Holden Caulfield
8th June 2009, 20:09
This is a bad result (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8088381.stm).
The BNP have won two seats in the European elections, Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and Humberside and Nick Griffin in the Northwest. This gives them a platform in the European Parliament, extra resources and staff now they have their snouts in the trough and marks a further step of the extreme right on the road to the political mainstream.
That’s the bad news, is there any good news?
Nope, it gets worse. Over the next few weeks we will be engulfed by a wave of hysteria in the mainstream media as political commentators and hand-wringing representatives of the political elite express shock, anguish and try to understand why voters are turning to the British National Party in droves.
The problem is, this isn’t true. Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons have already been on the TV claiming that the voters are turning to them after decades of mass immigration, political correctness gone mad, media lies, Zanu Liebour, blah, blah, blah.
The frustrating thing is that the BNP won both seats with less votes than they did in 2004! Between 2004 and 2009 voters actually turned away from the BNP which, given the current political climate, is surprising.
In Yorkshire and Humberside the BNP vote dropped by 6,000, in the Northwest it dropped by almost 3,000.
Voters are not turning to the BNP. The BNP won both seats with a reduced vote because people deserted the main parties in droves. The Labour vote dropped by around 240,000 in the Northwest and almost 200,000 in Yorkshire. The Conservative vote dropped significantly as well.
For the outcome and the resources the BNP will gain with this victory that doesn’t matter particularly but it does give anti-fascists some hope. Even in the ‘perfect storm’ of widespread disillusionment with the mainstream parties the BNP failed to increase their vote in their target constituencies.
This also highlights the total failure of the current strategy deployed by Hope not Hate and Unite Against Fascism. Mobilising people to ‘keep out’ the BNP by voting for anyone else is a none-starter when the other parties are so discredited in the eyes of much of the population. This is why you get the ridiculous situation where the BNP lose votes but get elected. Even worse, it ties anti-fascists to these same political parties at the time the BNP are posing as a radical alternative.
What we can do about it
The BNP are not unbeatable and can be beaten if people are prepared to change tactics.
Carlisle has been a key target of the BNP for three years now and this year three years of hard work by the local group Carlisle Against Racism (who I’m proud to say I’ve helped on a number of occasions) has paid off this year. In the 9 council wards the BNP contested in 2008 and 2009 their vote dropped by almost 1000 despite the wider political context.
There years consistent work leafleting tens of thousands of houses with decent literature that goes beyond the ‘BNP are racist Nazis and criminals’ line, focusing on the areas the BNP concentrate on and having a regular street presence in the town centre has undermined the BNP vote and reversed the national trend. Instead of parachuting into communities at election time demanding people don’t vote for the BNP they are present all year round in the city.
The usual argument against this sort of approach is that focusing on class politics turns people away and narrows the anti-fascist movement. Instead we should unite on the broadest possible basis (this is that the BNP are Nazis and we don’t like Nazis) and this will mobilise enough people to keep the BNP out at election time.
I’ve always thought this is rubbish and the campaign of Carlisle Against Racism demonstrates that it’s rubbish because they managed to mobilise enough people to deliver over 35,000 leaflets in about a month.
Unfortunately this sort of approach has been isolated and it hasn’t been enough to keep the BNP out of the European Parliament. Still, as I said the other day our job was only half-done and it is a serious setback to have Nick Griffin in the European Parliament.
Finally, there is some good news, but not from the UK:
Over in Dublin Socialist Party (http://www.socialistparty.net/) member Joe Higgins has won a seat in the European Parliament (http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/latest/7407) and the Socialist Party has won a number of council seats across the country.
From a rather good blog (http://nationofduncan.wordpress.com/) i browse (although it is updated rather sporadically)
The BNP have won two seats in the European elections, Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and Humberside and Nick Griffin in the Northwest. This gives them a platform in the European Parliament, extra resources and staff now they have their snouts in the trough and marks a further step of the extreme right on the road to the political mainstream.
That’s the bad news, is there any good news?
Nope, it gets worse. Over the next few weeks we will be engulfed by a wave of hysteria in the mainstream media as political commentators and hand-wringing representatives of the political elite express shock, anguish and try to understand why voters are turning to the British National Party in droves.
The problem is, this isn’t true. Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons have already been on the TV claiming that the voters are turning to them after decades of mass immigration, political correctness gone mad, media lies, Zanu Liebour, blah, blah, blah.
The frustrating thing is that the BNP won both seats with less votes than they did in 2004! Between 2004 and 2009 voters actually turned away from the BNP which, given the current political climate, is surprising.
In Yorkshire and Humberside the BNP vote dropped by 6,000, in the Northwest it dropped by almost 3,000.
Voters are not turning to the BNP. The BNP won both seats with a reduced vote because people deserted the main parties in droves. The Labour vote dropped by around 240,000 in the Northwest and almost 200,000 in Yorkshire. The Conservative vote dropped significantly as well.
For the outcome and the resources the BNP will gain with this victory that doesn’t matter particularly but it does give anti-fascists some hope. Even in the ‘perfect storm’ of widespread disillusionment with the mainstream parties the BNP failed to increase their vote in their target constituencies.
This also highlights the total failure of the current strategy deployed by Hope not Hate and Unite Against Fascism. Mobilising people to ‘keep out’ the BNP by voting for anyone else is a none-starter when the other parties are so discredited in the eyes of much of the population. This is why you get the ridiculous situation where the BNP lose votes but get elected. Even worse, it ties anti-fascists to these same political parties at the time the BNP are posing as a radical alternative.
What we can do about it
The BNP are not unbeatable and can be beaten if people are prepared to change tactics.
Carlisle has been a key target of the BNP for three years now and this year three years of hard work by the local group Carlisle Against Racism (who I’m proud to say I’ve helped on a number of occasions) has paid off this year. In the 9 council wards the BNP contested in 2008 and 2009 their vote dropped by almost 1000 despite the wider political context.
There years consistent work leafleting tens of thousands of houses with decent literature that goes beyond the ‘BNP are racist Nazis and criminals’ line, focusing on the areas the BNP concentrate on and having a regular street presence in the town centre has undermined the BNP vote and reversed the national trend. Instead of parachuting into communities at election time demanding people don’t vote for the BNP they are present all year round in the city.
The usual argument against this sort of approach is that focusing on class politics turns people away and narrows the anti-fascist movement. Instead we should unite on the broadest possible basis (this is that the BNP are Nazis and we don’t like Nazis) and this will mobilise enough people to keep the BNP out at election time.
I’ve always thought this is rubbish and the campaign of Carlisle Against Racism demonstrates that it’s rubbish because they managed to mobilise enough people to deliver over 35,000 leaflets in about a month.
Unfortunately this sort of approach has been isolated and it hasn’t been enough to keep the BNP out of the European Parliament. Still, as I said the other day our job was only half-done and it is a serious setback to have Nick Griffin in the European Parliament.
Finally, there is some good news, but not from the UK:
Over in Dublin Socialist Party (http://www.socialistparty.net/) member Joe Higgins has won a seat in the European Parliament (http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/latest/7407) and the Socialist Party has won a number of council seats across the country.
From a rather good blog (http://nationofduncan.wordpress.com/) i browse (although it is updated rather sporadically)