I can’t believe the amount of discussion that Nick Griffin coming on the BBC has generated. What has been disapointing is that he’s come across as a victim. I can’t see how the people who want to ban him from the airways can’t don’t recognise that.
Jack Straw came across as a robust but essentially complacent member of the ruling class, Labour’s Michael Howard. Why couldn’t they have put someone like Jon Cruddas who would at least put up a fight? Chris Huhne was unbelievably weak except, ironically, when he attacked the weakness of the Tories and Labour on immigration. Bonnie Greer is irritating enough on Newsnight, and she came across as irrelevant with her talk about Churchill being, perhaps, just a little bit Mohawk – although her parting comment about the British .
There were some clever people from the audience, but Baroness Warsi was a surprise. She (along with Dimbleby) made Griffin appear evasive and boldly stole his clothes on immigration – by admitting that the political classes had got it wrong.
This was no reverse for the BNP. However the BNP did suffer a reverse when they attacked the “Tory generals” who complained about the BNP appropriating British millitary symbols, comparing the war leaders to Nazi war criminals who were hanged.
The BNP can’t be defeated by shouting “racist”. It can’t be ignored. In Bridge they got more than 200 votes without even trying. I’m in a mixed race marriage. I live here. I can’t escape to a plush house on the other side of the river. I’m invested in the BNP getting no further in Bridge.
The BNP have to be confronted as a serious party. I’ve praised a couple of Tory moves earlier in this post but when I stood for council for Bridge I got a letter from the party chairman Eric Pickles (well it wasn’t to me in particular but to every candidate who faced the BNP). It told me not to debate the BNP, not to address “their” issues and to ignore the whole thing. It was this attitude, shared across the political class, that helped them get a million votes.
It’s not just that. It’s also the silly moves over time by various members of the media and political classes to play down any mention of our Christian heritage, to stop the British flag from being flown and – until recently - to only address immigration from the viewpoint of employers. The East European mass migration may get marginally cheaper cleaners and builders for the residents of Corder Road, but in Rectory Road its driving up rents, driving down wages and crowding out public services such as schools and hospitals.
The reason why the fruitcakes of the BNP do well is because the political class spent a lot of time talking to itself rather than listening to the voters.
If that doesn’t change things will get a lot worse. And Bridge will be the victim of a complacent absentee political class that has forgotten how to speak up for it’s voters, if it ever knew how.
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