Pro-British Anti-Extremist

Update

2009-10-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

I am now blogging here.

Off the radar

2009-06-16T02:33:00.000-07:00

For the next few weeks posting will be sporadic at best as I am currently undertaking research for a forthcoming publication.

Very true

2009-06-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

From the Harry's Place comments section. Click to enlarge.

Creating the BNP

2009-06-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

Graeme Archer at CentreRight, has a great post on 'Creating the BNP: a step-by-step guide' (H/T: Right Not Racist):

you decide to make people feel guilty about symbols of national unity: only racists fly the flag, that sort of thing; you write long, hand-wringing articles in the press about ‘reclaiming’ the flag, which never quite spell out that which is obvious from your tone: that you have an instinctive disdain for the working-class, with their unthinking loyalty to country. Those flags! Flying from council-house windows! You never reflect on what would have happened to Britain in the mid-20th century were this not the case.

Read it here.

Well said!

2009-06-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

From politics.co.uk:

The upcoming equality bill will make the British National party's (BNP) membership criteria illegal, Harriet Harman has confirmed.
Speaking during business questions opposite Alan Duncan, Ms Harman responded to concerns about the election of two BNP MEPs last week in the European elections.
Ms Harman said she was "shocked and horrified" by their success but went on to say its constitution - which bars non-whites from membership – would become illegal once the equality bill was passed.
"There is no place for a political party in this country to have an apartheid constitution and the equality bill will prevent this from being the case," she said.
[...]
She added: "There is no place in British national life and democracy for a party that excludes people on the basis of the colour of their skin".

An American Friend of the BNP

2009-06-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

So, it turns out the Holocaust Museum gunman, James W. von Brunn, used to attend meetings of the 'American Friends of the BNP' fund raising organisation.

In 2001, CNN reported that the BNP raised more than $100,000 from its American Friends.

You can take a look at an archived copy of their website here, complete with links to Stormfront and a Holocaust denial outfit.

One of their magazines can be viewed here, and it offers an interesting glimpse into the world of Nick Griffin in the early days of his leadership of the BNP.

Nazi Terrorism

2009-06-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

Cross posted from Harry's Place:

I have written here in the past that we ignore the activities of extreme ‘white nationalist’ groups at our peril. Many have accused me of alarmism and droned on about how the only threat these days is from Islamists. Not so.

In the US, a neo-Nazi has opened fire at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Then there’s this:

A white supremacist plot, aimed at using ricin as part of a biological weapon against ethnic minorities in the UK, has been thwarted by police after a father and son team have both been arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. The lethal toxin was discovered in a sealed jam jar, after a six month investigation led to the dawn raids on two properties in County Durham.

Nicky Davison, 18, was initially arrested at his home in Grampian Court, Annfield Plain, on suspicion of inciting racial hatred; however he has since been re-arrested. Both father, named Ian Davison, and son are now being detained under the Terrorism Act. Senior police believe the pair to be part of a worldwide terror plot targeting ethnic minorities.

It’s not just brown skinned bearded fanatics that threaten society and we’d do well to remember this.

No great surprise

2009-06-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

From the results of a YouGov poll of BNP voters:

perhaps the most startling finding came when we tested anecdotal reports that many BNP voters were old Labour sympathisers who felt that the party no longer speaks up for them. It turns out to be true. As many as 59 per cent of BNP voters think that Labour "used to care about the concerns of people like me but doesn’t nowadays".
What is more worrying for Labour is that this sentiment is shared by millions of voters, way beyond the ranks of BNP voters. Overall, 63 per cent of the British public think Labour used to care about their concerns – and only 19 per cent think it does today.

Let's send the BNP back to where they came from

2009-06-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

Bad news: Out of an electorate of 44,173,690, only 15,136,932 bothered to vote in European Elections. And out of those who did, 943,598 voted for the BNP.

The good news is that means 43,230,092 people in Britain have no intention of voting for a racist party. And while it is still popular to just call all BNP voters 'racists', there's no way that there are 943,598 ideological racists in Britain today, so we have a problem. If these people were all ideological racists, the BNP wouldn't have had to tone down its rhetoric and try to build a more 'moderate' face in the hope of picking up the votes of disaffected people unaware of the real agenda.

The parties that focused highly on immigration - UKIP, BNP, English Democrats, United Kingdom First - received a combined 3,795,632 votes.

When that many choose to vote for anti-immigration parties, it should be clear that immigration is an issue that needs addressing. And with such a huge number of people not even bothering to vote at all, it should also be clear that politics are not engaging people and a mixture of apathy and the feeling that 'it makes no difference anyway' is a big problem.

The Left in particular needs to listen to the concerns of ordinary people if it wants to re-engage them.

Andy Burnham says:

It is a sad moment ... We have got to understand why people have voted for the BNP. We should redouble our determination to take them on and take them out of British politics.

Meanwhile Bob Crow says that:

it's the collapse of public support for the three main parties - each of which is pro-business, pro-EU and supportive of the anti-union laws - which has created the conditions for the scapegoat-politics of the BNP to thrive. The fascists' support in former mining communities like Barnsley is shocking and throws down a massive challenge to the Labour and trade union movement.

They are both right. It does seem bizarre, in the midst of economic problems and then scandals about expenses, that the Left is failing to engage voters, although I can understand it. In my first election, I voted for the Socialist Labour Party. I've always maintained left-wing convictions on many issues, in particular on workers' rights and the protection of public services, but I don't see much worth supporting on the British Left, given its descent into tiny factions and its bizarre obsession with Israel bashing and courting Islamists. I, along with many others, find myself in the situation of being essentially left-wing but finding small 'c' conservatives to often be far more sane in certain areas.

The Left has arguably overdone it when it comes to the drive against racism by condemning all forms of patriotic sentiment as being a superficial cover for underlying racial hatred. This may well be part of the reason for the rise (albeit a small rise) in support for the BNP, which uses left-wing rhetoric about supporting workers and tells them that it's also OK to say you love your country and have concerns about immigration and social cohesion. Of course, the BNP actually does have an underlying agenda of racial hatred, but the Left has failed to respond to this by developing an anti-racist patriotic alternative to the BNP. The nearest thing I've seen recently has been NO2EU - Yes to Democracy. I voted for them despite the fact they include far-left groups such as the Communist Party of Britain and Socialist Resistance among their number because they promoted policies that I consider to be sensible, but ultra-left groups like this are not the answer.

We need a patriotic Left in Britain, a Left that is pro-British and anti-extremist and that learns from the failings of the Left in recent years and the growth in support for the BNP. Whether we'll get one is another matter. If we don't, we can expect to see a rise in support for the BNP and the continuing fragmentation of society along ethnic and confessional lines.

Here we go again

2009-06-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

From the BBC:

All internet and phone traffic should be recorded to help the fight against terrorism, according to one of the UK's former spy chiefs.