Virtue signalling from Bearsden Bolsheviks won't beat curse of racism

The Herald Scotland

02-06-2025

Calling everyone scum and horrible people might evoke cheers and feet-stamping from the Bearsden Bolsheviks, but it merely deflects our gaze from how complicit the political elites of Scotland and the UK have been in driving working-class people into the arms of Reform.
'All parties in Scotland and the UK have massively let down working class people,' Mr Kerr tells a full-house of 250. 'You see it every day when you walk the streets of this city and see the state it's in. You see it in my constituency where people can't get houses and in the state of the houses of the people who can.'
The event was aimed at tackling the rise of right wing politics (Image: Gordon Terris)He cites the scourge of private landlordism 'who are taking the absolute piss out of our economy. And not only wrecking our economy but soaking up investment capital and wrecking lives in the process. That's the root. That economic need and neglect has always been fertile ground for the far right.
'But I'm not going to say that everyone who votes for Reform is a fascist. There's a vacuum which Reform fill.'
He reminds us of how many working-class people recently voted for Reform in Clydebank and Easterhouse. 'We have a job to go into these communities and fill that gap which Reform are seeking to fill.'
He dismantles First Minister John Swinney's fatuous £10k summit which recently brought together the troughers and frauds of the Scottish civic elite under the pretence of opposing extremism. 'That was manna from heaven for Reform,' Said Mr Kerr. 'It was entirely the wrong tactic. That looked like the Scottish establishment all sitting down together: it was a gift to Reform.'
As the others vied with each other to express horror at the prospect of Reform rising, this Glasgow councillor was telling them what voters in Larkhall were telling me the previous day: they're sick of being gas-lit by a class of superannuated professionals telling them how to behave; how to speak; how to eat; how to raise their children and then cancelling them if they fail to comply.
Even so, it's good to be here at the Boardwalk events venue in Brunswick Street in the heart of Glasgow's Merchant City. The previous day, I'd walked a while with Reform's candidate in the Hamilton, Stonehouse and Larkhall by-election. I'd needed to understand why many of Scotland's everyday working people feel drawn to Nigel Farage and a party which preys on their fears and their exasperation and channels them towards something ugly.
Read more
But I also needed to be confirmed in my own core beliefs that the scourge of racism erodes this country's health and averts our gaze from that which causes most damage to our society and those who profit from it. Among them the predations of unfettered capitalism; the low wages; the tax avoidance of our largest corporations; the health inequality and the instincts of a Labour Government to build a multi-billion-pound war economy intended to soften us to the inevitability of war with Russia.
We needed to be reminded that Scotland's legal and political establishment, lobbied by the Scottish Police Federation, have spent years and a lot of money seeking to undermine the public inquiry into the death of Sheku Bayoh, who died in police custody in Kirkcaldy ten years ago. And how this has been accompanied by a campaign to defame him and destroy his family. Aamer Anwer, his family's lawyer, claimed they had 'treated his colour as a weapon'.
We all needed to be reminded about the Park Inn Incident on June 26, 2020 in Glasgow. This was the mass stabbing by asylum-seeker Bahreddin Adam which left six people wounded. He was eventually killed by police, the first time they'd shot and killed anyone since 1969 in Scotland. Bahreddin Adam had made 72 calls to various social services before he snapped.
This was in the midst of the Covid pandemic where asylum seekers were detained in hotels, isolated, neglected and treated like caged animals by a liberal political administration who talk big about racism but which pay a suite of private facilities companies millions to take these poor people off their hands.
At conferences such as these there are always workshops and the trick is to separate the genuinely interesting ones from those organised by groups which seek to hitch their own questionable agendas to something virtuous: in this case the good fight against racism.
On Saturday, I dropped into one featuring a documentary called 72 Calls: The Park Inn Incident, in which survivors of the attack spoke with compassion about Bahreddin Adam and the mental despair that they and he had endured while being moved around like livestock. It also exposed Britain's inhumane asylum system whose main purpose seems to be to dehumanise and degrade other human beings so much that it will send a message to other poor souls.
The conference featured debates and workshops (Image: Gordon Terris) These people are expected to live on a daily allowance of £9 which hasn't risen in 25 years. Their often-remote locations seemed designed to deter connecting with local communities and the prospect of being ordered to move location at a few minutes' notice disrupts children's education. Far Right groups target communities where asylum hostels are known to exist to spread lies and disinformation about their luxury conditions. And when a Labour Prime Minister makes speeches about Britain being an "island of strangers" they're emboldened.
This event is happening in the middle of a district which bears the names of the countries and communities that Britain ransacked and then sold into slavery. Our continuing wars of adventure throughout the last two centuries have literally caused the geopolitical upheaval that brings many of these people to our shores. I'd welcome them all and call it restorative justice. Someone has to pay for what we did to their countries. And if we're that generation then so be it.
I heard, Sabir Zazai, Chief Executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, speak much more softly and authentically about how to combat racism than most of the sloganeers waving their fists for likes in the opening session.
Mr Zazai cited the race riots in Southport and north England as what can happen when you dehumanise an entire race on their colour country of origin. 'Women wearing scarves are now feeling unsafe,' said Mr Zazai. 'They ask us the dreaded question: 'is it safe for us to go out' or 'will my accommodation be attacked'. This is new.'
Read more
Refugees and migrants ran small businesses and added to Scotland's arts and culture with their food and music, he reminded us. 'We need to fight back with love and compassion. Let's get to know each other better. Offering people sanctuary and protection can be unifying and uplifting for a community. Treat them as fellow human beings. Tell them that Scotland is as much their home as ours.'
Earlier, Matt Kerr rebuked his own party leader for his Enoch Powell rhetoric. 'I'll tell you something,' he said. 'We need to refuse to be strangers by talking to the person next to you and holding their hand. You pick them up when they need it. That's life. That's the antidote to all of this. That's where it begins. You start in your community. You have the conversations with your family, with your friends and it'll be difficult but have courage and stand together.'
It's just that, in the hands of a political and trade union class who have dehumanised working-class feminists and who are mocking once more the practice of Christianity, the anti-racism message rings hollow.
The Stand up to Racism campaign has never been more important, but some of its loudest and entitled messengers are its worst ambassadors.
Kevin McKenna is a Herald writer and columnist and is Scottish Feature Writer of the Year. This year is his 40th in newspapers. Among his paltry list of professional achievements is that he's never been approached by any political party or lobbying firm to be on their payroll.