BNP gain 3 council seats

[Bitter Ashes]

Damn

http://bnp.org.uk/2009/06/bnp-wins-first-ever-county-council-seats-as-chairman-cautions-against-over-optimism/

http://bnp.org.uk/2009/06/bnp-take-third-county-council-seat/

The BNP won thier first 3 county council seats in the local elections in Hertfordshire, Lancashire and Leicestershire. The number of votes they recieved for those 3 seats alone were a 5 digit number. They're even using the antifa efforts as a kind of medal >.<

Although 3 seats might seem minor in the scheme of 2287 available county council seats, it's certainly worrying that they've gone from nothing to 3 in one go and it's brought thier campaign up from parish council level to county council level. It's really not good.

[Melbourne Lefty]

Yes but the doom and gloom on Pro-BNP sites is palpable.

They are very upset about how low their vote was, they reckon they dont have the votes to get an MEP.

Might be bollocks, but if they miss out on that big prize it will be a bullet dodged for our side.

[weblypistol]

The 3 elected , Deirdre Gates has spoken of "Hitler set up a “General Government” in conquered Eastern Europe states, while maintaining the national integrity of Western nation states" , Graham Partner writes a blog that has railed against multiculturalism , whilst Sharon Wilkinson opposed building a new school as it would lead to racial integration.

Very sad.

But if they fail to make headway in the European results that can be seen as positive . In the current climate they should be doing well . One would be too many.

[K.Bullstreet]

I don't think it's too bad at all, could have been a lot, lot worse! It's not the 'breakthrough to the mainstream' that Griffin was after. They didn't get anybody in in some of the areas they were targetting; Cumbria etc. And they seem to be a bit pesimistic about getting an MEP at all now...a few weeks ago they were expecting 7. Obviously 0 would have been better than them getting 3, and 3 does mean that 3 unfortunate places have BNP scum in their council. But it's not a biggy.

Hopefully many a BNP activist will be a bit disillutioned by it. :)

[Jia]

The UK has ministers resigning, political corruption and dissent, the economic crash and yet the far-right manages 3 seats?

I'm sorry but that's pathetic. If this was the good times, yes it should be more to worry about. But looking at this is quite a hard time for the UK, and the BNP still are not even close to getting there.

[Rjevan]

The 3 elected , Deirdre Gates has spoken of "Hitler set up a “General Government” in conquered Eastern Europe states, while maintaining the national integrity of Western nation states" , Graham Partner writes a blog that has railed against multiculturalism , whilst Sharon Wilkinson opposed building a new school as it would lead to racial integration.
*groan* Why are such people elected into council seats and not sent back to history lessons, which they obvioulsy bunked off? Building new schools would not only lead to "racial integration" (dear me!) but also to a clear view about Hitler's policies. :glare:


I don't think it's too bad at all, could have been a lot, lot worse! It's not the 'breakthrough to the mainstream' that Griffin was after.

The UK has ministers resigning, political corruption and dissent, the economic crash and yet the far-right manages 3 seats?

I'm sorry but that's pathetic. If this was the good times, yes it should be more to worry about. But looking at this is quite a hard time for the UK, and the BNP still are not even close to getting there.
That's true indeed! After all these recent scandals and the crisis I would have expected that the BNP would get far more votes. But they didn't. :p

[Bitter Ashes]

The UK has ministers resigning, political corruption and dissent, the economic crash and yet the far-right manages 3 seats?

I'm sorry but that's pathetic. If this was the good times, yes it should be more to worry about. But looking at this is quite a hard time for the UK, and the BNP still are not even close to getting there.
This the furthest the BNP have ever gotton. They've never been represented at county council level. They've gotton that far as a direct result of the political corruption and recession.

They did a little rally staight afterwards with a satire of the expenses row. They had a number of actors dressed in suits and with pig masks on snuffling around in a pile of banknotes and pushing wads of of money into thier pockets before bieng chased off by a group of white supremecists. Sadly, that seemed to have convinced some.

Furthermore, in recent years there has been progressive reforms to crack down on discrimination, offer humanitarian aid to refugees (from thier own wars mind you!) and EU immigration. Unfortunatly, these reforms have had the nasty co-incidence of bieng followed by a recession. Nobody in thier right mind would ever try to draw a link between these reforms and the recession. But as we know, the BNP are not in thier right minds.

They've got some very charismatic figures around right now and increadibly, I've spoken to people who actualy have started beliving all this too. Capitism is in decay...

[h0m0revolutionary]

This the furthest the BNP have ever gotton. They've never been represented at county council level. They've gotton that far as a direct result of the political corruption and recession.

They did a little rally staight afterwards with a satire of the expenses row. They had a number of actors dressed in suits and with pig masks on snuffling around in a pile of banknotes and pushing wads of of money into thier pockets before bieng chased off by a group of white supremecists. Sadly, that seemed to have convinced some.

Furthermore, in recent years there has been progressive reforms to crack down on discrimination, offer humanitarian aid to refugees (from thier own wars mind you!) and EU immigration. Unfortunatly, these reforms have had the nasty co-incidence of bieng followed by a recession. Nobody in thier right mind would ever try to draw a link between these reforms and the recession. But as we know, the BNP are not in thier right minds.

They've got some very charismatic figures around right now and increadibly, I've spoken to people who actualy have started beliving all this too. Capitism is in decay...


Comrade this must be looked at into perspective. The BNP are not winning minds to their cause, they are winning votes based on dissillusionment with the mainstream parties. i.e not on their own merits, but on the failings of others. We know this to be true ebcause the rise of all fringe parties, not just the BNP.

Moreover look at Sweden, France, Italy etc where the far-right regually achieve 10-15% of the popular vote. Britain is nowhere near that, nor are we becoming so.

Most importantly, capitalism is not in crisis, I wish it were. The BNP have gained a few county council seats as a direct consequence of the expenses scandal and a Parliament full of politicians all offering the same solution to the economic recession that has hurt many a worker. They have not won seats based on any devotion to fascism.

[teenagebricks]

While the BNP are obviously a problem which needs to be dealt with swiftly, I'm rather chuffed that they only managed to get three seats, I imagine that proportionately they will have done a bit better in the Euro elections, they still won't have gotten far. That said, they are still a threat, and we cannot rest easy just yet, the longer these silly little scandels go on, the more support the BNP will get, as much as I hate to say it, Brown, Cameron and Clegg really need to sort themselves out.

[Bitter Ashes]

It gets worse.
The BNP now have thier very first European seat too. 6% of the votes cast were for BNP. One seat might not sound much, but only the Tories and Lib Dems gained even that many this election, the rest either lost seats or stayed the same. Also bear in mind that just like with the county councils, the BNP has never been represented at this level of governance until this weekend. Maybe it's time to up the stakes on stopping them making thier last push into the house of commons?

[teenagebricks]

What would you suggest? It could have been much worse, but you're right, something clearly needs to be done.

[Melbourne Lefty]

Daily Mail puts BNP vote at 7.5%, BBC puts it at a little over 6%.

Considering that the UK has always been the one country to never have a "far right" party with any real vote at all this is not a good thing.

I really thought that they would walk away without an MEP...:(

It would have destroyed the BNP with the amount of money they have spent... And probably would have led to a split since Griffin is too far burrowed in like the tick he is to be overthrown.

The BNP aint going to get into Parliament, but they dont have to get in there to do damage and lean the capitalist parties further towards the right.

All over europe peoples votes have swung right when right wing policies were responsible for the current bad financial situation.

Why? What the hell happened?

LePens vote went down in France, but only because his voters were stolen away by Sarkozy.

In the UK UKIP and the BNP put together [both can be called extreme right wing parties] took almost a qurater of the vote.

Even with a much reduced turnout this is still awfull...:(

The only positive I can see is that anti-fascist activism will get a much needed boot up the rear, now no-one on the left will be able to avoid the threat of the BNP, the UAF should do quite well out of this, and hopefully also antifa.

[teenagebricks]

In London the BNP got 4.94% while the left wing parties combined (No2EU, SLP, SPGB) only took a little over 2%. The Greens got 10.88%, which is pretty much on par with UKIP. The three majors got less than 65% of the share, which shows that people really are looking for alternatives, but apparently the BNP and UKIP are the only party who can offer them what they want, the left needs to get its act together.

[Jia]

It gets worse.
The BNP now have thier very first European seat too. 6% of the votes cast were for BNP. One seat might not sound much, but only the Tories and Lib Dems gained even that many this election, the rest either lost seats or stayed the same. Also bear in mind that just like with the county councils, the BNP has never been represented at this level of governance until this weekend. Maybe it's time to up the stakes on stopping them making thier last push into the house of commons?

One last push? :confused:

They still are fuck all compared to the larger parties. Not every UK citizen would have voted in these elections. Most of that 6% are protest votes against labour.

[Module]

The BNP gained two seats, not one.
From the interview on BBC news this morning, he just sounds like an idiot. Not even a wolf in sheep's clothing, he wouldn't know where to find any (I am not trying to turn that into a clever metaphor, don't worry). I don't think people could even possibly see the BNP as what Nick Griffin is trying to paint the party as. :confused: Like said above, they got the protest vote, but they are going to milk this success to prove their legitimacy. In the long term I would doubt the BNP are going to make any serious gains.
But yeah. Hmmm!

[Rory]

I think now we have to hope they fuck up while in the Euro Parliament, do something to turn people off them and we also have to step up our action against them.

I think last time all votes were postal votes so that explains the drop in turnout and the increase of BNP support, which is only up about 1.4%. I don't think this result shows a genuine swing towards the BNP. However it is very worrying that they've got a seat representing us.

[Melbourne Lefty]

think now we have to hope they fuck up while in the Euro Parliament,


I dont even think thats possible.

Gladly the media hates the BNP almost as much as we do, so if they stuff up it will be exposed.

[Killfacer]

Do anti-fa still think they can actually combat the BNP? Because it's obvious that they can't.

[Melbourne Lefty]

Do anti-fa still think they can actually combat the BNP? Because it's obvious that they can't.

They can, but I dont think antifa ever said they were going to do it on their lonesome.:rolleyes:

[bellyscratch]

Do anti-fa still think they can actually combat the BNP? Because it's obvious that they can't.

I think groups like Antifa are useful, but only alongside mass movements like UAF in stopping these sort of groups gaining more support (UAF needs to much bigger than it is now to be effective). Although, its common sense that there will always be some sort of fascist groups around as long as we're in a capitalist system, however small they may be.

[Killfacer]

They can, but I dont think antifa ever said they were going to do it on their lonesome.:rolleyes:

They can't combat a parliamentary group. As soon as the BNP put on suits instead of bomber jackets, they became bulletproof from any attempts by anti-fa.

[ls]

Not really Killfacer, combating them physically has been effective before and warning them off has worked too. The thing is that it isn't only via violent means, leafleting council estates and engaging with working-class people is just one of the other ways in which antifa work, warning people off in my opinion with preventive action in conjunction (but only in the context of the situation, a good example of the right context can be found here: http://www.londonclasswar.org/antifascist.php "10th August 2004
..
By now the cops had more than lost their patience with us, and we were forced out of the Square to Charing Cross station, pausing only to swap rounds of applause with the Sikhs. All in all the day went reasonably well, in what was one of Antifa's first outings.") with other working-class people vastly outnumbering the fascists is the best way that Antifa appears to work, no matter what kind of nazis they are fighting.

If that kind of thing happens with notts stop the bnp at the next rwb it should go pretty well.

[Killfacer]

i'll get back to you when i'm not pissed.

[Melbourne Lefty]

antifa has a place in intimidating pub/venue owners and threatening disruption so that the BNP cannot hold meetings and recruit openly like the other parties.

Its not the whole battle, but if the BNP were not in fear of their physical safety they would probably be much larger than they are now. And I think they would be making us in fear of our physical safety.

They have to be kept on the back foot, even if it does give their members a siege mentality.

[Killfacer]

ok i'm not longer pissed.

Ok, you've changed my mind, there is a place for anti-fa in combatting the BNP. I was wrong, please forgive me. I beg. :crying: