“Our England”: discourses of “race” and class in party election leaflets

This article examines two election leaflets distributed in Bradford, UK as part of the May 2006 local election campaigns of the Labour Party and the British National Party. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, the article shows that prejudicial ethnicist discourse is not solely the purview of marginal far-right political parties, but is incorporated by mainstream British political communications. Specifically, I argue the two leaflets share similar ideological assumptions and arguments: first, of English exceptionalism; second, a representation of migrants as “things” that we have a right and a need to manage in the interests of “Our” nation; and third, the complete elision of class identity and conflict when examining who benefits from the exploitation of migrant workers.