Cruddas on the EDL

Not what you might have expected from Jon Cruddas, the rest of the speech (on today's "Elsewhere" list is worth reading:

"Sure the BNP has been crushed by electoral defeat.

The EDL is a new kind of threat- a cultural movement; unpredictable and violent; a new politics of ‘flash demos’ and open wildcat networks.

It copies the old Anti Nazi League slogan: ‘Black and white to unite’.

It demands democracy not racial purity: ‘While our troops fight for democracy overseas we’re losing it here’ they shout.

Its leaders welcome all races to join in defending England’s ‘Christian culture’.

It is patriotic, it loves the military.

The EDL is a small, violent street militia but it speaks the language of a much larger, disenfranchised class.

A politics born out of dispossession but anchored in English male working class culture; of dress and sport.

Camped outside the political centre ground, a large swathe of the electorate.

The making of an English Tea Party.

A people who believe they have been robbed of their birthright

They want community and belonging"

A brave analysis which doesn't quite fit into any "owned" by either New or Old Labour.