BBC interview of Nick Griffin

[L.A.P.]

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[Tim Finnegan]

I do love watching Fat Hitler babble. I mean, he's so clearly trying, y'know? You can tell that he's watched tapes of Blair and Cameron and Clegg over and over again, tried to get the professional charm, the clarity of speech, the good natured facade, but he just can't make it work, because he's a bigoted Nazi fuckhead. And we all know, but he doesn't know we know, because he's a stupid bigoted Nazi fuckhead. And that's just funny to me.

[El Chuncho]

What is there to discuss? Nick Griffin simply has the brain-capacity of a rotten pea.

[Viet Minh]

David cameron supports the far-left, now I've heard it all! How Fascist do you actually have to be to think cameron is a commie?

As for the interview, nothing new, its the same old "oh noes poor us everyone so nasty, and picks on us and tells lies!" No, Nick, thats what YOU do!

EDIT: It would be epic if Belgian antifa dressed up as fash, beat him up and told him to go back home!

[Invader Zim]

Actually, to the people describing Griffin as stupid you are not only wrong but by holding such an attitude you underestimate him and the BNP. Griffin is no idiot. In fact he is a clever, conniving and dangerous fascist. He has attempted, and in some cases, succeeded in remoddling the BNP steering its image away from its National Front origins and Griffins own Political Soldier past, and providing it with a facade of respectability. His party won 1.9% of the vote in the 2010 general election as opposed to 0.7% in the 2005 election, 0.2% in the 2001 election, 0.1% in the 1997 and 1992 elections and ultimately 0.0001 (or something along those lines) in 1987.

In terms of actual votes:

1987 - 553
1992 - 7,631 (Griffin becomes an activist for the BNP in 1993 and joins in 1995)
1997 - 35,832 (Griffin assumes leadership in 1999)
2001 - 47,129
2005 - 192,745
2010 - 563,743

Griffin and those others who have sought to moderate the parties image have had the rather horrifying effect of being enormously successful turning the BNP into a party which couldn't even get more than a few hundred votes in 1987 into the fifth most popular party in Britain.

So, I reiterate, it isn't wise to underestimate a resurgent BNP or the crypto-fascists like Griffin who have turned the party around.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

that reporter was abysmal, also.

[GallowsBird]

I do agree with the post above somewhat, though I do think Griffin is an idiot, he is just surrounded by idiots who'd vote for him.

I still think the UK will see a fascist party like the BNP taking power to be honest so we shouldn't underestimate them and should stop them. There are a great many perfectly good walls about after all.... one can dream.

[Dimmu]

I actually dont think that he is as stupid as some people are trying to portray him.. I mean he is getting a lot of idiots to vote for him.

Lets not underestimate the far-right movement, thats the fastest way to lose a battle.

[Rooster]

His smug grin at the end of that clip fucking annoys me.

I still think the UK will see a fascist party like the BNP taking power to be honest so we shouldn't underestimate them and should stop them. There are a great many perfectly good walls about after all.

I doubt that the BNP will get close to any kind of electoral success. They will have to conform to the rules of game just like every other party has. Besides, they're just a minority party. Even left groups get more electoral success than the BNP does.

[Manic Impressive]

He's started dyeing his hair, is it just me or does it make him look a little bit middle eastern

[Invader Zim]

I doubt that the BNP will get close to any kind of electoral success.

Wrong.

The BNP has elected officals at both the local and European level.

Even left groups get more electoral success than the BNP does.

In terms of British politics they do not.

The three parties with the most votes are, of course, Conservative, Labour and Lib-Dem. Following them the highest voted party was UKIP and fifth was the BNP.

Probably the most successful vaguely "leftwing" party was Green who barely got half the number of votes of the BNP despite fielding nearly as many candidates.

[Viet Minh]

The trends are worrying, but I hope they will hit a peak. I think a lot of people use them as a protest vote, its happened in France with the Front National. With the tories in power there will be a social shift to the left.

[Tim Finnegan]

I still think the UK will see a fascist party like the BNP taking power to be honest so we shouldn't underestimate them and should stop them. There are a great many perfectly good walls about after all.... one can dream.

I'd say you've got that more or less backwards, to be quite honest; the threat posed by far-right parties isn't that they themselves may assume power- they're eccentric cesspools devoid of political savy, and the lack of a powerful workers' movement means that this is not likely to change- but that they drag mainstream political discourse to the right, both in that their extremism makes "centrist" authoritarianism and racism look less dangerous by comparison, and in that it allows the centre-parties to enact authoritarian and racist policies with the excuse of cutting off extremism and responding to the declared needs of a mythical "white working class".

If Britain sees an authoritarian regime, it won't be some blackshirt army marching on London, it'll be one of the established parties- or some close derivative- instituting some "emergency" measures that it never quite gets round to undoing; a Pétain, not a Hitler.

In terms of British politics they do not.

The three parties with the most votes are, of course, Conservative, Labour and Lib-Dem. Following them the highest voted party was UKIP and fifth was the BNP.

Probably the most successful vaguely "leftwing" party was Green who barely got half the number of votes of the BNP despite fielding nearly as many candidates.

This may be some North/South dissonance: in Scotland, neither UKIP nor the BNP have a substantial presence, while the Greens have a respectable showing and even Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee (officially "SSP" and "Solidarity", but let's be honest here) are usually able to match the fash, and tend to outdo them in urban constituencies.

[Tommy4ever]

My great fear is that one of these days the BNP are probably going to get some sort of presence in Parliament. That will give them a major platform from which to project their views out to a greater auidience from a position of respectability. If they can stay in Parliament for an extended period of time then they may well start to grow into a party of some significance.

They will never take power though. I just don't see how that could be logistically possible. Winning as many as say 10 seats in Parliament, on the other hand, would be possible.

[#FF0000]

i had no idea the uaf was so hardcore

they should make t-shirts or somethign that say CLAW HAMMER BOYZ

[ComradeMan]

The fact that assholes like this can even get airtime is a damning condemnation of the ineptness of the Left, our politicians and the general shitness of the world.

[Tommy4ever]

The fact that assholes like this can even get airtime is a damning condemnation of the ineptness of the Left, our politicians and the general shitness of the world.

In the last General election the 'hard left' (basically Left of Labour, discounting the Greens and Sienn Fien) got about 1/10 of the number of votes that the BNP got.

....

....

Why are we so useless?

I do understand though that a large number of left wingers probably voted Labour in the hopes of keeping the Tories out. But still ... :/

[Tim Finnegan]

It helps that the limited public presence available to the radical left is currently monopolised by a pack of infantile feuding sects who place more emphasis on competition within the left-fringe than they do with linking up with the left wing of Labour (both in the sense of the party and the voter-base).

[Dimmu]

The fact that assholes like this can even get airtime is a damning condemnation of the ineptness of the Left, our politicians and the general shitness of the world.

Pretty much.. I mean instead of calling every right-winger stupid the left should focus on fighting them. Actions are more worth then words.

[GallowsBird]

Just so it should be noted I don't neccesarily think the BNP will get it but I do think a fascist one will; maybe it will be the Tories finally going all the way.