Quote:
Britain in shock after sending BNP to European Parliament
June 8th, 2009 - 7:17 pm ICT by IANS
By Dipankar De Sarkar
London, June 8 (IANS) Britain, one of the most multi-cultural countries in Europe, woke up Monday to the news that it had sent to the European Parliament two candidates whose party will not admit Blacks and Asians as members.
The news was greeted with shock and dismay by leaders of mainstream political parties, who had pleaded with voters not to vote for the British National Party (BNP), which campaigns on an anti-immigration plank and whose membership is reserved for Whites.
“It’s a terrible thing that happened last night,” Harriet Harman, Deputy Leader of the ruling Labour Party said after election results late Sunday night showed wins for BNP chief Nick Griffin and his colleague Andrew Brons.
“I think it is horrific that we have representing Britain in the European Parliament people who think that black people and people of Asian origin have no place in this country,” she said.
Foreign Minister David Miliband admitted the BNP’s success was “very damaging to Britain”.
Griffin, who was convicted in 1998 of distributing material likely to incited racial hatred, won from the North West England constituency, while Brons took the seat for the Yorkshire and the Humber region.
Describing their wins as “”desperately depressing,” Conservative Party leader David Cameron said: “The BNP are beyond the pale. They are an appalling bunch of people. I hope this is the extent of what they can do and that they go no further.”
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the BNP was “party of thugs and fascists.”
“They are nothing but racists in suits,” added Britain’s Health Minister Andy Burnham.
The far-right party’s wins were put down to anger over the global economic recession and voter disenchantment with mainstream political parties whose MPs have been found to be claiming thousands of pounds in parliamentary expenses from taxpayers’ cash.
Across the 27 nations of the European Union that went to the polls ending June 4, Conservative centre-right parties generally outperformed ruling social democrats and centre-left parties despite the global recession - a result that some observers put down to better organisation.
“The BNP exploited people’s fears. We have to work to tackle the fear that led people to vote for the BNP,” Harman said.
Griffin denied his party is racist, saying “This is ordinary decent people in Yorkshire kicking back against racism, because racism in this country is now directed overwhelmingly against people who look like me [white].”
Voter turnout across Europe was a low 43.4 percent.
In Britain, Labour was beaten to third place as the Conservatives took 25 seats, and the right-wing United Kindom Independence Party (UKIP) 13 - the same number as Labour but with a greater share of votes.
The Liberal Democrats won 11 seats while the BNP and the Greens took two each.
|
Britain in shock after sending BNP to European Parliament
Politics outside of the U.S. and the Middle East tend to go by quietly here on the TFP, but I'd like you to take a good look at what's going on in the U.K. In the wake of the decimation of the Labour Party, the BNP has picked up two seats. The BNP (The British National Party) is a far-right, whites-only political party. (Read: fascist)
From their manifesto:
Quote:
|
We demand the right to preserve our culture, heritage, and identity. Our national character and native institutions are a precious inheritance, for which our ancestors have paid a high price over the centuries. They are not to be casually thrown away in the name of a "modernisation" that is often no more than a thinly-veiled cover for a quasi-Marxist cultural war against all things white, European and male.
|
Quote:
|
Our first step will be to shut the door. A BNP government would accept no further immigration from any of the parts of the world which present the prospect of an almost limitless flow of immigration: Africa, Asia, China, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America would all be placed on an immediate ‘stop’ list. This would later be subject to review in the case of genuine students accepted for training as part of our long-term policy of helping to build up Third World economies in order to facilitate the voluntary return of their nationals or their descendants under our long-term resettlement programme.
|
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/h..._manifesto.pdf Have a closer look for more references to White Britain.
Basically, BNP would like Britain to return to its former White glory. They have recently been legitimized as a political party by winning two seats in Europe under Britain.
I find it hard to believe that it is even legal for an essentially racist party to be able to run for elections.
Do you find BNP policies to be racist? If not, then what are they?
Is there anything wrong with BNP holding political power?
Does this gel with rights and freedoms (both in politics and in policy)?
Do you think the BNP's seats are just temporary as the Labour Party sorts out their mess?
Do you see the BNP gaining power? Do you see them influencing other, similar parties in Europe?
Is the BNP a powerless party in the grander scheme of things, or do they do harm race relations in the U.K. and beyond?
I think this is a serious blow to race relations in the U.K. I will say with no reservations that the U.K. now has blatant racists with racist policies holding political seats. As their manifesto implies, they'd like to send away their "coloreds" to their nation of heritage, despite actually being Britons...in order to make Britain a better, whiter place. They actually have a program for this.
What do you think of this? Is this just opportunism at a time of Labour's disintegration? Is this telling of worsening problems in the U.K.?