Rather too gleefully for my liking the newspapers are reporting an increase in the level of support for the BNP following Nick Griffin’s train crash of an appearance on BBC Question Time. Says the Daily Telegraph:
“Support for the party has increased in the last month, a survey for The Daily Telegraph indicated. The findings will lead to accusations that the BBC’s decision to invite the far-Right MEP on to its flagship current affairs programme may have backfired by giving him a national platform.”
The headline could read:
“BNP support soars following Griffin’s Question Time ordeal!”
After all the YouGov poll does show stated support rising by 50%! The fascists are on the rise! What can we do?
Well for starters we should look at the facts – after an unprecedented period of publicity with BNP-related items heading every news broadcast and leading on every front page; after weeks with Griffin’s delightful mug gazing statesmanlike from every magazine – what have we got
The BNP’s support has risen from 2% to 3% (that’s half what it got back in May).
Anthony Wells provides his usual sound assessment of the figures on his UK Polling Report blog and concludes:
“Despite all the hoohah and protests, despite the millions of people who watched Question Time, it doesn’t seem to have made any significant difference to how the public view them, or how likely they are to support them (or at least, not yet).”
So can we put an end to the panic, to the frantic flapping and look at the truth – there are 7% of the UK population who are very likely to vote for the BNP. Too many for sure but not enough to usher in the fascist state.
And instead of shouting and name-calling perhaps we need to make the case for a free, tolerant, and open society - one that doesn’t use the law to shut down debate.
1 comment:
I found a lot of the aftermath of NG's appearance on question time quite funny. There were posts in unrelated forums and on social media platforms where very educated and politically aware people were making noises that it wasnt the BBC's place to hang NG and the BNP out to dry or orchestrate such a public kicking. There were other posts that were demanding that NG be driven out of the country, never mind the political arena, demanding that he and his party should be silenced, physical threats laced with all kinds of profane language and statement. Personal attacks on the legitimacy of the parentage of his supporters or people who dared speak up for him in comments in response within the social media.
I saw so many posts about peoples grandads who fought in the second world war and who would be turning in their graves if they knew that the Nazi BNP were favouring support. Surely we were fighting for democracy from political aspects?
Surely this is just the kind of behaviour that the BNP are being accused of? (and if course much more! which can quite rightly be said and evidenced)
There will always be hypocritical opposition within politics.........but never has it been so apparent.
I personally feel that the fact that the BNP are seeing more and more support should be seen as a message to the current government and to any future government that parts of the UK are unhappy with the current immigration policy and are so fed up and frustrated. It has to be true that the majority of the voting public do not either agree with or understand / or indeed learn about any single parties total agenda and policy structure, but yet pick and chose which "parts" of it align with their own personal view of a given subject. In this case.....the UK public see immigration as a major issue and that its time to get tougher.
Just my 2 cents.
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