An Ealing Comedy in Little India

I’ve just returned from a few weeks work at the recent parliamentary by-elections in Sedgefield (Tony Blair’s old Parliamentary seat) and Ealing Southall (caused by the death of the sitting and oldest MP in the House of Commons, Piara Khabra). Both were safe Labour party seats and not really expected to change hands, particularly after Brown’s takeover. Still, due to the lack of other elections and higher expenditure limits, by-elections always offer the chance for opposition parties to win seats, usually from the party of government.

What also made the Ealing Southall contest slightly unpredicatable (despite an 11,000 plus Labour majority from 2005) was the interplay of this unique by-election opportunity alongside the so-called ‘Asian politics’ phenomenon** and the Tory Central Office imposition of Tony Lit as their candidate (well-known friend of Labour - see photo). Southall itself is, as ex-local resident Nirpal Dhaliwal described in the Times:

…..recognised throughout the world as “Little India”, a place more akin to Mumbai than a British suburb…..Largely built by migrants from the north Indian region of Punjab (nowadays the mix includes Poles, Somalis and Afro-Caribbeans)it’s a bustling, exotic place packed with shops selling saris, Indian jewellery and every type of spice. Its most famous pub is the Glassy Junction, the only pub outside India that accepts rupees.

Around 47% of the Constituency is classed as ‘Asian’. Dhaliwal goes on to accurately describe Lit and the political effect he had in Southall:

David Cameron’s new hip-and-happening, ethnic-friendly Conservative party crashed and burnt against a brick wall of indifference in the Ealing Southall by-election last Thursday. Cameron paid five high-profile visits to the constituency to support Tony Lit, the slick 34-year-old Asian candidate he had excitedly hoped would snatch the seat from a vice-like Labour grip. David Davis, George Osborne and Kenneth Clarke also lent their support to Lit, who limped home in third place.

A friend of mine who lives in Southall described Lit as the Tory party’s “Great brown hope”, its first Asian candidate in what is an overwhelmingly Asian neighbourhood. Lit had been until recently the managing director of his father’s Sunrise Radio, a hugely successful Asian station; but his selection, my friend mischievously remarked, was merely a clumsy attempt to “curry favour with the natives”, proving how out of touch the Conservatives are with local communities. In its desperation to prove its credentials as a reformed and inclusive party the Tories threw their weight behind someone with no grass roots support, thinking his colour and social status were enough to secure victory.

Having grown up in the area, I was fascinated by the excitement surrounding Lit. Young, sharp suited and sporting a perfectly set Bollywood bouffant, he marketed himself as representing a new Tory era, hoping to prove the party is “the spiritual home” of the Asian community, sharing its basic values of “family, enterprise and civil liberties”.

But while Southall’s Asian population is entrepreneurial and family-oriented, it is at heart a blue-collar neighbourhood that remembers the debt it owes to a welfare state that nursed and educated its children, and to the trade unions that protected its jobs and helped in the fight against racism. The riot that broke out when the National Front tried to march through the high street in 1979 is a basic part of Southall folklore. If the Tories were going to win it over they needed to offer a lot more than a brown-skinned Cameron clone.

One common criticism of Lit among the people I spoke to last week was that “He’s too young. What does he know?”. While the Tories hailed his youth and energy, they overlooked the fact that Asians generally revere age and experience. While Lit promoted himself as young and modern, the seat was won at a canter with a low-profile campaign by the 60-year-old Virendra Sharma, who has served as a Labour councillor for more than 25 years.

Tories that I spoke to in private were convinced that they had picked the right man who was going to deliver success against Labour. Lit certainly made an impact, albeit a merely visual and auditory one. It was impossible to ignore the huge Tony Lit posters (including one bollywood-style potrait next to the Himalaya Palace cinema). Lit also had a fleet of tannoyed-cars blaring out pre-recorded campaign messages in Punjabi, Hindi and English. As Dhaliwal notes the voices were familar Sunrise Radio presenters! For all the glitz and glamour of Lit’s campaign it was a familiar list of local issues which people were ultimately concerned about. Dhaliwal continues:

I spoke to Parag Bhargava, who manages a Southall marriage bureau, who told me the area needs a Tube link to ease the traffic congestion that is affecting local businesses, and that more facilities are needed for young people who are increasingly caught up in antisocial behaviour. The other issues the town faces, he told me, are the rising number of Asian women who can’t find a husband, as young men opt for a social life and one-night stands, and the fact Sikh women generally prefer Sikh men who don’t wear turbans, causing a glut of turbaned bachelors. If Tony Lit had offered solutions to any of this he’d be sitting in Westminster tomorrow, said Bhargava.

The by-election campaign included the predictable soap-opera of defections, dirty tactics and endless unfounded gossip. The campaign was rocked by the news that Lit’s Sunrise Radio had donated nearly £5,000 to the Labour Party and had his picture taken with Blair only days before the by-election (see pic above). Particular highlights for me included meeting the English Democrats candidate. One of his main policies seemed to be shutting the door on immigration. His name was Sati Chaggar! A pull-up-the-ladder approach to immigration policy crept out in several candidates messages and appeared to be directed in the main at eastern European arrivals. Another highlight was an old Indian Tata bus hired by the Labour party to blare out its campaign messages. The Monster Raving Looney party candidate also did his bit for the carnival atmosphere. According to the candidate

The essence of Loony philosophy is the synthesis of patriotic monarchism and internationalist social democracy in a true Loony middle way between the conspiracy theories of Gramsciism-Chomskyism-Ickeism on the one hand, and the kneejerk reactionary crypto-hippopotamusism of the Tebbitites, Powellites, and Hitchensites on the other.

Anyhow, Labour held the seat reasonably comfortably. Tony Lit now presumably disappears back to Sunrise Radio and political obscurity.

Asian Politics bit**In any area where Asians (by which British people usually mean anyone of South Asian origin!) are the majority local politicians will usually talk about ‘Asian politics’ This is often intended as a short-hand description for family, braderi, caste or religious ties which override normal political considerations as well as describing wholesale political corruption. Admittedly there have been problems in certain areas and forms of bloc voting do exist. But in my experience whines and excuses about ‘Asian politics’ often come from those least willing to understand communities who do actually turn out to vote and are usually heavily engaged in local civic life. On the ‘Asian’ side claims about braderi and suchlike often turn out to be mere bravado.