A constituency of fearful white voters has become central to the right-wing political discourse, leading to the tolerance of ‘banal’ racism

Last week Bart Cammaerts was asked by the North Belgian broadsheet newspaper De Standaard to write an opinion piece regarding the debate on race, language and political correctness in the UK (the piece was published in the printed edition of 13 May 2014). What follows is a slightly edited translation of what he wrote in which he condemns politicians, such as David Cameron and Boris Johnson, for condemning those that react against racism more than those who use racist language. He suggests this acceptance of ‘banal’ racism definitely has something to do with the growing success of UKIP.