"you need to colour yourself in and have a funny name"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/08/barnsley-wins-over-barnsley </p>

'I'm not a racist &ndash; it is all this money we pay Europe that swung it for me'

Voters in ex-Labour stronghold of Barnsley tell how BNP's Andrew Brons became MEP for Yorkshire and Humberside</p>

&quot;I voted BNP,&quot; said apprentice plumber John Webb without the slightest hesitation. Such a statement would have been unthinkable in the former Labour stronghold of Barnsley only a few years ago.

&quot;I'm not a racist. I know they used go on about the Pakis coming here and that, but that's history. They're here now, and it's all this money we pay Europe which swung it for me,&quot; Webb added.

&pound;40m a day to Brussels was the figure he was given by BNP canvassers, who are mainstream enough to man a stall every week outside Barnsley market.

&quot;They set it up just over there,&quot; said retired miner Edward William Smith, 70, who left the pits to make milk bottles in the town's other former staple, the glassworks. Resting with his bags of shopping, he added: &quot;There's one of them always going at it with his microphone. They do have things to say, but it always seems to have a touch of hatred to me.&quot;

But the BNP activists manning the stall are usually neat and tidy, Smith said, not the crewcut thugs whose image dominated the old National Front.

Ironically, the BNP's new MEP for &shy;Yorkshire and the Humberside, 61-year-old retired lecturer Andrew Brons, is a former NF chairman who also speaks calmly and politely and wears a suit.

His share of the vote in Barnsley more than doubled from 8% in 2004 to 17% yesterday, sending the Yorkshire average to 9.8%, and taxi driver Phil Davies reckoned to know why. Joshing with the town's bus drivers, whose smoking break area is just by the cab rank, he said: &quot;It's a protest, undoubtedly &ndash; a protest against the government, all the fighting around Gordon Brown and specially the expenses.&quot;

He still would not touch the BNP with a bargepole and neither would Margaret Scott, resting with her shopping beside her partner Robert Grange, a retired lorry driver.

&quot;They shouldn't be doing well here,&quot; she said, &quot;but people are so angry about the expenses. I know I am. I nearly smashed my TV when the news about it came on. You can see why people thought: let's show them and vote BNP.&quot;

Younger voters like Webb and his friend Jordan Parks, 17, suggest, however, that the extreme rightwing group may have made more lasting inroads. Webb said: &quot;As I say, it's not racist, but there are loads of foreigners coming here and competing with us for jobs. It took me three years to get my apprenticeship, and times are a lot harder these days. The ones coming from from Europe should be looking for work in their own countries first. It's not personal, it's just common sense.&quot;

The party still attracts a nastier fringe, however, and it too is less reluctant to admit BNP support than used to be the case. &quot;Ask me, I voted for them,&quot; shouted Amber, a student running across Barnsley's precinct to give her views, but not her surname. &quot;My mam and I both voted for them, because if you want a job here, you need to colour yourself in and have a funny name.&quot;

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Amber's not racist

just too fcking ignorant to know better. </p>

Well done Amber's mum btw.
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Funny how people claim not be racist, then prove they are in the next breath.

 

So what you are saying is...

that if you highlight the fact that as a white person you feel you are being discriminated against becuase your experience is that you can't get a job unless you have dark skin and a name which is unusual to barnsley folk then it is you that is the racist not the people discriminating against you because you are white and your name is smith or cooper or jones.

Just checking like.

 

RE: So what you are saying is...

So is the question which is worst, discrimination or positive discrimination? One is illegal whereas one is common practise in many walks of life. For me they are both as bad but i keep my mouth shut for fear of being branded a bigot and a racist.

 

RE: So what you are saying is...

I was thinking more of... &quot;I'm not a racist. I know they used go on about the Pakis coming here and that&quot;. Having said that you can't really defend the way Amber comes across either...&quot;if you want a job here, you need to colour yourself in and have a funny name.&quot; Neither of these people are putting their point across in an unprejudiced, tolerant manner.

 

F.ck me.

I went to school with him.

 

nothing like a good stereotype is there...

suppose it makes a change from pictures of cobbled streets with the theme to hovis in the background....

 

What is so sad is, that as a percentage of total workforce

the employers who have most non UK employees are professional football clubs. Why cant the anti's on this board see that, and probably the next highest percentage is the health service. I for one dont want to be without either of those.

 

RE: nothing like a good stereotype is there...

I'm not trying to reinforce any stereotypes here, I am quoting from experience. I have chalenged positive discrimination and been branded a racist. I have also tackled discrimination head on (the BNP in town) and been ignored and told i was ignorant to the big problem in this country.

 

It's not just the players a football team employs... nt