The FT Westminster blog wields the spectre of BNP MPs, should PR be adopted. As I wrote previously, so be it.
As it goes, not I hadn’t.
Twittist @ACloakedFigure posed the question:
It’s not entirely clear why said Twittist thought I’d know the answer, but I do have Google.
|
Year |
Candidates |
Total Votes |
Votes/Candidate |
|
2001 |
33 |
47129 |
1428 |
|
2005 |
119 |
192850 |
1621 |
|
2010 |
338 |
564321 |
1670 |
Hardly a groundswell, is it?
AJ
Conservative Home ask a question:
On the face if it, the implication is a valid one. These are seats where the number of UKIP votes is greater than the margin by which a conservative candidate was defeated. The table is from the above Con-Home piece, but updated* by me (red lines) to show one of the flaws in their premise.:
Bolton West: Labour 18,329; Conservative 18,235; UKIP 1,901; GREEN 545 Derby North: Labour 14,896; Conservative 14,283; UKIP 829; BNP 2,000 Derbyshire NE: Labour 17,948: Conservative 15,503; UKIP 2,636 Dorset mid & Poole: Labour 21,100; Conservative 20,831; UKIP 2,109 Dudley North: Labour 14,923; Conservative 14,274; UKIP 3,267; BNP 1,899 Great Grimsby: Labour 10,777: Conservative 10,063: UKIP 2,043; BNP 1,517 Hampstead & Kilburn: Labour 17,332; Conservative 17,290; UKIP 408; GREEN 759; BNP 328 Middlesbrough South: Labour 18,138; Conservative 16,461; UKIP 1,881; BNP 1,576; IND 818 Morley (Ed Balls): Labour 18,365; Conservatives 17,264; UKIP 1,506; BNP 3,535 Newcastle-Under-Lyme: Labour 16,393; Conservatives 14,841; UKIP 3,491 Plymouth Moor View: Labour 15,433; Conservatives 13,845; UKIP 3,188; BNP 1,438 Solihull: Liberal 23,635; Conservatives 23,460; UKIP 1,200; BNP 1,624 Somerton & Frome: Liberal 28,793; Conservatives 26,976; UKIP 1,932 Southampton Itchen: Labour 16,326; Conservatives 16,134; UKIP 1,928; GREEN 600 St Austell & Newquay: Liberal 20,189; Conservatives 18,877; UKIP 1,757; MEB KER 2,007; BNP 1,022 St Ives: Liberal 19,619; Conservatives 17,900; UKIP 2,560; GREEN 1,308; CORNWALL PARTIES 783 Telford: Labour 15,977; Conservatives 14,996; UKIP 2,428; BNP 1513 Walsall North: Labour 13,385; Conservatives 12,395; UKIP 1,737; BNP 2,930 Walsall South: Labour 16,211; Conservatives 14,456; UKIP 3,449 Wells: Liberal 24,560; Conservatives 23,760; UKIP 1,711; BNP 1,004 Wirral South: Labour 16,276; Conservatives 15,745; UKIP 1,274
What you’ll notice on the red lines is that other parties also peeled off votes that could make or break one of the dominant candidates. Frequently, the BNP won more votes than UKIP. If it’s fair to assume that UKIP voters are disaffected Tories, then it’s also fair to assume that BNP voters are disaffected working class socialists i.e. former Labour core voters. Greens could be disaffected Lab or Lib voters.
So UKIP no more ‘cost’ the Tories a majority than the BNP and Greens cost Labour a majority. Which brings me to my second point, and the second reason that UKIP did not steal the Tories’ victory.
People voted UKIP rather than Tory (as I did) because Cameron let us down over the Lisbon referendum and under him, the party has a pro-EU outlook. If the Tories had offered something of value to an increasingly Eurosceptic public, they could have won a comfortable majority.
Likewise, if Labour hadn’t been so arrogant and cack-handed over immigration for the last 13 years, they wouldn’t have haemorrhaged votes to the BNP.
To sum up then: It’s complete and utter cobblers.
AJ
* If you’re interested in playing with the numbers, they’re here on the Guardian’s Datablog.
… what with St George being born in Palestine to a Palestinian mother and a Turkish father.
Just saying, is all.
More from Constantly Furious and Make It Stop.
AJ
UPDATE from the comments:
He’s just came on TV being led into his Manifesto conference with a man leading him to the lectern…dressed as St George, and he mentions St G too…not one on history, is he.
More at the BNP site.
Tom Harris on fine form, and clearly of sound mind. When he can stop rattling on about Doctor Friggin Who for a minute, anyway.
…
The boycott is being suggested as a response to Total Politics publisher Iain Dale agreeing to interview Nick Griffin for the latest issue, a decision which resulted in the resignation of Labour MP Denis MacShane from the TP board.
And of course I sympathise. And I admit I raised an eyebrow when Iain announced on his blog that the interview was happening. But I won’t take part in the boycott, for a number of reasons.
Read on…
He concludes:
why is it always the Left which calls for boycotts? Why must that, rather than argument, be our gut reaction? That and banning stuff, obviously.
Why indeed Tom. Now about your votes on the smoking ban.
AJ
A surprising move indeed.
Miss Hanson, 55, who formed the nationalist One Nation party and turned it into a political force during the 1990s, said in an interview with Woman’s Day magazine this week she had "had enough" of her homeland and was leaving. The former fish and chip shop owner said Australia was no longer a land of opportunity and she wanted to see what Britain had to offer.
I’m not sure who’s briefed her, but I suggest she doesn’t sell up prematurely…
Mr Griffin warned Miss Hanson to choose her new home carefully because Britain had become one of the "most overcrowded" nations in the world, thanks – he claimed – to the Labour Party’s decision to admit "three million spongers".
I’m only concerned with the 8 million-odd spongers who’ll always vote Labour, whichever stone they crawled out from under.
AJ
There are a few posts from the last few days that never made it out of my drafts folder.
Happily, some lovely lady bloggists have these things covered off.
As Ambush Predator notes, some fucking stupid bitch crashed her car while texting. When the airbags went off, her daughter was killed by fatal head injury.
Obviously something must be done…
Miss Bunney called for greater awareness of the potential danger of airbags, adding: ‘[Chloe’s] death has just devastated us.’
Oh just fuck off – don’t make US live with YOUR mistakes, you cunt. Or as AP would have it:
Why, other than a perfectly normal and natural attempt to shift some of the blame away from yourself, are you focussing on the airbag issue?
And why are the MSM allowing you the airspace to do that, knowing that this will encourage some rentamouth to immediately call for ‘more research’ and an ‘awareness campaign’?
Next, I see the righteous are up in arms about Nick Griffin’s comment on Haitian ‘ingrates’ and the British taxpayer funds being sent, as people freeze to death here in the UK. As Mummylonglegs points out.
I hate to point this out but those people that will die here this winter paid a fucking fortune for the right to do so. I’m sure that as they lay on a floor, or a road, or a pavement, freezing to death they were very glad to know that they were giving their lives and their pensions and their council tax and their savings to those poor souls in Haiti
As far as I’m concerned, any likelihood of donating any money whatsoever to Haiti went straight out of the window when Gordon Brown got involved, such is the power of the man.
And Muffled vociferation shares my view on Brown’s more general approach to foreign aid:
What completely fucks me off is the audacity of Brown to a) legally bind any Government to such an untaking when he knows full well that Labour are going to lose the next election and b) how easily he pledges money that does not fucking belong to him!
Listen Brown you fucking halfwitted lunatic baffooon… this is NOT YOUR MONEY YOU ARE GIVING AWAY, IT’S THE BRITISH TAXPAYERS… and charity begins at home!
Far too much goes abroad and achieves absolutely nothing. Most of it fills the pockets of terrorists, dictators and aid agencies.
At the moment, we need much of it to stay in the UK.
Quite so.
AJ
Fuck’s sake.
And Blue Labour are right behind this:
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling welcomed the decision to ban Islam4UK.
He said: "We cannot permit any group which propagates the views of banned international preachers of hate and organises hate-filled public protests to operate in Britain.
"Now ministers need to look at how they are going to ban other groups in the UK which are part of broader international networks of extremism."
Right. That’ll work.
The Home Secretary is resolute.
The interest here is nothing more or less than moving tanks onto the BNP’s lawn.
Twats.
AJ
Mummylonglegs has spun an excellent piece of work, picking up on Nick Griffin’s shrewd and laudably cheeky move of getting to represent the EU at the Copenhagen Climate Change talks, from an Anti-AGW position.
The reason it’s shrewd is that in the wake of #Climategate, the Anti-AGW bandwagon is just now starting to pick up members of the general apolitical public, who are realising they’ve been had (again!) and none of the other politicians are willing to stand up and say what so very many of us are thinking on the topic of AGW.
My views on AGW are pretty clear: https://aljahom.wordpress.com/category/global-warming-my-arse/
As are my views on the BNP: https://aljahom.wordpress.com/category/bnp/
Now, I still wouldn’t vote for the BNP, but I can’t deny thinking that Griffin is onto a winner here.
And another way to look at it is this: Years of pressure from, and mounting success of, the BNP has forced the major parties, particularly Labour, to finally face and admit the problems of mass immigration.
If Griffin can get up a head of steam on this Anti-AGW thing, it may just, may just, force the other parties in to coughing up the green-pills they gobbled down like John Prescott in a bukkake video.
Good news.
AJ
White working class ones. The ones who may not be very well educated, but just want to go to work, live their life and have whatever little fun. The ones whose lot has been worsened by Labour for nearly 13 years, thanks to unfettered immigration, a catastrophic welfare state, smoking bans, constant hectoring and sneering, and general Islingtonisation of popular politics.
Well, it’s a bit fucking late and it’s more than a bit opportunistic, as the BNP look set to win seats in the next parliament. While I have no love of the BNP, them winning representation in Parliament, having already succeeded at the local and EU level, would be just the rocket-up-the-arse needed to smash the cosy consensus that hangs millions of indigenous Brits out to dry.
The Labour awakening does appear to be coordinated, too, which makes it all the more opportunistic and all the less of a genuine epiphany. In fact, it’s nothing less than tacit acknowledgement that Labour has consciously taken their core voters for granted and treated their views and concerns with disdain for 13 years.
We have something called a John Denham.
We have Tom Harris, who mentions others in the coterie.
THIS POST from Alex Smith of LabourList has caught my attention. It quotes Michael Merrick’s assessment last week about how Labour can connect with the poorest in society.
Anyway, let’s see if dear Tom publishes my comment.
Talk about on the fucking ball. Twats.
AJ
The BNP appear to have a strategy. One that they can take forward with arm-in-arm with non-white Britons.
As I reported at the time, a few weeks back, Melanie Phillips made the point (in an excellent article I commend thoroughly) that BNP support is strongest:
in areas of high Pakistani and Bangladeshi concentration — but significantly, not where there are concentrations of Indians. Strikingly, BNP support actually falls away steeply in Afro-Caribbean areas.
Leading to the conclusion that:
The rise of Nick Griffin is intimately related to the unchecked march of Islamism in Britain.
So it is no surprise that he’s now decided that his enemy’s enemy can be his friend and he can capitalise on it, allowing him to (apparently) wash away the stigma of racism:
And let’s face it, it’s not going to be difficult to rally support when you’re campaigning against the Islamification of Britain by people like Anjem Choudary.
AJ
This is LOLsome and disturbing in equal measures…
The MEP told a jury that Tauriq Khalid, of Burnley, Lancs, called him a “white ——-“ and pointed his fingers at him like a gun during a BNP demonstration in the town last year.
He said that he viewed the gesture as a “direct threat” to his safety which forced him to abandon the demonstration on the advice of his private security guards.
Mr Khalid was traced and arrested after one of the BNP members noted down his car registration and complained to the police, Preston Crown Court heard.
This is quite troubling really, because one can’t ignore how much of an utter Scunthorpe Nick Griffin is.
However, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I loathe the way the race card is brandished as a magic shield by minorities.
Griffin is turning the weapons of political correctness back on all those who would normally wield them.
It’s long overdue and, sadly, it is a poignant illustration of the fact that the battles many of us would like to see fought are only being addressed by Griffin and his goons.
Will people realise that Griffin’s activities are a shrewd cover for a sinister agenda, or will they come round to the view that only the BNP are prepared to speak for the white working class? I predict that they’ll win a seat in Westminster at the next election. Perhaps Burnley, Oldham, Rochdale, Bradford, Leeds or Hull.
It’s a bleak prospect, but I think it’s just the shock our political caste need.
AJ
A very thought provoking piece by Mad Mel in the Speccie this week…
Some truisms in there, for sure, lots of words about the disenfranchised, ignored and marginalised British working classes, the disillusionment with the mainstream parties, the ghettos begat by multiculturalism.
The really important observation, though is the apparent correlation between support for the BNP not in areas heavily populated by black or Indian folk, but in areas with high density of Muslins (Pakistani and Bangladeshi mainly).
It is highly relevant that Griffin is an MEP for North West England — and did not stand in the old National Front power base around London. His party’s new appeal is based on a new power base — the north-west and Yorkshire. Research by academics at Manchester University reveals that support for the BNP is highest in areas of high Pakistani and Bangladeshi concentration — but significantly, not where there are concentrations of Indians. Strikingly, BNP support actually falls away steeply in Afro-Caribbean areas.
So to try to damn the BNP as racist misses the point by a mile. Not that the accusation is untrue — despite its attempt to rebrand itself, the BNP remains a racist party with strong neo-Nazi overtones. But it attracts votes talking about religion and culture. Crucially, it is cynically using the Islamisation of Britain as cover for its animus against all Muslims and non-white people.
This is why it is strategically important for the BNP to take up cudgels against radical Islam in the UK. And we all know that someone has to. We also know that the main 3 bunches of spineless Islingtonites aren’t doing. They need to, urgently if they want to stop the BNP.
The fears it exploits are those of ordinary white folk in areas of high Muslim immigration who have watched the transformation of their neighbourhoods from communities of people like themselves into a landscape they no longer recognise. The voters the BNP are seeking are bewildered and distraught that no one in authority seems to notice or care — and that they are dismissed as ‘racists’ for expressing such concerns.
One rule for the mad mullahs, and one for the rest of us you see.
It is this asymmetry of anger which helps the BNP so much. Those who this week seemed to be risking an aneurysm over Griffin’s TV appearance either dismiss the jihadis as an exaggerated problem — or, on occasion, even march behind their incendiary and hate-driven banners. There is no Griffin-style outrage over the regular appearances in the media by the fanatics of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas supporters or Iranian-backed jihadis, even though they endorse terrorism and the extinction of human rights.
She also has some interesting thoughts on the EDL and UAF.
As a result, the debate is allowed to descend into a clash of extremists. Last March, for example, Islamists demonstrated against a parade in Luton of Royal Anglian Regiment soldiers returning from Afghanistan. The jihadis were protected by the police, while the only people arrested that day were locals protesting at this provocation. That event led in turn to a demonstration in Birmingham last August by the self-styled anti-Islamists of the so-called English Defence League (EDL) and other groups.
The cycle continued. The EDL provoked a counter-protest organised by Unite Against Fascism and a day of violent disorder. Similar clashes have subsequently occurred in Luton, Birmingham and in Harrow — brawls invariably characterised in the media as between the ‘far right’ and ‘anti-fascists’.
This is where it gets messy. The so-called ‘anti-fascists’ include a number of Islamic fascists, not to mention far-left boot-boys. As for the ‘far right’, the EDL furiously protests that it has no connections with the BNP and stands against them. But one or two individuals in the EDL have been associated with the BNP in some form or other. Most tellingly of all, EDL leaders have admitted that it is opposed not only to Islamist extremism but to ‘all devout Muslims’ — a BNP-style pitch.
Think on this when Islam4UK (currently throwing a MySQL error) are marching through London this weekend to demand Shariah law in the UK. I have no doubt the EDL and the UAF will both be out in force. Observe how the media report it.
Do read Mel’s article. Tis very good.
As a bit of background, a few choice bits from Old Holborn…
Oh and don’t think it came to this by accident…
The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right’s nose in diversity", according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett.
He said Labour’s relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to "open up the UK to mass migration" but that ministers were nervous and reluctant to discuss such a move publicly for fear it would alienate its "core working class vote".
Really? Who’d a thunk it.
Unutterable nation-wrecking cunts from day 1.
AJ
Much has been written, and I need add nothing to the fine works of Constantly Furious and Salted Slug. To wit:
So like 8 million or so other viewers, I watched the trainwreck which was Question Time last night. Christ, I was bored. The BNP send in Griffin, everyone else sends in their most mediocre debaters, mix in some mooing “specially selected” audience members and what do you get: Cuntsoup. How very predictable.
The only way they were ever going to cast the BNP into the harsh light of reality was to debate them properly on their proposed policies and beliefs, and show them to be the vapid, superficial appeals to ignorance that they are. Instead, what we got was a lynchmob haranguing Griffin from all corners which, as some commentators have noted, just makes him look like the victim and the outsider. And when you are the outsider to a group as thoroughly distrusted as our present clutch of politicos, you attain a certain attraction.
Read on if you’re at all interested and can stomach Sluggy’s turgid, plodding prose. :o)
AJ
UPDATE: Further comment from Obo and a welcome, if long overdue, return to form by B&D.
I particularly liked JD’s analysis of the performances from the rest of the panel.
Anyone with a brain will have spotted how incredibly stupid most people on the panel and in the audience were. There were so many untruths, misconceptions and historical inaccuracies uttered, I lost count. Churchill was portrayed as an equal rights liberal non-racist. Which is ridiculous. This is the man who, when Home Secretary, ordered the firebombing of house that contained Russian Anarchists. His views on Gandhi weren’t exactly ‘politically correct’, and contrary to the ridiculously ill-informed views of one member of the audience, he didn’t fight the Nazis in order to save the Jews.
I’m no opponent of Churchill, but the way he was eulogised was bizarre in the context. Just because people don’t like Griffin, and Griffin tries to link himself with Churchill, doesn’t mean everyone suddenly has to become Churchill’s posthumous best mate. It’s embarassing.
I thought Bonnie Greer came across well.
I thought Baroness Warsi (surely a Mario Bros baddy?) was useless. Clearly as thick as two short planks. And she was described by Dumblebum during the intros as “the most powerful Muslim woman in the UK”. I’m not sure whether that’s a damning indictment of the intellect of Muslim women (very unlikely) or how very far from equality Muslim women are in their little world (very likely).
On a personal note, the thing that really amused me was Griffo’s codification of my status as an English Abbo. Reparations must surely be around the corner.
Not that I have sympathy for plod, but they’re above lefties in the order of preference, even if they’re below Ebola.
AJ
In anticipation of tonight’s #bbcqt deliciousness, here are some of the posts I’ve written about the BNP…
https://aljahom.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/a-prediction/
https://aljahom.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/playing-with-statistics/
https://aljahom.wordpress.com/2008/11/22/bnp-membership-list/
https://aljahom.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/guardian-take-on-the-bnp-with-a-damp-cloth/
Enjoy. Or don’t. What do I fucking care?
AJ
From some one called Liam Murray – a random find via #bbcqt on Twatter.
There’s no better debate prep than trying to construct the best case your opponent can make, however distasteful that might be. If you have an answer or riposte for even the strongest charge or wittiest line then you’re well positioned to come out on top.
So let’s hold our noses play a quick game. Imagine you’re part of the small team around Nick Griffin preparing him for Question Time. You know who you’re up against and the quotes they’re going to throw back at you, you know the broad strands of opinion likely to be in the audience and watching at home. Most importantly you have a very straightforward & simple aim for the programme; get through it remaining calm, appearing reasonable and moderate and creating sufficient distance between the current BNP and their less than savoury past. So how might he tackle a couple of the likely allegations:
In response to references to criminal convictions \ violent past:
“I’m not going to sit here tonight and defending everything I’ve ever said, everything I’ve ever done. Have I made mistakes? Of course I have. But contrary to the impression you’d have got from the mainstream media this week this programme isn’t about me or my past. It’s about Britain and the issues it faces today. Mr Straw’s party once advocated unilateral disarmament and opposed privatisation – in office they rejected that first premise and embraced the second. Baroness Warsi’s party was once deeply hostile to homosexuals and immigration yet their front bench team now includes openly gay MPs and the hard working, talented children of immigrants like Baroness Warsi herself. Few now question the sincerity of those changes; I only ask people have the same faith in me and my party"
In response to accusations of racism:
“I’m glad I done a little prep David because I had a sneaking suspicion that might come up! Look, my understanding of racism is that it’s a belief in the superiority of one race over all others and that it’s legitimate to attack and discriminate unfairly against other races on that basis. I reject that completely.
What I do support though is make sure all groups in society have an equal voice and we’re not alone in the BNP in believing that indigenous white Britons often fair worse than other ethnic groups when it comes to being heard and valued as part of our society. Baroness Warsi herself once conceded as much. There is no ‘White Police Officers Association’ and we all know how such an organisation would be greeted. People never question the proportion of ordinary white indigenous Britons working in sections of the media who trip over themselves in an effort to make sure every other cast, creed & race is to the fore.
In the end, if you have a narrow technical definition of racism then, yes, it might well drag in the BNP alongside the BPOA and many other advocacy groups that focus on race. By any sensible & mature analysis though the BNP is just one group among many speaking for it’s supporters and trying to advance the best interests of the country"
Just to repeat – because this does make me vaguely uncomfortable – this is about envisioning the strongest possible performance by Griffin and making sure the other panellists are able to best him at every turn. I may have a go later myself and feel free to use the comments for rebuttals. As I said below I think the invite was the right thing to do but it’s an absolute must that Griffin & his party come out of this evening looking even more discredited than they are going into it….
Having just heard NG on BBC news, it sounds like this chap is right on the money.
AJ
I can but echo the views of Juliette and Obo on this one. If the Labour party had any clue at all, the only politician they’d ‘no-platform’ is Gordon Brown, because every bit of publicity he gets drains support away from him.
I don’t care much about goading Griffin into saying anything about immigration, repatriation, Jews, Asians, Blacks, Muslims or Martians.
What I want from tonight’s inevitable debacle is one simple thing:
Then I want everyone to wake up to the BBC’s (and New Labour’s) lie about the BNP being a party of the right.
AJ
I don’t think she meant to encourage him…. lol.
AJ
You may have missed the first in this putative series, if you didn’t follow my epic election-night live-deadhorseflogathon-blog….
Yorkshire MEP: Andrew Brons – BNP
Here’s today’s care of The Times…
North-West MEP: Nick Griffin – BNP
As for as the egging of Nick Griffin, well I defend his right to be egged just like Prescott, Brown, Straw, Cameron, Osborne, Cable, Clegg and every other elected member of some or other stadium based paper-aeroplane fights.
AJ
If voting BNP makes you a racist, will the Labour party be prepared to welcome back voters who abandoned then for the BNP?
AJ
Al Jahom's Final Word 