Looking at their propaganda for the London elections I can see they’re proving their non-racism by pointing out that it’s not an issue of colour as “the BNP is equally opposed to immigration from Eastern Europe”. Reassuring to know :rolleyes:
But the people from eastern Europe that are getting the most negative attention with regard to immigration aren’t white.
On their website, they’re claiming credit for Abu Hamza’s arrest :rolleyes:
They beat the Mail, Express and Sun then?
No-one mentioned the fact that the broadcast had to be edited (or was at least edited by Channel 5) because a section of the broadcast was considered to be stirring up racial hatred, something about asian males “grooming” white girls to sexually abuse them. Anyways Channel 5 stuck a great big disclaimer on the front and refused to play that section. They showed it on the news along with the BNP head spouting some nonsense about freedom of speech and corrupt government. I didn’t really listen, all I heard was blahblahblahblahblah.
I’m guessing these guys are the descendents of those who looked upon the Irish Famine as a “blessing”…
I missed the disclaimer - but I knew they’d wanted to use a section about sex abuse; it was all pretty much lifted from a (IIRC) Channel 4 documentary, which was due to be screened a week or two ago but was postponed once it was clear the BNP wanted to capitalise on it.
Sadly , with both the main parties supporting the war in Iraq, and there is no doubt whatsoever that if the Conservatives were in power our international outlook would be virtually identical, there are many who would just love to give the British political establishment a bloody nose by kicking some of them out.
Labour have moved so far to the right that the truth is that voters have a choice of either - the same, or - more of the same.
In my area we have Labour as the dominant party, and it has been said that you could dress a pig up in a red rosette and it would still get voted into the safe Labour seat.
I would dearly love to use my vote to shake them from this complacency since Labour takes the vote of this area completely for granted.
Although I would like to see closer European integration, I know a goodly number of folk around here who would like exactly the opposite, and none of the mainstream parties really address this, the closest party to do this is the BNP, and although they are extremists, I can see them picking up votes just on their anti-European ticket.
The mainstream parties carry on in their way, completely ignoring the concerns of a whole swathe of voters who feel disenfranchised since their view is not properly represented.
When I look at the candidates available though, I see no viable moderate alternative candidate, the Liberal Democrats are not fielding any candidates at all, yet the racist BNP are, and they will pick up a number of protest votes without any doubt at all.
It does not take much to get some momentum rolling, and many local election results are swung by a handful of votes, some candidates are elected on less than a thousand votes in total, and this is what the BNP will exploit - voter apathy is an extremely serious and dangerous issue, it allows organised tiny minority groups like the BNP to get their horrible little intellectual midgets into power.
So far BNP candidates have been utterly useless in council chambers, either not turning up at all, or being to stupid to understand the democratic process of debate, how local authorities function, or how budgets are planned and arrived at, and generally the BNP in power are a feeble lot.
They are nearly always denied a second term as local voters suddenly realise what the effect of their complacency has bequeathed to their town councils and the embarrassment and humiliatiion of having such a bunch of racist thugs represent them, and making the district into something of a pariah and a joke.
I saw the BBC one, apparently a totally different film to that shown on Five.
They’re trying to organise in Ireland now and are portraying the Irish as their cousins and partners in the Battle Against The Blow-Ins.
Fortunately, Irish people recall how recently it was that they were among the immigrants the BNP was desperately trying to keep out.
(I could say it’s a pity so many Irish people only remember this when it comes to the BNP, and not when it comes to other racist initiatives in Ireland, but that would be digressing…)
Enoch Powell was actually right - we had terrible race riots some years back. Fortunately he was also wrong - we got over them.
There’s not been much campaigning round here (Luton) - I’ve had a leaflet from the Respect party, but since I have no respect at all for George Galloway, they’re not getting my vote.
And because you elect a party list, not individual candidates, the only people you can vote for in person are the independent candidates. Martin Bell’s proved himself a man of his word, which counts for a lot for me, and policy-wise he’s a moderate. The only even moderately sensible ‘protest vote’ party is the UKIP - on the principle that the EU parliament needs a good gadfly. I don’t believe in protest votes, though - I believe in voting for a candidate, someone whom I can hold personally accountable, so I am ill served by these elections. Instead of comparing half a dozen candidates, I’ve got to compare the top three of each list. But the BNP (for racism), the Pro Life Party (because it’s not an issue fit for this election), and the Respect Party (as noted above) get the boot immediately. The Lib Dems campaigned hard for the local elections last year and have made great efforts in publicity. But they’re only in power locally because of an alliance with the Tories, so I wonder if they’d be worse on their own. They’re also against the war in Iraq, whereas I am for it.
It’s too early to choose.