Tuesday, 27 October 2009

BNP

No doubt everyone is aware of the recent controversy regarding the BNP on Question Time. The reason they were on the program is because they gained over one million votes at the recent European election. In my opinion most people in the UK are neither fascist nor racist. So the question really is, why?

5 comments:

  1. I agree that they should have been on. The audience at the time suggested the reason the BNP had got so many votes was because of frustration at other parties' inability to show leaderhsip on issues like immigration. But maybe laziness is a better answer - people couldn't be bothered to find out the real essence of the BNP and were quickly seduced by some headlines about immigration. As you say, if people are not racist or facsist then no-one would vote BNP if they understood that party's real agenda.

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  2. Yeah, it's very dangerous though. Hitler entered through an open door of frustration that other parties did not address.

    I suspect people do view the BNP as a bit dangerous, but they view continued mainstream party policy on immigration as more dangerous.

    The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.

    The problem is that mainstream parties no longer have credibility on this issue. They might say, ok we're going to sort this out, addressing real and imagined concerns.

    But who believes them?

    It's a serious problem. I'm not sure what the solution is.

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  3. For me you have to have these people on - otherwise it just stays underground and attracts protest votes. However you also have to be able to argue against their ridiculous beliefs and win that argument without just resorting to boo-hiss pantomime villain behaviour. That to me was the real missed opportunity of Straw etc on Question Time - although Griffin looked very shifty, there was way too much town meeting shouting and not enough cool, rational dissection of his policies. It's very easy for Griffin to then look like the "underdog" vs the establishment - and we all know the Brits love one of them.

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  4. Obviously most people aren't racist. The issue is social, not racial. The British public weren't persuaded by Griffin (and if you want to give him what he deserves go to www.slapnickgriffin.co.uk) but they were rightly annoyed by a feeling of unfairness. Now that's the right spirit, however unpleasant the individual.

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  5. Check this out...

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/minette_marrin/article6898174.ece

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