More on the BNP
There have been quite a few very instructive responses to mt recent post on the BNP, and they’ve caused me to review my position.
The BNP are the most blatent anti-liberal party in the country at the moment (although Respect come a close second). The areas where they will naturally be strong are not going to be areas where there is a strong liberal presense (of any party) and since the Liberal Democrats are the closest to a consistent liberal party we have it stands to reason that Liberal Democrat support will be low in such areas.
The support the BNP garner will not, generally, come from LibDem voters. It is popular to say that they gain support from Tory voters, and this is true for a certain consituency of authoritarian anti-liberal Tory voters - this is largely what we see in well off places like Loughton. In other areas the natural target of the BNP are old Labour voters. Economically they have a lot in common. The command economy of old labour and the socialist firebrands naturally leads to nationalism and to an ‘us vs. them’ mentality, which the BNP feed upon.
The lower number of LibDem opponents to the BNP should be seen as these areas not being areas where we have the organisation on the ground and part of that reason is that area has a strong level of anti-liberal sentiment. Sentiment which the Tories and Labour obviously feed upon and nurture, a policy which is now having the effect of making the BNP palatable.
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April 22nd, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Well I am my family will never vote for any of LibLabCon cosy pact ever again.
They have all their chances and blown it and it is now left to the BNP to pick up the pieces.
Also I see the Lib Dems are up to their usual postal ballot tricks again.
http://www.isupporttheresistance.blogspot.com/
April 22nd, 2007 at 1:10 pm
They aren’t postal ballot “tricks”. The transfer of votes in this way is an old Indian and Pakistani tradition that has been introduced to Britain.
If it was that bad wouldn’t the government act on it? No - they stand to gain in areas where the labour party is Indian/Pakistani controlled.
April 26th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Do you have any understanding of Liberalism? A support for the right of self determinism, free speech, freedom of association, the rights of indigenous people.
Trevor Phillips has said he wants to treat the BNP as less than human. The leader of the Welsh Conservatives has described the BNP as subhuman. Where is the Liberal outrage at these remarks?
The BNP can defend all its policies on environmental grounds and is the most liberal mainstream party. It doesn’t rely on inciting racial like the other parties with their hate whitey attitude.
It was Capitalism that was to blame for the evils of the slave trade and colonalism but the Capitalist Establishment of today can’t accept this. So they invent the strawman of racism to take the blame and make the white working class scapegoats for their greed.
If the people claiming to be Liberal were so they would be able to answer several points. Why as no one being charged with inciting racial hatred for warmongering? Why wasn’t a simple incitement to hatred act introduced instead of the incitement of racial hatred then there would be no so called annomalies? Have you not considered the law of unintended consequences by making blacks and muslims protected groups under the law you have allowed them to incite hatred without any consequences to themselves and have actually increased racial hatred. It was the incitement to racial hatred act and the anti white racist indoctrination in our schools which are two of the main causes of the London Islamic bombs.
April 28th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Congratulations, Tristan. You must be the only Lib Dem blog with TWO BNP readers. You must feel so proud.
Do you think the party encourages them to scour the internet for BNP postings to respond to? A kind of cyber-leafletting? I can imagine that the SWP would do that, so why not the BNP. There’s only a cigarette paper between them.
April 29th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Tom:
I think you’re right - I’ve seen this on other blogs. I’m not sure if its organised or not - although I’m sure there’s mailinglists out there where attacks on the BNP are mentioned and the readers encouraged to respond.
The main difference between the SWP and BNP (apart from the arbitrary left/right thing) is the BNP have the charismatic and intelligent Nick Griffin at the core which makes them a bit more dangerous in the short to medium term…
April 29th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Shane:
You don’t seem to understand liberalism -
Freedom of association and free speech are essential, which is why I do not delete comments apart from spam or criminal (that’s to cover my own back).
You seem to be confused over self determination and the rights of indigenous people - the former is the right for individuals to have self determination, the latter does not exist apart from the rights of individuals to associate as they wish.
The BNP attempts to give a green spin to its policies, but in the same way as the Green party uses green issues to promote their politics rather than as solutions to real problems. This does not make the BNP liberal in any respect.
Whilst the BNP persists with refusing individuals the right to improve their lives by moving to a country where they can not only work but benefit the society they move to it cannot even claim to be liberal.
Whilst the BNP advocates a command economy it cannot be anything close to liberal.
Market capitalism is the economics of freedom, the economics of the individual, the economics of liberty. It was not market captialism which caused slavery but the state’s sanctioning of force against one group. It was state capitalism of the sort advocated by the BNP.
The warmongering of Blair was not based in race so why should he be accused of racism?
The incitement to racial hatred laws are a political convenience and are born of a history of hatred projected towards specific groups. They are an attempt (albeit a clumsy one) to rebalance the situation. The laws of incitement to violence are still there however, and apply universally.
You cannot incite violence upon another whether you’re black, white, asian, muslim, jewish, christian, gay, straight or any group.
Your reasoning as to the causes of the London bombings does not follow. It was purpotrated by a group of people whose intention is to destroy the liberal world. The laws you cite do not have an effect. I also don’t see this supposed indoctrination - unless teaching that discrimination upon irrelevent traits is wrong is indoctrination…
I’m afraid that if you wish to talk of liberalism and the BNP you should look at what it means and what the BNP stand for.
Liberalism is the politics of the individual, or individual rights and responsibilities. The BNP are collectivist and nationalist, the individual does not exist in such political philosophy, except as a tool to reach the ends of the politician.