The BNP

A lot of BNP supporters are not racist. They are simply fed up with a system that is tilted against them.

But it is a dangerous tactic to lend your support, even if only in protest, to people with sinister ulterior motives. With Freedom & Responsibility, you can back a party that would tilt the system back in favour of British citizens, without having to side with xenophobes and racists.

We propose that every British citizen should be eligible for a Basic Income of £5,600 per year. Immigrants would not receive this Basic Income until they had earned the right of citizenship by paying £15,000 in tax.

That means that a British citizen going for a job would have an advantage over an immigrant. Thanks to the Basic Income (which is not means-tested or withdrawn on any basis), the Brit should be able to undercut the immigrant's wage demand and yet take home more money. For instance, if a job paid £10,000, the Brit would take home £11,300, £1,300 more even than an immigrant working on the black market.

Immigrants will be much more reluctant to work on the black market, because if they do, they won't be paying the tax that will eventually entitle them to citizenship. If an immigrant does decide to stay in the black-market, they will never be a benefit parasite, because they will never earn entitlement to the main benefit: the Basic Income.

Employers have often resorted to immigrant labour because our stupid tax and benefit system makes it so difficult for Brits to go for short-term or low-paid jobs. The loss of means-tested benefits often means that it simply doesn't pay for Brits to take jobs that they would otherwise be pleased to do. And the risk is even greater for incapacity benefit, where the loss can be not just short-term, but a permanent loss of eligibility that is far more expensive than the income from any short-term or part-time job.

Under our system, the Basic Income is not means-tested, so any income that anyone can earn in any job, however temporary or part-time, is additional income. If you take a job that pays (after tax) £3/hour for 10 hours a week, you can add the £1,560 a year that it pays to your Basic Income, without any reduction of benefits. If you take a seasonal job, your income will increase by the value of that job while it is on, without sacrificing your eligibility to the Basic Income when the job comes to an end.

The Basic Income includes an allowance for housing, and we would place an obligation on councils to provide minimum-standard accommodation, for the cost of that allowance, to anyone who was born in the area, had lived in the area for a significant amount of time, or had a job in the area. By giving the individual rather than the council control of the funds, and by placing an obligation on councils, we would put British citizens back to the top of the housing queue in their home town.

Each individual would have to earn the right to citizenship and a Basic Income. If an immigrant gained citizenship and then brought in family from abroad, no other member of the family would be entitled to citizenship and the Basic Income until they too had paid £15,000 of tax. Families could stay together, but they could not expect British taxpayers to support them to do so.

The Basic Income contains an allowance for primary healthcare (i.e. GP surgeries), and children's Basic Income includes an amount to cover the fee that privatised schools would be allowed to charge. By making these services chargeable but providing British citizens with the means to pay for them (whereas immigrants would have to find the means from their own pocket), we put British citizens back at the front of the queue for these services, as for housing. And we provide a powerful disincentive for immigrants to come here unless they are confident that they have a job that pays well enough that they could cover these costs, and pay enough tax to quickly reach the point of eligibility for citizenship.

Frankly, under our proposals, with the system stacked so strongly in favour of British citizens, if an employer still needs to employ an immigrant, it is a fair bet that there weren't any suitably-qualified Brits available to do the job. And if immigrants aren't depriving Brits of jobs, but are providing services we wouldn't have without them, it is in our interests to welcome those immigrants to our country. After all, Britain has always been a melting pot of races and nationalities - it is part of what made us great. The safe haven we have provided to asylum seekers over the years is something to be proud of. It is only when the system is stacked against British citizens, or when immigrants abuse our hospitality to preach hatred or promote social and cultural values that are not compatible with our own, that reasonable people have a problem with immigration.

Like many of the parties, we also believe that British culture and history should be given priority in our schools and institutions, though that should include the history of the British Empire and the associated cultures. We would not tolerate ghettos or no-go areas by race or religion.

All British citizens, of whatever race, religion or origin, should be treated equally by all British institutions, in accordance with British ways and traditions. Though people should generally have the freedom to dress as they wish (provided it is in accordance with the requirements of their employers, who should also have the freedom to set reasonable standards within the constraints of the law), we would require people not to cover their faces in locations where there are significant security implications.