The BNP should RIP

[Pauliesonne]

I really would like to think people won't vote for the BNP and I REALLY hope people aren't voting for the BNP, because they feel their freedoms are being restricted by " political correctness ".

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/23042006/140/tory-cameron-don-t-vote-bnp.html

God, I hope people don't vote for the BNP!

[tkingdoll]

For non-UK readers, the BNP are the British National Party, white supremacists and generally nasty racist types. They are gaining popularity because of the perceived favouritism shown by the government towards ethnic minority groups and immigrants (asylum and economic).

Paulie, I also hope that people don't vote for them, but don't forget that the good thing about democracy is that you are free to vote for whichever party you like. Unfortunately, the BNP are very good at lying to attract voters. I read their manifesto at the last general election, and it was frightening stuff, but their leaflets and pamphlets were very clever propaganda. They tap into very common fears (shortage of social housing, rising crime, etc) and use statistics to blame ethnic minorities for those problems.

[Skeptic]

For non-UK readers, the BNP are the British National Party, white supremacists and generally nasty racist types. They are gaining popularity because of the perceived favouritism shown by the government towards ethnic minority groups and immigrants (asylum and economic).

Or, just possibly, because of the fact that Islamic terror reached Britian.

[tkingdoll]

Or, just possibly, because of the fact that Islamic terror reached Britian.

D'oh!

Yeah, that would do it too :rolleyes:

I was thinking of the recent comments from Margaret Hodge regarding the specific issues I mentioned. Mildly myopic of me...

[brodski]

Or, just possibly, because of the fact that Islamic terror reached Britian.
except that the BNPs rise had more to do with the 2001 riots than activities in 2005.

[Pauliesonne]

I guess the old saying rings true more today than it ever has;

communisim is the tyranny of the educated
and
democracy is the tyranny of the majority

[geni]

Or, just possibly, because of the fact that Islamic terror reached Britian.

Doubtful and in any case the BNP are not a sane responce to Islamic terror.

[Kerberos]

You know when I clicked on this thread I expected a rant on the evils of using the Brutto National Product as an economic measure. I want my mopney back.

[chocolatepossum]

I imagine the BNP gain more support due to the asylum issue, which has been blown massively out of proportion by a lot of the media, than a fear of islamic terrorism.

[Ryokan]

You know when I clicked on this thread I expected a rant on the evils of using the Brutto National Product as an economic measure. I want my mopney back.

I was thinking the very same thing :p

For you foreigners, BNP is Norwegian (and probably Danish and Swedish) for GNP.

[Skeptic]

Doubtful and in any case the BNP are not a sane responce to Islamic terror.

I didn't say it was a SANE or a GOOD response to it. Far from it. I simply mean that it's probably one of the causes, and seems to be the elephant-in-the-living-room one at that.

[geni]

I didn't say it was a SANE or a GOOD response to it. Far from it. I simply mean that it's probably one of the causes, and seems to be the elephant-in-the-living-room one at that.

The goverment has been rather busy (much to the anoyance of those of us who like civil liberties) comeing up with lots of daconian anti terror stuff. The BNP mostly work around local stuff along the lines of "those pakis up the road are getting more funding than us all we are asking for is a fair deal gov". They generaly avoid mentioning their national agenda and Nick Griffin is intelligent enough to keep it that way.

[tkingdoll]

I didn't say it was a SANE or a GOOD response to it. Far from it. I simply mean that it's probably one of the causes, and seems to be the elephant-in-the-living-room one at that.

I agree, it is likely to be a contributing factor because I know for a fact that the BNP use it in their propaganda.

[geni]

I agree, it is likely to be a contributing factor because I know for a fact that the BNP use it in their propaganda.

If we are going from personal experiance of thier campain style then they only canvas women (certianly it was only the femal half of my block that got sent their campain leaflets).

[tkingdoll]

If we are going from personal experiance of thier campain style then they only canvas women (certianly it was only the femal half of my block that got sent their campain leaflets).

Perhaps they have researched their market and discovered that they have a bigger voter base amongst women in that geographic area. Or perhaps they find that women are more susceptible to their propaganda generally? Or it could just have been coincidence.

It's not unusual for a political party to specifically target a segment of the voter market. In fact, it's good economy for them to do so.

[Mike B.]

They really are a strange lot.

From their website, one of their concerns is animal welfare and the environment which really doesn't seem to jibe with their philosophy.

The big boogeyman is "multi-culturalsim" which seems to be the root of EVERY problem that has occurred in the UK in the last 20 years.

[tkingdoll]

They really are a strange lot.

From their website, one of their concerns is animal welfare and the environment which really doesn't seem to jibe with their philosophy.

More clever marketing. It's to combat their image as the bad guys.

"But we love the fluffy kittens and the rainforests! How can we be evil?"

[a_unique_person]

For non-UK readers, the BNP are the British National Party, white supremacists and generally nasty racist types. They are gaining popularity because of the perceived favouritism shown by the government towards ethnic minority groups and immigrants (asylum and economic).

Paulie, I also hope that people don't vote for them, but don't forget that the good thing about democracy is that you are free to vote for whichever party you like. Unfortunately, the BNP are very good at lying to attract voters. I read their manifesto at the last general election, and it was frightening stuff, but their leaflets and pamphlets were very clever propaganda. They tap into very common fears (shortage of social housing, rising crime, etc) and use statistics to blame ethnic minorities for those problems.

Since the conservatives are apparently taking a few tips from John Howard in Australia, they are already trying to tap into those fears with the "Are you thinking what I'm thinking" line of appeal to voters. John Howard was very successful at not condemning the racist "One Nation" here, and taking their voters to his side. He wasn't so blatant about it, however, which the "are you thinking..." is. If you are going to appeal to racsim, it's best to not be too obvious about it.

[geni]

Since the conservatives are apparently taking a few tips from John Howard in Australia, they are already trying to tap into those fears with the "Are you thinking what I'm thinking" line of appeal to voters.

Nah that was the last lot. Cameron appears to be trying to be Blair mark II or something


John Howard was very successful at not condemning the racist "One Nation" here, and taking their voters to his side.

The conservatives around here condem the BNP and try and portray UKIP as racist (while I suspect a fair number of their members are on some level their politics are not quite).

[brodski]

Since the conservatives are apparently taking a few tips from John Howard in Australia, they are already trying to tap into those fears with the "Are you thinking what I'm thinking" line of appeal to voters. John Howard was very successful at not condemning the racist "One Nation" here, and taking their voters to his side. He wasn't so blatant about it, however, which the "are you thinking..." is. If you are going to appeal to racism, it's best to not be too obvious about it.
oddly enough in the UK "one nation" refers to the centerist paternalistic tradition of the Tory party.
The BNP may be using Islamic terrorism in some areas to try and boost votes, but they do seem to try to be "all things to all people". in the northern former mill towns (where the BNP is most successful) they seem to focus on the asylum seekers issue and "all Muslims are pedophiles" slander (at least according to the leaflets my parents keep getting pushed through their letterbox).
This could partly be due to the fact that to date Islamic terrorism in the UK has only relay been seen in London, and frankly the sort of people in those northern former mill towns who are likely to vote BNP, tend to hold southerners, and Londoners in particular, in almost as much contempt as ethic minorities.
However the rise of the electoral success of the BNP can be charted directly from the various riots in the summer of 2001, before Islamic terrorism was on the mainstream political agenda.