Extreme measures

Friday, 15th May 2009

As James says, the new "There's Nothing British About The BNP" campaign has made a solid start. (It's depressing to be reminded, as Tim Montgomerie makes plain in his Telegraph piece, that some potential BNP supporters aren't even aware of the party's core philosophy.) But over at Liberal Conspiracy, Rowenna Davis, raises a doubt or two over another campaign - launched by the Hope Not Hate group - which draws an explicit Nuremberg analogy:

The leaflets I’m set to deliver brand the BNP a “Nazi party”. I might agree with this, but what about our target audience? I’m concerned they’ll just get BNP sympathisers and supporters’ backs up, and push them further from the mainstream. I understand why the policy of stigmatisation is useful. I understand that if you brand the party as unacceptable, then it’s harder for the BNP to campaign, to build their membership base or to get platforms for the hate they’re spreading. But negative campaigning on its own is not enough, and in some cases it can be counterproductive.
A recent BBC documentary exposed the stereotypical BNP supporter - the disillusioned racist intent on causing trouble – as a myth. Although the party leaders might be out-and-out racists, we have to be careful that we don’t isolate grassroots BNP members by tarring them with the same brush