BNP pt2

A quick appendum to all the BNP stuff. As I wrote below, BNP support is coming from Labour as this YouGov/Channel 4 poll shows.

So what you going to do Gordon?



H/T: To Political Betting for putting this up again

BNP-QT

So how was it for you?

Like many I thought Griffin came across exactly as I thought he would - shifty, nervous, ludicrous.

But... As others have pointed out, how will this play out in Bradford, Dagenham etc?

To be honest I don't think that his support will rise. Yes it may look like he was being bullied and yes I agree with Iain Dale that perhaps the Beeb should have stuck to the topical format of QT instead of focussing on the BNP. But the support he has is already there, I doubt he will get new support after this. We'll see when the polls are done, spose.

Anyway well done the Beeb for sticking to its guns and well played Alan Davis on The Week where he was perfect foil to the shrill Diane Abbot.

BTW, funniest moment? Jack Straw reaching for a (partisan),er, straw. He was asked if Labour were to blame for the rise of the BNP and in his waffle he ended up trying to blame the Conservatives and Enoch Powell for the policy that allowed Commonwealth citizens to work for "the Mother Country" in the '50s.

At least I think that was what he was trying to say because he was waffling. Also Jack try not to make it too obvious when you are reading your SPAD notes!

Free for all not Pic n Mix

"Five years on, the broadcasting ban remains a nasty little law, flirting with censorship."

Peter Hain is continuing his campaign to prevent the BNP from appearing on Question Time

I have always argued and will continue to argue in favour of free speech.
It is not a pic and mix, if there is free speech for one there is free speech for another.

"Tolerance of the intolerable is the hallmark of a democracy."

Why do Labour want to block these odious idiots anyway? They complained loudly about the Sinn Fein broadcasting ban - or were those bunch of political thugs acceptable to their ideology? (I thought the broadcasters did a brilliant job circumventing a ban that should never have been ordered and Labour correctly applauded the media's actions.)

You cannot decide on who has free speech. Although we don't have a written right to free speech, we do have laws and precedences to protect people. If Griffin, or any other loony commits an offence for incitement to racial violence or violence against a person then hit him with the law.

There is one straight precedence, it is fine to exercise free speech but you cannot shout fire in a packed cinema. So apply that. And whilst you're at it, arrest those thugs at the Finsbury Mosque for incitement as well. Like free speech, laws should be applied to all no matter what religion, colour or which House of Parliament you sit in.

As always, confront the bigot, don't make him a martyr. It is your natural constituents, Labour, that are voting for them.

The BNP is tapping into fears about jobs, housing, crime, the "way of life", and the only answer you're coming up with is to try and ban them?

AS I argued before, if you ban one political party, where does it stop? Hmmm, UKIP, bunch of loons, ban them. Tory Party? Full of rascists and capitalists, ban them. Lib Dems? Those orange book lads look a bit off-our-message, ban them.

Where do you stop?


Oh, and while I'm here, THE BNP IS A LEFT-WING PARTY! Look at its manifesto commitements, they're all socialist ideals. Just because they want to kick "anyone not them" out of the country and use nationalist imagery, it does not make them right wing, the left has used that as well!!


One final thing, the quotes on this blog - you may be interested to know that these come from Ann Clywd, the then-Labour spokesperson on National Heritage,on the fifth anniversary of the Sinn Fein broadcasting ban.
Here's the final one...

"Being right is not the key. Being allowed to be obnoxiously wrong is. The constitutional concept of free expression means something in continental Europe, and it means something in the United States. It should mean something here."

Appendum: Even Richard Littlejohn is calling for a ban!?! H/t Obo

Democracy

Tricky thing Democracy isn't it? I mean people you cannot stand get elected and represent the people, disgusting!

Luckily we have a solution at hand, thanks to New Labour:

Following the European elections, the civil service and government officials considered a range of options for dealing with the BNP, from an inclusive non-discriminatory approach to total quarantine, effectively ostracising them. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, is said to have signed off a decision that would bar the BNP people from government and embassy events in Brussels, while providing the extremists with some policy information.

Hell I can't stand UKIP let alone that left-wing loony party the BNP* but...BUT...they are elected representatives of the people. You cannot pick and choose which representatives you deal with on the basis of taste, sorry.

Nick Farage of UKIP got it right: "I don't think the policy of isolating them, of a cordon sanitaire, will work at all. It's a mistake. They're elected representatives, whether we like it or not."

Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies gets it wrong: "A line has been crossed [with the BNP]. It's a difference of degree. It's not surprising that the government has to draw up guidelines to deal with a different situation."

I remember in 1997 there was a movement to get the BNP banned from PEBs. Now the fact that it had complied with the law and it was entitled to one broadcast wasn't important to a lot of people including those sensible thinkers in the Student bar at my Uni.

Only myself and George (a good friend and, erm, Nigerian) argued that the BNP's inane message must be broadcasted and disseminated rather than making them political martyrs.

Even more importantly, we argued, where was the thin edge? Where and when would it be exceptable to ban other views you disagreed with? In theory Liberals and Tories could be banned.

Extremists should be confronted, their arguments shown up for ridicule, their logic dismantled.

All these actions will just make them political martyrs and gain them support.

Tch, as I said, tricky thing this democracy

* Yes the BNP are left wing if you actually look at their manifesto, it just fits the political narrative to call them right-wing, after all the Conservatives are right-wing aren't they?

Update: Leg Iron has a good take on this