I’ve been reading a bit about welfare chauvinism – the idea that non-citizens who live permanently (in the UK in this case) should be excluded from from state social benefits and services.\u00a0 I’ve got a way to go, but was put on to it by my mucker-in-chief, Prof Alex Marsh.\u00a0 One of the key points about it is that welfare chauvinism is not always the preserve of far right parties but also is accommodated by mainstream parties.\u00a0 It also has a range of different dimensions, which are in flux. [I’m never party political on this blog but I am breaking that rule in what follows only in so far as what is said does not reflect the law or reality in any way, not that they care – so, there is also some important stuff about how the loony right is wrong]<\/p>\n
It was in reading this literature that I came across a piece by Farage on his substack, which is an attack on the public sector equality duty in part.\u00a0 It is also an attack on social housing, which, so he says, is subject to an ethnic minority lettings bias and “the ‘Homes fit for Heroes’ became homes for humanity”.\u00a0 I think that is meant to be an attack, but I regard it as an achievement – the evidence is that at least some of the heroes who returned from the First World War were priced out of the council housing which was built.\u00a0 Farage goes on to argue that local people have been unable to obtain an allocation of local social housing because (I think) the law does not prioritise them, but Black and Minority Ethnic households.\u00a0 This is in the context of what he says is a two tier approach under which White citizens lose out.\u00a0 It’s not the most coherent piece or argument, but it concludes on housing, in widely reported comments, that<\/p>\n
This is all frankly ludicrous stuff, and written in the context of a blog about “whiteness”, so we know what he means by these “foreign nationals”.\u00a0 It is right to say that his focus is England.\u00a0 But, given that this party is a national party, and is our second largest party, we need at least to recognise its potential salience for us.<\/p>\n
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again – and will never tire of repeating it to whoever asks:<\/p>\n
Now, we could certainly argue about this structural welfare chauvinism in relation to housing, and put it in historical perspective (housing as the “wobbly pillar” of the welfare state etc), but the key point being made is that the notion of housing need is not universal.\u00a0 Certain of the most needy are already excluded from homelessness assistance and social housing allocations.\u00a0 By all means have a debate, if that’s what floats your boat; but do so from a position of understanding the existing restrictions and not on the basis of some puffed up idiot seeking to make points which do not reflect the legal reality.<\/p>\n
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