The decision at Exeter University to overturn a ban on having the British National Party to speak there is in some ways, an admirable one.
Freedom of expression is now an entrenched part of our social and political makeup, guaranteed under the Human Rights Act 1998, so the fact that young academics are involved in exercising their right to uphold this is a positive example of student activism.
Entertaining those with an unfamiliar and controversial viewpoint is also useful in promoting healthy debate.
The British National Party are a legitimate organisation, and the fourth largest party in the United Kingdom. They also claim to have the most visited website of any political party, proving their popularity. So the decision is a good one then?
Many MPs in the past week have come out to say that they are a racist party, including Harriet Harman, the Women’s Minister, on the Channel 4 News.
The British National Party would argue that this is a witch-hunt between the liberal-left media and the mainstream political parties. Nick Griffin, the BNP leader and his colleague Mark Collett were acquitted on charges of inciting racial hatred after a retrial. They were secretly filmed by the BBC for Panorama.
However, their ideals are not tolerant, and their website makes no point of hiding it:
“IMMIGRATION – time to say ENOUGH!
On current demographic trends, we, the native British people, will be an ethnic minority in our own country within sixty years.
To ensure that this does not happen, and that the British people retain their homeland and identity, we call for an immediate halt to all further immigration, the immediate deportation of criminal and illegal immigrants, and the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin assisted by a generous financial incentives both for individuals and for the countries in question.
We will abolish the ‘positive discrimination’ schemes that have made white Britons second-class citizens. We will also clamp down on the flood of ‘asylum seekers’, all of whom are either bogus or can find refuge much nearer their home countries.”
Simplistic answers, playing on peoples fears, and a lot of rhetoric. But inspiring to someone. Will the BNP get a surge in support if they speak at universities?
Alternatively, would banning them from speaking and leaving them out of the media force them further underground?
Much of their policy is trivial: they wholly support good old-fashioned imperial weights and measures, definitely something worth arguing over…
Some borders on ludicrous- the BNP calls for the selective exclusion of foreign-made goods from British markets and the reduction of foreign imports- a sure-fire way to stop other countries trading with us.
Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, has admitted over the weekend that the rise in support for the BNP is a result of failures by the three main political parties. The rebranding of Labour since 1997 into a ‘catch-all’ party, means grassroots Labour supporters, generally the white, working-class, feel unrepresented.
At the same time Nick Griffin became leader of the BNP and saw this as an opportunity to shake off the extremist image to make the BNP electable. They have been intensively campaigning in disillusioned communities asserting patriotism, Britain for the British, and to many people, answers where they thought there were none.
This has all coincided with the leaking of the personal details of the 12,000 members.
Why so secretive if they didn’t think they were doing anything wrong? Serving Policemen aren’t allowed to be members- what does that say?
Scarily, but unsurprisingly the Internet is allowing them to get their message to more people, and target young (and more impressionable) people.
But increased support for extremist parties always happens when a country is in economic turmoil, lets just hope someone gets their act together soon…
November 24th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I don’t know if many of the people who have made comments on the recent publicity of the BNP members list but they may like to know that they are breaking the law, which says:-
“In law, any employer who downloads stolen, criminally-manipulated and out of date sensitive personal data from an internet blog, formats it and then cross-references that data to their own employee database, is guilty of processing personal data unlawfully under the Data Protection Act.
I would have thought the Police, (who after all are supposed to be the upholders of the law), would have a basic working knowledge of it but apparently not.
November 24th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Why ask. I was under the impression that this was a free country, with free speech, seems I was sadly mistaken.
In my younger years I spent many weekends in London and visited ‘peoples corner’ in Hyde Park, where everyone and their dog could rant and rave about anything and anybody. I would imagine that the PC Brigade have stopped that and it no longer exists anymore.
The ones who say the BNP or any other party should not be allowed to speak are just as bad as the ones they are denying.
It seems that all they want is to be right and fair but in the end it’s everything that’s right for them and nothing that’s right for you.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
People’s Corner in Hyde Park is most definitely still there. I’ve passed many a happy hour there listening to some absolute loonies as well as some unrecoginsed genius’! Ha ha!
I think it is a pretty good move to allow the BNP to talk wherever they like. After all, if a group of students who are supposed to be the future of this country can’t make an educated and unbias decision for themselves then where’s the hope for the rest of the UK?
I can’t stand the BNP personally but to censor and ‘protect’ people from them is a little bit too much.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Let them speak, just so long as the meetings are open to anyone and they allow ethnic minority students to speak and field questions, all is fair. they will be exposed for what they really are.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
In 1995, after the election of a BNP councillor in London, Nick Griffin said, “the electors of Millwall did not back a post modernist rightist party but what they perceived to be a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan ‘Defend Rights for Whites’ with well-directed boots and fists. When the crunch comes power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate.”
Since becoming leader of the BNP, Griffin has used the media to create free publicity for the party. He has no interest in rational debate, only publicity stunts. Invite him to speak and he gets free publicity; ban him from speaking and he gets free publicity. It appears to be a win-win situation – for the BNP.
So, what to do if you don’t want to fuel his fire? Don’t invite him, don’t ban him. Just ignore him. Starve him of the publicity he craves.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Bring it on.
Let us examine the evidence under the cold light of the reality of UK and global workforce economics.
December 8th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
BNP is not the fourth biggest party in Britain by any reckoning,
In terms of membership it’s at least sixth behind UKIP and the SNP and may be behind other parties.
In terms of votes in the last General Election it was 8th.
In terms of seats in Parliament, it has none, putting it behind 12 other parties which have at least one.
In terms of elected councillors, it’s seventh in England and Wales and eleventh across the entire UK.
The claim that it’s Britain’s fourth largest party comes from the fact that across all the seats it contested (119), it got the fourth highest vote total. That’s clearly misleading as it intentionally picks seats to contest where it has the best chance of performing well.