BNP - Barely Needed Publicity

"Representing the North West of England in the European Parliament stands the BNP (British National Party). May it just as well be the Monster Raving Looney Party, or do the BNP really have something to offer Europe? No. They don’t.

The party’s recent local election success in Barnet and other UK white-frustrated hate-pockets, coupled with the pantomime-villainesque appearance of the party’s rotund leader, Nick Griffin, on the BBC’s Question Time has given the BNP and their voters a strong, yet ill-deserved sense of political importance.

As Griffin embarrassingly chuckled his way through serious allegations on Question Time, including his own Holocaust Denial, it was clear to see that this man was in no sense a charismatic political leader. However, the show certainly grabbed the concentration of the nation with a staggering 11 million viewers.

From his appearance on Question Time, it struck me that he was a man, fully aware that his beliefs and ‘morals’ were flawed, yet in a hyper-antagonistic manner found great pleasure in the controversy surrounding his views, and also the media frenzy that had arisen. Perhaps this was a pseudo-shambolic tactic pre-planned by Griffin for his appearance on the centre stage? Or was he really no better than a teenage boy reluctant to admit an obvious defeat?

Two things were particularly disturbing in the aftermath of Griffin’s Question Time appearance; firstly the percentage of young people who previously had never heard of the BNP who now knew who they were and what dreadful things they stood for, whom I believe were previously better off, and secondly, more disturbingly, the small fraction of young social-networkers that emerged feeling the BNP ‘weren’t that bad’ and that now felt no shame publicly admitting this.

Now, I’m not for one minute suggesting that changing your Facebook status to “I don’t mind the BNP” is an automatic swastika in the ballot box for the BNP come the next general election, or am I? After all the immense popularity of television shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Mock the Week, which are primarily targeted at a younger audience, prove perfectly that the most popular comedy is controversial. This mainstream contro-comedy and general rebellion against forced political-correctness is worrying as a small fraction of young, possibly first time voters, of whom have yet to acquire any interest national politics and affair, may see the ultra-controversial aspect of voting BNP as a good joke. The pure notoriety of the party itself, much expanded by recent press, provides a potent chamber of opportunity for a possible anti-political uprising.

It would be trivial to suggest our nation is on the precipice of the rebirth of Hitler, or that the Queen in future may end her annual speech with a palm-down fascist salute to an Aryan horizon. Yet, it’s important to observe the infiltration of such a party into the minds and thoughts of our nation, and maybe we should pay attention to 1930’s Germany- also in a time of recession, and we must learn from their mistakes, and trust in each other, to incinerate the hate and racism that is growing within."

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a Big Bastard