‘There’ll be civil war’

IN Trimdon Labour Club, the same politician was praised three times, by three different people, before I finished my second pint of Coke. Gordon Brown? No. Tony Blair? Hardly.

Nye Bevan? Not quite.

The man who was "right", they said, was Enoch Powell. A Conservative MP - dead for ten years - praised in Labour's backyard for a speech made 40 years ago. And they say a week is a long time in politics.

In April 1968, in a speech on immigration, Powell said: "As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding.

Like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood." Now, "Enoch was right" is the bigots' battlecry, displayed proudly on posters and pinbadges.

But here, Powell's supporters aren't bigots.

They're not rabid racists, knuckles dragging as low as their IQs. They're calm, keen not to offend. But they think something is wrong. And, crucially, they think no one is listening.

"Of course we're being ignored," says one man.

"The likes of us, what we want, we can't get. But it seems if you come in the back of a wagon, you get what you want."

Such as?

"All the Family Allowance being sent over there - and we've paid for it," someone else says. In 2006, it emerged European immigrants could claim UK Child Benefit - worth £900 a year for one child, and £600 for each additional one - for children who didn't live in the UK.

"They're telling us we've never been so well off, but the Government is borrowing so much money it's unbelievable. If they're getting Child Benefit, it should be kept in this country."

A woman adds: "I'm at the stage where I don't work and I get a pension, but I have paid into the pot. I recently waited six months for an MRI scan - but it seems they come and use the NHS straight away. If people's lives are threatened, they should come in, but people coming for a cushy life shouldn't."

"Why do they come past France and Germany to here?" asks one man. "It's the benefit system - it's too soft. That's why our taxes keep going up. It's a drain on the whole country."

Soon, seven or eight people join the conversation, in between games of dominoes. So much for political apathy. There are builders, drivers and much else. But no snarling skinheads. It's working class, not underclass.

"I'm disgusted that, in the UK, there are no-go areas - there shouldn't be anywhere you can't go,"

says one man, to approving nods. In January, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, said non-Muslims face attack in areas of some British cities.

"In ten years' time, there will be civil war," adds another. "We could have the same problems as Yugoslavia.

No one ever thought there would be war there."

In between sups, the complaints keep coming. "What's happening is Poles and others coming from Eastern Europe are dragging down wages," says one. "English workers are being undercut."

"There's nothing wrong with immigration," says another, "so long as it's controlled, but I don't think it is." Another adds: "We've got no record of criminals coming in. There are Romanian gypsies running round Oxford Street picking people's pockets."

Everyone is happy to talk: at times, my shorthand can't keep up. But, unsurprisingly, no one wants their names printed. Offering opinions on immigration, or race, is risky. "Racist" is an easy label to gain, but a hard one to lose. Just ask ex-Conservative parliamentary candidate Nigel Hastilow. He was sacked last year for agreeing with Powell that immigration would "dramatically" change Britain. Or ask Patrick Mercer, the Conservative MP, forced to leave the front bench for admitting black soldiers are sometimes called "black bastards".

What should worry politicians, though, isn't people's concerns on immigration. It's that not one person believes Labour, or the Conservatives, would solve them. Or could, for that matter. In the 2005 General Election, a Conservative slogan was: "It's not racist to want to control immigration". They won 158 seats fewer than Labour.

Since then, immigration has been ignored by polite politicians and left to the far-Right fringe. Instead, the House of Commons talks of climate change, European constitutions, and nationalisation.

One thing's for sure: if I'd asked Trimdon Labour Club about the sub-prime crisis, I wouldn't have 22 pages of notes.

"Labour? They're just Tories," says one man.

"Blair is a Tory. New Labour are just Tories. What was the last thing the Government did for the working man, apart from tax him to the hilt?"

THERE is no outright anger; just a forlorn acceptance that no mainstream politicians share their fears. Or, at least, dare admit it.

Some thought the impending Australian points system, where highly-skilled immigrants will have more chance of entry, would help. Some did not.

"Why are we letting so many people in?" asks one man. "No one asked me whether I wanted them in.

Did anyone ask you? I don't mind a few coming in - but in the last few years there has been an invasion.

I don't care who's in charge - it's hard to stop."

"Do we even know how many immigrants are here?" asks one. "The Chinese cockle pickers (who died at Morecambe Bay) - no one knew they were here. How many more are there?"

"There's so much wrong with the Government,"

adds one man. "I'm not sure they can fix anything."

Across the bar, someone jokes that MPs can fix one thing. Their expenses.

And that summed up the mood: we have politicians, but, mostly, they're no use. And this, remember, is the constituency of the previous Prime Minister.

There is good news, though. I ask if, considering their fears, they would consider voting for the British National Party. "Oh no," said one man. "I don't think it will ever come to that."

And with that, the speakers come on, the cards come out and the evening's second game of bingo begins.