightest grasp of what the concerns of working class people are. On television, in particular, and more generally in the press which at the same time has also become less democratic the only portals of working class people either in documentaries such as Benefit Street or drama is relentlessly negative and concentrates on the lowest common denominator.

This has left the vacuum which has been filled by the incoherent rage of the boozy street idiots of the EDL who can barely verbalise what they want to achieve or desire and rely on hatred and violence and the slightly more coherent bile of UKIP where the slightly more coherent anger is channeled towards slightly more specific targets.

The only way to stop the escalation of the politics of hate is to re-enfranchise people give them a political voice and political representation to face difficult issues and to make society more equitable again.

It's a long road and at the moment there is little sign of this re engagement but an important one. The centre ground needs to be moved back to the centre rather than veering right has it has been post Thatcher. Parties need to work on links with local communities. Politics needs to clean itself up.