Tory shadow home secretary's pitiful attempt to demonize Britain's economically poor.

Chris Grayling, the Tory shadow home secretary, recently made a well publicized yet infantile statement about the similarities between parts of the UK and the areas of Baltimore * portrayed in the fictional hit US TV serial The Wire. By doing so Grayling made it clear if the Conservatives gain power at next years general election, they intend to carry on where New Labour left off and step up the campaign to demonize the most economically deprived sections of the British working class.

Grayling’s claim that the run down, drug and gang infested neighborhoods portrayed in the fictional US TV cops show are almost identical to estates that exist in the UK, would in any rational society have brought the house down with a howl of laughter and ridicule, for even the City of Baltimore where the show is filmed is not as violent as it is portrayed in The Wire. 

When Grayling was asked on BBC London News to name areas of the city which had a similar crime rate as portrayed in the Wire, he attempted a soft shoe shuffle and finally replied, “in parts of north, south and east London,” why he left west London out seemed a mystery to the interviewer, perhaps the Tory creeps old mum lives there and he did not wish to frighten her half to death;)

Hard facts, something which have rarely bothered Tory politicians like Grayling and his ilk, nevertheless are worth looking if we wish to understand just how ridiculous these claims are. Baltimore a city of just over 600.000 souls in 2008 had 234 murders, London, a city with a population of six million had 24. Need I say more.

So what lays behind this demonization of the economically poor, firstly it is to instill in the public consciousness the poor do not suffer their plight due to any defects within the system, but because they are indolent, lazy and criminally inclined, in other words we are heading back to the 19th Century philosophy of the undeserving poor.

This, as New Labour has shown is doubly attractive to the political right, as it enables the government to cut the benefits of those who are least able to fight back and thus drive them deeper into abject poverty, in the hope that a Tory or New Labour  government would then be able to regiment them into poorly paid work or push them further onto the margins of society. It also stops society in general asking the most important question as to why amidst plenty, the UK has such a large section of its population living in  abject poverty and ignorance.

It was ironic when in the BBC interview Grayling was lightly nudged on why pockets of great poverty still exist in the UK, he placed the blame on illicit drugs, and went on to say, 'the war on drugs’ must be stepped up. For when a US politician said on TV,  “The war on drugs is winnable” David Simon, the creator of The Wire told him forcefully he was talking out of his arse.

This demonization of the economically poor is not only about the pauperizing consequences of benefit cuts, there are life and death issues involved when politicians demonize a large section of society. Prior to Hurricane Katrina crashing through the Levee’s that protected New Orleans from the sea, the economically poor in the USA had been continuously demonized by the Bush administration and media outlets like Fox News and CNN. Whilst mainly racist in tone, poor white folk were also portrayed as drug fueled trailer trash.

When the poorly maintained levees broke and New Orleans flooded, people in power, both at national and local level, behaved appallingly, they panicked and displayed a total lack of empathy with the suffering of those poor black and whites folks who were caught inside the city. The media spread rumors about the economically poor raping and pillaging and devouring each other in a mad frenzy of drug fueled violence and looting. Instead of sending in the emergency services to bring help, aid and respite as was their duty, they sent in the national guard and police Swot teams.

In fact most ordinary people caught in the flooded city behaved well, often individuals acted heroically as they turned to one and another for support.

In an age of global warming, it is not beyond our imagination to foresee that cities like London may one day be flooded. Unless we in the UK do not wish to repeat the mistakes of  Hurricane Katrina, then we should start by showing those of our fellow citizens whose lives are tough enough already some respect, at this time the best way we can do this is by showing politicians like Chris Grayling the door.

 Additional information came from here, and here,


* David Simon talks about the real Baltimore here.