BNP QT

If a member of the Green Party was on Question Time would all the questions be about environmental issues?

If a member of UKIP was on would all the questions be about Europe?

If a member of the SNP was on would all the questions be about Scottish independence?

No! There would have been questions about the economy, schools, health and all the other bread and butter issues. So why were all the questions on QT tonight geared towards the BNP agenda?

I was not opposed to Nick Griffin being a guest on the programme. Having him there I would have expected a question relating to race relations and fascism, but for the whole programme to be on just the one subject was wrong and biased, and a discredits to the BBC's claim to be impartial.

And oh! When QT comes from Llandudno next week will there be any Welsh questions asked? Probably not, on past form!

Black or Right?

In the spat between Peter Black and some Plaid bloggers on how to react to the BNP I am firmly on Mr Black's side of the argument.

I don't like the idea of thought crimes. I am fully in favour of political correctness as a form of etiquette, but etiquette should never have a basis in law.

The problem with making opinions illegal is that those opinions become unchallenged in the public arena. If it is illegal for me to make my prejudices known in public, then my prejudices cannot be challenged in public. If my prejudices cannot be challenged they will be confirmed by the fact that they are never challenged.

The only way of defeating the BNP's obnoxious opinion is by allowing them the freedom to express it, and using our freedom of expression to show how unacceptable their opinion is in a decent society.

The wider problem, however, is not the BNP itself, but certain newspapers, who claim that they oppose the BNP but push propaganda amicable to the fascist cause on a daily basis. A campaign against buying those newspapers would be more beneficial than a campaign to stop the BNP from having a small tent in the Llaregub Village Show

The BNP and the Oxygen of Publicity

There is an illogical editorial comment in today's Independent relating to the call by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for people not to vote for the BNP:

... sincere though their intentions undoubtedly are, the content of the latest statement from the two archbishops of Canterbury and York, warning people not to vote for the far-right British National Party (BNP) in next month's European and local elections, must be counted a mistake.

Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu are playing directly into the hands of the BNP by whipping up yet more brouhaha over what is likely to remain a marginal force in Britain's political life. Quite inadvertently, they are feeding the party with the oxygen of publicity to a degree that must be delighting the party's leader

Fine advice to give to their graces in private, perhaps, but isn't publishing that advice in a major newspaper doing the exact same thing that it is criticising the Archbishops for doing - giving the BNP the oxygen of publicity?

The hypocracy of the editorial is added to by the fact that the paper not only has a lead comment about the BNP, and coverage of the Archbishops' comments but also two other stories both of which relate to the fascists apparent high rankings on the internet. These two stories actually highlight the danger of the dont give them the oxygen of publicity argument. If Archbishops, humanists, newspapers, mainstream politicians and bloggers don't expose the BNP for the foul and hateful organisation that it is, for fear of giving it publicity, the only source of information that people are left with is the fascists' own self-generated propaganda.

I wish that the BNP didn't exist, but I have to face the reality that it does exist. Ignoring it in the hope that it goes away isn't going to work. The only way to deal with it is to confront it and tell people loud and clear why it is evil and why it is not worthy of any decent person's support. I am glad that Rowan Williams and John Sentamu have done so.

Quote of the day

Ennis Hughes has just said on CF99 that her party, the BNP is opposed to the Eu because they believe:

That the European Union is a Fascist state

Pull the other one Ennis - if the EU was Fascit your Fascit party would be 100% behind it.

BNP & Liberal Democrats

Back in December the councillors of the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire met. One of their duties was to select one of their members to represent the council on an outside body. Two councillors stood for nomination Cllr. Gauton Labour and Cllr Wilkinson from the BNP. Despite the fact that all major political parties have roundly condemned the BNP two Liberal Democrat councillors chose to support the BNP contender.
After a Labour Councillor wrote to the local paper to complain about the Lib Dems supporting the BNP there came a reply from one of the Liberals justifying his decision on the grounds that
The Lib Dems are, by their very name, liberal-minded and democratic. We vote how we think the needs of the people are best-served.
So it is clear that some Lib Dems believe that the needs of the people are sometimes best served by Fascists!

I accept that there are fools in every party, and that it would be unfair to condemn a whole party because of the activities of one or two fools. However what does surprise me and does reflect badly on the Liberal Democrats as a whole, is that three months later these councillors remain official party representatives; they have not been expelled by the party or disciplined in any way and not a word has been heard from any senior party member condemning the councillors actions or dissociating the party from them.

Mae fersiwn Cymraeg o'r post ar gael yma:
Hen Rech Flin: BNP & Liberal Democrats