Why the BNP gets support: Naomi Byron reviews Fair by Joy Wilkinson

Why the BNP gets support

Naomi Byron reviews Fair by Joy Wilkinson

"DODGEMS – WHO needs them when we can go round and round in circles
by ourselves and get skint and whiplash in the process?"

Fair is a play exploring why the BNP is attracting support in
small-town Lancashire, set in the middle of the battle between one group
(mainly BNP supporters) who are campaigning for a "traditional" English
fair to be held on St George’s day and another group who are trying to
organise a "multicultural" fair for the future on the first anniversary
of the riots.

The two main characters, Railton the ex-fairground worker who has
lived in the town all his life, and Melanie the daughter of the
principal of the local college who is back, temporarily, to help
organise the "fair for the future" start an unlikely love affair and it
is their conversations, arguments and bickering which open up the issues
at stake.

It is very entertaining to watch. Fair is very funny and well
written, with a lot of good dialogue, and more politically acute in many
ways than most media commentary on the issue.

It’s very good, for example, at the way anger at the destruction of
public services and the effects of globalisation can become mixed up in
racist attitudes or resentments, and how this becomes a fertile base for
groups like the BNP. Like Railton: "I’m not a racist. The problem isn’t
cohesive fucking blah blah blah. The problem’s simple. We pay top dollar
for the shittest health, housing, schools and you name it cos your
government wants its global economy so we have to give up everything and
whatever’s left gets diverted to your diverse mates."

Railton also points out that while people like him are being blamed
for the rise in votes for the BNP, it was "people in the big Tory houses
where you live" that voted in a BNP councillor.

The play has some great spoofs on government consultation and the
race relations industry, including "feedback sheets" distributed to the
audience. It exposes the emptiness of much of the official "diversity"
initiatives, and points out its failure to deal with the reasons why
support for the far right is rising.

However, some things were disappointing. For example, Railton
protests "I’m not a racist thug" when Melanie first attacks some of his
political views. But – stereotypically – he turns out not just to be a
racist thug, but one of the main orchestrators of the racist violence in
the town.

Ultimately, despite the outside world intervening in various
ingenious plot twists, much of the debate seemed to be taking place in a
vacuum. There were various glimpses of an Asian community in the town
and people mobilising against racism and the BNP, but none of these
important things was ever really brought to life. Nor was it clear how
Railton was able to call off the threat of a new riot all by himself.

Fair’s major weakness in a political sense was its lack of solutions.
Essentially the dispute between the two main characters was resolved by
their feelings for each other.

This "resolution" consisted of Railton agreeing to support the
"multicultural" fair for the future, i.e. succumbing to the "default"
setting of we can’t have the BNP therefore we have to support anything
that opposes it and says it will bring the community together, no matter
how unconvincing or how little it deals with the issues that provoked
the problem in the first place.

However, it would hardly be fair to blame the playwright for what is
missing. Joy Wilkinson has done a valuable service in bringing many of
the issues out, particularly in such a human and approachable way.

The root cause of the weakness in the play is the lack of any genuine
alternative in society to both the BNP and the establishment political
parties that have let down the population so badly.

Anthony Shuster, who plays Railton, writes: "The problem, the mystery
(to me) is why no-one else is addressing concerns about lack of welfare
provision, job security, inequalities of wealth and opportunity –
unfairness, in a nutshell – in the same direct manner as the BNP."

When Melanie says to Railton: "You’ll have to start again – just pick
a different party" he asks her which one, but there’s no answer.

It is tragic that instead of the trade unions fighting to build a new
political voice for working people, they are campaigning for voters to
stop the BNP… by voting for the very political parties whose policies
opened the door to Nick Griffin and Co.

But it’s very good to see that someone has already put a link for the
Campaign for a New Workers’ Party on the website set up for the play:
www.notfair.co.uk.