ealing comedy in little india

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