Although it's a big week for the debate about fascism, probably the biggest since the Euro elections, isn't it true that the BBC and the media in general are overdoing it a bit with their incessant coverage of the British National Party?
It can be appreciated that the Nazis are so dangerous that their activities must be put under the media glare. But isn't a slot on Question Time enough? Must we have constant BBC blogs, articles and radio phone ins about them? After all, the Green Party got more votes than the BNP did on a UK level, have got more councillors than the BNP and have had MEPs for longer. Where is the increased coverage for Greens?
Whenever the BNP do rear their heads they should be opposed. That's why it's right that there won't be empty seats on Question Time. We should also remember that in Wales they do not have the same electoral mandate that they do in England, having not ever won a contested seat here, European or otherwise.
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Quote from the BBC blog comments-
"I'm gay and my husband is Asian, but I'll be voting for the BNP. Am I racist?"
No, but you are an idiot.
Thought you might be interested in this article on the BNP and Question Time.
'The BBC's case for allowing Griffin to appear on Question Time is challenged by New Statesman political editor, James Macintyre, a former producer on the programme. "Question Time are being dishonest about having him [Griffin] on. They've always wanted him on and I went to meetings where I had to argue against that position. They lost the battle with management then and now, after two years' lobbying, they have won."
Question Time's editor, Ed Havard, did not respond to requests for an interview to confirm or deny these charges, but Bailey tells me: "There was no battle with management. Every year we would ask whether smaller parties such as the BNP or the Green party had enough popular support to warrant appearing on the show. Until they won the seats in June we decided they didn't warrant time on the show according to our guidelines."
Macintyre disagrees: "It's not about the election victories, that's an excuse. My worry is that the show is going to give the BNP spurious legitimacy."
full article is here http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/16/does-question-time-accept-racists
Spot on, WR! Excellent point about Wales too. Tell that to our pathetic 'Welsh' media who merely ape the Brits.
All this publicity - by the media (who want a bigger audience) and naïve or publicity-seeking politicians - is the best break these extreme British nationalists have had. The same bunch promoted their (non)-breakthrough in the EP elections.
At the same time the mainstream media and other British nationalist politicians promote the very policies which provide them a hook on which to hang their racism. The present 'resistance' to extreme British nationalism is a disaster.
I see Jim Murphy, Labour Secretary of State in Scotland is beating the same drum. Nothing to do with the Glasgow North East by-election, I expect.
Pelagius- thanks. Welsh nationalism is the biggest resistance against the fascists, it's easy to tell from the BNP's activists in Wales that they view the existence of a different national identity as the main obstacle to the BNP's growth in Wales. They've said as much on their blogs.
Of course, an even bigger issue than that is that the UK's mainstream social democratic party, Labour, has abandoned working class voters and fed the BNP's expansion.
none of us wants to see the odious holocaust denying griffin on a publicly funded tv channel tonite im sure! But i think we all have to accept that the time has now come where we should be thinking of defeating this racist rabble by argument and by exposing the bankruptcy of their politics and not just by shouting and placard waving!
But in addition to this it is also vital that the very real economic issues that causes people to vote for the bnp are addressed.....thus im convinced that a mass council house building programme and a mass job creation programme would see support for the bnp drop sharply within a short time!
Of course that would require all the so called major parties ie tory, labour and libdems to abandon their decades long worship of the free market....something that does not look likely to say the least. Even the much heralded vince cable is of course a enthusiastic privatiser!
I also think it must be recognised that not all of those people voting for the bnp are hitler loving nazis! It is clear a number are doing so because they feel that no other party is addressing their concerns! They feel abandoned and forgotten - particularly by the labour party - and the bnp is lurking around and capitalising on this despair....though of course it has no real solutions to the problems many working class communities who appear to be turning to the bnp are currently facing.
Thankfully - as you point out WR - in wales griffin and co have not made the electoral inroads they have in some parts of england but we cannot be complacent about this. In parts of north wales the bnp have polled worrying levels of support while in other parts of wales - my own swansea for example - there were some wards where the bnp polled hundreds of votes at the council elections in 2008.
Leigh Richards
swansea.
I don't disagree with Leigh Richards on this whole topic but I notice there's something (obvious) missing from his argument. He refers to the "major parties" without apparently noticing they are British nationalists too. I see Plaid back-room strategist Jonathan Edwards does the same thing; he calls them London parties. Doh!
Seems to me devolution has sucked Plaid into the British discourse, using their words and thought processes. It's bad enough Plaid's Brit Left segment being intellectually absorbed by them, but it seems to be spreading. Let's all use a Welsh nationalist paradigm, please. After all, this is Bloggers4Plaid.
The bnp are getting attention, which suits the government just fine, as no-one is looking at unemployment, falling exchange rates, war budgets...but as pointed out in a local discussion....
Allowing discrimination on the basis of the birthplace and skin colour will take us to further diivisions... eye colour will be next, and those without "British eyes" will be taken away to be questioned.
Giving press coverage to "the bogeyman", and thus stirring antagonism amongst the voting classes is an old political trick, meanwhile the moats and second homes are still standing.
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