On May 1st we had our annual council election. Whilst not terribly important on any global scale political pundits usually see these elections as an indicator of the mood of the country and the potential state of the next general election. Overall there was a general rise towards the Conservative party and away from the present Labour government (For my U.S. friends, that's a bit like Republican and Democrat respectively). But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to look at things on a much more local level.
I live in a political area (ward) called Radcliffe West which comprises of roughly 7,000 voters as do the other two wards, Radcliffe North and Radcliffe East (odd names, considering I live right at the Southern tip of the town!)
Only about a third of the population actually bothered to get off their arses and vote, and here's a rough breakdown of the results:
Labour 44% (a fall of 6% compared to last year)
Conservative 27% (a rise of 5%)
BNP 18% (about the same)
Liberal Democrat 7% (about the same)
UK Independence Party 3% (no candidate last year)
A Worrying Pattern Emerges
The fact that Labour hold almost half of the votes (they actually had 50% last year) comes as no surprise, nor does the fact that the Tories are second with roughly half of Labour's votes. After all, this is an area of low education, poor health, low life-expectancy and all the other things that make up a typically "working class" town.
What bothers me is number three - the BNP.
For those who don't know, BNP stands for British National Party. Some years ago, before re-branding, they were called the National Front and were rightly known as vicious, racist nazis. They still are, but nowadays they have a respectable, clean-shaven face and a nice suit (instead of being a bunch of skinhead football hooligans).
We've only had a BNP candidate for the last two years but they seem to have been remarkably successful. Look again at the figures - the Liberal Democrat Party is, nationally, the third party in the country with 63 MP's (as compared to Labour's 351 and Conservative's 192, the BNP don't have one) - but that doesn't seem to be the case round here. The Lib Dems actually got less than half the vote of the BNP. In fact, if you round up the figures a bit, roughly 1 in every 5 voters in Radcliffe West voted for the BNP.
Or, to put it in a really blunt way: where I live, a fifth of the people who care about the government are fascists!
The BNP
I vote even though I instinctively don't trust politicians. I have a strong feeling that anyone who actively seeks out political power is the sort of person who shouldn't have it. Nonetheless I vote because it's one of the very few chances I get to have a say in how my country is run - it's bullshit really, but it's the best we've got so it'll have to do. Use it or lose it!
However, assuming that people vote because they want to express an opinion, it's safe to assume that the BNP voters also care about how their country is run. That's pretty scary. Let's see what they're voting for:
According to http://www.stopthebnp.org.uk/ the BNP are white-only party opposed to any none-white immigration (where do Greeks and Turks stand, I wonder?) who deny the Holocaust, believe that all black people should be repatriated - including the ones who were born here - and would make mixed-race relationships illegal. They're also anti-gay and anti-feminist.
I'm not going to go into them all, but their policies can be found by a simple Wikipaedia search - they are the same, in substance as the policies of the German National Socialist Party in the 1930's.
Why, then, is 1 in 5 of the voters in this area voting for them?
An Answer?
Okay, I don't have one! But then, I'm not a BNP voter so I wouldn't. I do believe, though that it comes down to something I've mentioned in previous posts - the fear of difference!
I would like to state the following as my own opinion of immigration:
Immigration is a good thing!
Immigration does not weaken a country, it enriches it. The reason for it is that the people do not make a country - the country (ie. the LAND itself) makes the people. The landscape, weather and language are what make the British what they are - and to become fully British takes an immigrant family three generations.
This country is made of immigrants. Everyone in Britain is the distant (or not-so-distant) descendant of an immigrant. Everyone. Including the members of and voters for the BNP. Having dark skin is the same result of ancestry as having red hair, but it's easier for simple-minded fascists to pick on.
A final word
Some of the nicest people I've ever met are immigrants. I spent a lovely day a couple of weeks ago talking to a native Pole and a native Norwegian. One of my best mates is an immigrant, again from Norway, who brought other friends - a Swede and an Italian to a party recently.
One of the nicest couples I've ever met are Ugandan Indians - the BNP would have them out like a shot because they've got brown faces! One ex-girlfriend of mine was of Indian descent and one was Ghanaian. My doctor's a Pakistani.
Should the BNP gain power at all, such people would be forced out of the country. Is this really what 1 in 5 people actually want? I do hope not! As a final note I'm adding Stop The BNP as a permanent link on this blog.
Fascists: we don't want them, we don't need them, we're better off without them.
Love,
Seán
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6 comments:
As you say, you have little interest in politics and it shows.
First let me clarify something for you. The National Front is still around and had some recent good result in elections.
It is nothing to do with the British National Party.
If you want to know why people are voting for the BNP, then you will have to open your mind to the truth. Difficult if you have been brainwashed for decades.
Check out my site and follow some of the links and do some reading and then at least you see where we in the BNP are coming from.
I also have many friends from overseas. The BNP has no plans to deport ANYONE who is a legal citizen of this country. They also accept that there are people who love each other despite differences in colour or even if they are the same sex. That is fine also.
You may also like to visit The Green Arrow forum and read what ordinary bnp members and supporters are saying.
Check it out. What have you got to lose. Red Pill. Blue pill. Your shout.
This comment is very interesting for two reasons: the first is the Green Arrow's remarkable belief that non-racism (ie. NOT voting for the BNP) is some kind of brainwashing-caused mental abberation and secondly the speed with which he commented.
Most of the people who comment on my blog are people I already know either personally or via the net. Mr Arrow (who I've never met) managed to comment in less than an hour and a half! Perhaps he has some software that scans for BNP mentions on the web. Such an immediate and defensive response sounds very paranoid though.
Anyway, in fairness I decided to check out the BNP's website (I feel so dirty!). Note, though, that any group's official site only tells people what that group wants them to know. I'm also checking it out as a white, working class, middle-aged male living in a deprived area and having minimal formal education - the BNP's target demographic, in fact! Here's what I found.
"We will abolish the ‘positive discrimination’ schemes that have made white Britons second-class citizens."
Note the use of the word "white", and the term "positive discrimination" in inverted commas. This statement implies that there has been discrimination against white people which needs to be redressed.
" We will also clamp down on the flood of ‘asylum seekers’, all of whom are either bogus or can find refuge much nearer their home countries"
Note here the words "flood" and "all of whom..." These terms are both sensationalist and antagonistic -designed to provoke a specific reaction. Note also how "asylum seekers" is in inverted commas in order to make it look like a fake name.
"...we call for an immediate halt to all further immigration, the immediate deportation of criminal and illegal immigrants, and the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin "
This one is a linguistic doozy - how voluntary is a voluntary scheme, what does "afforded the opportunity" actually mean and how does one define an illegal immigrant? If the law states that immigration is illegal then all immigrants are, by definition, illegal ones.
These are just a couple of quotes which demonstrate the racism which forms the core of BNP policy. They may be wrapped in careful language but so what - a turd in a pretty bag still stinks!
As for the lack of connection between the NF and the BNP here's a quote from Wikipedia:
"The current BNP has its roots in the New National Front, founded in 1980 by John Tyndall, a former chairman of the National Front (NF). In 1982, the New National Front and a faction of the then-disintegrating British Movement led by Ray Hill merged to form the new British National Party. Tyndall was elected leader and Hill became his deputy, with much of the early funding provided by Tyndall's father-in-law, Charles Parker."
The Green Arrow told a lie! How much of everything else he wrote could also be a lie?
The Green Arrow has said one sensible thing: don't be brainwashed!
Definitely don't be brainwashed by the sensationalist and unfounded racism of the extreme right.
I didn't say that I had little interest in politics - I said I instinctively don't trust politicians. Following that, I stand by everything else I said in the original post - the BNP are fascists, no more, no less! My grandparents fought in a war against fascists.
We don't need them.
And my father landed on the Normandy beaches to fight fascists.
I and my four brothers have all been in the armed forces.
We hate fascism and that is why we are all with the British National Party which is now unstoppable.
One of the most apposite discoveries made by R.A. Wilson in his exploration of the human psyche was the strength of belief. If a person has a particularly strong belief then any attempt to change that belief through normal reasoning is doomed to failure. People will reject reasoned argument, any admissable evidence and even well-known facts if they contradict the believer's worldview.
Most Pagans will know this experience only too well from their dealings with fundamentalist Christians , but the same applies to political views. With that in mind (and because I'm not as clever as R.A.W. was) I'm going to have one more go before I stop banging my head on a wall. After this I'll not make any more replies to Green Arrow's comments - he's made himself look daft enough as it is.
Okay, here goes!
The term fascism, whilst applicable to the governments of Italy and Germany during World War II does not apply to them exclusively.
Here is a dictionary definition of the term "fascism":
"a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism)"
(from: wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)
Here's another:
"An ideology that combines dictatorial government, militarism, control of the personal freedom, extreme nationalism, and government control of business. ..."
(from www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/a/c/ach13/Asia/Glossary.htm)
And a third:
"Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology that holds the state above all else and seeks to forge a type of national unity, usually based on ethnic, cultural, or racial attributes. ..."
(from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism)
Now compare them to the following statements taken directly from the BNP's website:
"To ensure . . . that the British people retain their homeland and identity, we call for an immediate halt to all further immigration."
"We support the re-introduction of corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals, and the restoration of capital punishment."
"The British National Party exists to secure a future for the indigenous peoples of these islands."
"We will end the practice of politically correct indoctrination in all its guises and we will restore discipline in the classroom."
"We reject the idea that Britain must forever be obliged to subsidise the incompetence and corruption of Third World states by supplying them with financial aid. We will link foreign aid with our voluntary resettlement policy."
"We will boost Britain’s armed forces."
"We will also restore national service for our young."
Enough already! Im sure the open-minded and intelligent reader will see the connections.
I believe in a liberal democracy as the best alternative to true Kropotkin/Chomsky style anarchism. Unfortunately, that means that even extremists like the BNP have the right to express their opinions. To do otherwise would be to support a fascist state.
In the highly unlikely event that the BNP were to gain any amount of political power then Britain would become a militarist, white-only, police state. Business would become government controlled and personal freedoms would become eroded into non-existence. Freedom would belong to the Native, white British rather than to everyone as a birthright. We would be living in a fascist state.
No thanks!
Give me the Greens, No Borders, even the Liberal Democrats! But let's show the world where the Nazis are hiding.
When I've spoken to people who voted BNP they said that they didn't really agree with BNP policies, they just wanted to give the main 3 parties a bloody nose.
Despite denying being a racist & fascist organisation, BNP leader Nick Griffin has been broadcast on TV blaming Muslim immigrants for the country's hard drug problems, and referring to Islam as a "wicked and vicious faith".
Whilst Mr. Griffin claims that the party is no longer racist, I don't believe that so many leopards can change their spots en masse.
Not sure I believe in tactical voting - it feels dishonest. But I think I understand it.
Certainly seems a dangerous thing to do, though.
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