The real reason for this

Miranda Rose Smith

What's the difference between racial prejudice and racism?

Wayne Tavitt

Yep and it's gonna get worse unless we're very careful. Also check out: Modern Fascism: The Threat to the Judeo-Christian Worldview (Concordia Scholarship Today) by Gene Edward Veith for an understanding of what's really happening here

mcmrjp

Melanie spot on with your assessment as always. What chances for the general election!

Ray

You're absolutely right, Mel. But will Messrs Brown, Cameron and Clegg listen to you? Nooooo.

Paul

I thought I must have misheard Toynbee last night on the BBC coverage. I thought she said that Gordon Brown was Euroseptic, and that is why people were voting against him on matters European. Then of course it occurred to me that I might have been listening to a case in point of the kind of deliberate misconstruction practiced by the liberal elite that Melanie Philips has here put her finger on so precisely. I can only think that it eminates from a kind of cowardice that won't allow them to dig down to find nuance in matters which appear on the surface to be abhorent. Therefore, I believe that our elite will continue to make these problems for themselves until they are swept away by a force that is not so yoghurt-knitting.

Sean

You are 99% right Mel, but they do have one 'figleaf Jew' councillor, a Ms Pat Richardson...

Tamara

Miranda Rose Smith, under the Left's terms, "racism" equals prejudice plus power (Mel spelt it out). In other words, a member of a minority group cannot be racist given societal numeric disparities.

That's why we see the gaping double standards we do. The mainstream media choose not to see these and instead have spent the last two months banging on about the BNP and in being so hypocritical have succeeded only in making more of the public vote for them.

People like Melanie and Frank Field can try but with all mainstream parties appear to a lost cause on the most important issues facing the country.

Nicholas Wesley

Well said, Mel. In all the commentary delivered in the Election coverage - on the BBC and SKY the only reference to immigration was in the context of Polish immigratin. No mention of the Islamicist politics and hateful abuse of British culture and denegration of British troops etc, etc. The liberal elite have only themselves to blame for the rise of the BNP.

Hush puppy

They still don't get it and will refuse to even until death! A Labour backbencher was on Sky News this morning and denied that the BNP gains were anything to do with the population's views on immigration. They were to do with the issues of 'housing and schools with the expenses on top' that might tap into immigration but not the human influx per se. It is the fact that the rage that is being felt against this government was building long before the expenses row broke. We felt betrayed on the referendum question as well as mass immigration that the ordinary folks hated while our laws and customs were destroyed by an army of useful idiots to accomodate the newcomers at the expense of our indigenous peoples. The political elite will carry on as before looking in all the wrong places for the cause of the election debacle. They will continue the mass immigration which is their sacred cow policy and the Tories, signed up to the same pledge will continue with this if elected. This single national political party of Zanuliblabcon would prefer to die rather than give up on its project of racially transforming England (not Scotland) into the most racially diverse nation in the world. They must be stopped or our culture will be obliterated within a generation.

Sarah

I think the sentiment of this article is correct. Denying the discussion of such issues such as immigration has played a role in the rise of the BNP. Look at what happened to Nigel Farge on Question Time when he made a pretty rational point about immigration which was dismissed by the Labour minister Caroline Flint imediatly. I don't agree with Mr Farge's views but Ms Flint should have engaged with him on the issue and had a proper debate about immigration in this country, its beneifts and its costs.

The only problem that I have with this article is that it implys that you can only be proud of this country if it is right wing and outside the EU. Somehow, without debating about what exactly our values our in this country, some have claimed that our values embody anti EU sentiment and opposition to immigration. I too am opposed to mass immigration but I hardly class this as a British value. We are stifling debate on the issue of immigration by putting those who favour open immigration or less restrictions on immigration as some sort of un-British zealots. Not fair.

steve

Typical overreaction from Melanie and from much of the British elite that she decries. The BNP vote increased by 1.3% from 2004. In comparison, the Green Party vote went up by 2.4% and it received almost 400,000 more votes than the BNP. In the North West region where Griffin got in, the number of BNP votes actually declined from 2004. He won because the Labour vote collapsed not because of any movement toward the BNP.

Joshua

"plus royal que le roi" -- What a delicious expression.

Jesse

Melanie, not wanting to disagree with your other comments but the BNP does indeed accept Jewish members and has a jewish councillor.

They may be racists, they may be fascists, but they are not nazis, at least not anymore.

Miranda Rose Smith

Dear Tamara: Thanks. I once read a column on the difference between prejudice and racism. The columnist argued that we are all prejudiced, we all pre-judge; what's racist is o retain your negative opinion of Blacks, hippies, the elderly, football fans-you name it- after you have seen evidence proving your opinion wrong.

Edward Sutherland.

A really penetrating and so accurate analysis, Melanie.I wish every MP would read your comments and ponder deeply on the mess they've got us into.

Matthew Roberts

So, in view of the systematic smear campaign against the BNP, the likes of which I have never before seen in this country or indeed anywhere else in my life, they have managed to get two MEPs elected and three county councillors. They have doubled their share of the vote compared to 2004 and they have now entered the mainstream. Incredible!
Melanies analysis is of course correct but if she thinks that the liberal elite will learn from this she is very much mistaken. You see Melanie there is a systematic and planned strategy to destroy the nation state. The liberal elites are nation wreckers and are systematically destroying British and particularly English culture and heritage. It called cultural marxism and it has its roots in the Frankfurt School.

People however have had enough of this and have voted for the ONLY party that will do something about it.You may not like it but that is the reality.

I am absolutely beside myself today seeing all those handwringing loathsome liberals fretting. They are hypocrites and deserve everything thats coming to them.

Merlyn

Well said, Melanie.
However, in my book, Paganism was the original Celtic religion that deeply believed in and honored ancient nature deities, in and long before the time of Boudica, which the Romans tried to wipe out. People were not agnostic or atheist [nonbelievers] as they are now, being put off by the infighting of the religious, patriarchal, competitive authority figures we have had through time.

Alex Bensky

No need to panic here. Let's just apply the reasoning offered when Hamas won the Gaza election: We don't necessarily agree with these extremists but when people feel oppressed, put-upon, and hopeless, then naturally they turn to these outlying parties. We can't condone it, quite, but we do understand it. Hey, that excused Hamas, why shouldn't it excuse the BNP?

By the way, the redefinition of racism as prejudice plus power only goes one way. Here in Detroit blacks are eighty percent of the city's population and the city's political establishment has been mostly black for over thirty years, but overtly anti-white statements and policies are not considered racism.

I don't know if Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism" has been published over there but it's well worth picking up if it has. Goldberg points out in detail the left-wing antecedents of fascism. A more scholarly work, A. James Gregor's "The Fascist Persuasion in Radical Politics" is also very informative.

Besides, a lot of the left reminds me of those about whom Orwell remarked that they wanted to be anti-fascist without being anti-totalitarian.

Penny

Jesse - I beg to differ.

I was at a count on election night and at one point stood next to 3 BNP candidates, one of whom made it reasonably clear what she thought of Jews.

Her words were crude and blatantly anti-semitic which is why I can't repeat them here.

Dave M

There's probably more to the modern BNP than meets the eye. Many BNP voters view themselves as Judeo-Christian so it wouldn't be entirely correct to classify the BNP as anti semitic in the absolute sense. I think it's very much a mixed bag. That is, more than likely the majority of people who voted BNP are not in any way racist or anti semitic but do harbour real fears over the spread of radical Islam and erosion of national identity.
On the whole, I have to agree with Melanie the main parties have had this coming and only have themselves to blame. Let's be realistic: The whole alliance of Labour, the B.B.C. and educated idealists only recently let their true colours be known in a way that left little doubt what as to their aspirations. For the first time, there has been an honest, open call for incorporation of Sharia Law within society and this has clkearly become a step beyond what most ordinary voters can digest. Above all it's a shame the Tories seem to have totally abandoned the debate over uncontrolled immigration (as they were doing under William Hague) so people are left with little choice but a move to the far Right. I think the political elite has been using a number of excuses to justify mass immigration for a number of years but the recent call to incorporate Sharia Law alongside British Law has put the fear of God into most voters - understandably so. What do the mainstream parties expect?

Redvers

Penny

You and Jenny have - between you - correctly identified the BNP's attitude to Jews. At national level, they disown anti-Semitism and boast about their Jewish councillor. But individual members who haven't been to the Nick Griffin charm school will happily come out with the same old racist comments about black people and Jews.

A few years ago Griffin was a proud holocaust denier. He says that he has now changed his mind.

Bill Corr

The Brits were never asked whether they wanted their country - their HOME - to look like Southall Market. They didn't expect mass immigration to bring knife crime or drive-by shootings or a heroin epidemic or muggings or the suppressed-but-true stories of underage white girl groomed by pimping gangs in places like Keighley.

The political class hates the British people.

davidke

it used to be called racialism till the socialists got in. like veterans used to be called ex-servicemen and women. like a loss used to be called a defeat. like a train station used to be called a railway station. you missed from the litany of racialist offences making a complaint to the planning authorities when a gang of car thieves plant their caravans and dogs in a lovely paddock near your house where parking or development are absolutely forbidden. and how many Tory or Lib Dem councillors will dare then to stand up for their anguished constituents in this situation ?

Original Tony

The light has just gone on in my head. To the extreme left of the extreme left is the BNP...they are both fascists! It's only the content of core issues that separates them.

Would I be bold enough to say that this marks the beginning of the end of political correctness and that multiculturalism may well become a dirty word in the near future?

Let's watch the main parties all bring in new immigration laws in the near future to make up ground lost to the BNP. If you can't beat them, join them!

London Calling

;)...JC

Mrs Clayton

From what I can see the problem is not people voting for the BNP, bt the heer fact that previous labour voters have chosen to effectively follow Brewster with the 'none of the above' options. This then means that ALL parties have failed to enthuse these people to do something as simple as tick a bloody box!

BNP have two seats and frankly the blame lies not just with the parties but also with thos who decided to sit on their arse rather than exercise their democratic right to vote...rights that people have died to ensure.

Jeremy

"Working-class areas are particularly vulnerable to the BNP because they....are areas of very high immigration where the transformation of the ethnic, religious and cultural landscape has made indigenous inhabitants feel like strangers in their own country -- and yet they are told they are racist for saying so, not least by the MPs who are now wringing their hands over the BNP success."

Yes - although the transformation of the landscape has not just been "ethnic, religious and cultural" but also economic, legal and political; leaving the indigenous population feeling not just like "strangers in their own country" but also like an underclass within it; an underclass which sits at the bottom of the multicultural pile, so to speak. That, plus the systematic denigration of their history and culture (and with it their national pride and national identity) are what the despair, the resentment and the hatred are all rooted in.

Graeme Thompson

Vote Melanie! Seriously, the politics you advocated are never going to see the light of day unless you form a new, if only provisional party, to give the shock to the system to the main parties to respect people's concerns about immigration and national identity.

Graeme Thompson

Miranda Rose Smith, racial prejudice is holding negative views about certain races in general, racism is letting your prejudice interfere how you treat a member of that racial group as an individual. We all have prejudices of all kinds, most of us, in my opinion, are not racists.

Herbert Thornton

Original Tony -

Your forecast may turn out to be partly accurate, but will the main parties ever be able to bring themselves to actually reduce the existing presence and future growth of Islam? I very much doubt it.

Robert Speirs

Interesting. How do the BNP exclude Jews and blacks? Do they have a DNA test requirement or do they go simply by name and appearance? The latter approach would not seem too reliable. I'm not sure what the agreed definition of "Jew" or "black" is.

Trumpelor, the proud kafir

Melanie,

I might be very naive but for whom should we cast our votes to defend western values ?
Unfortunately, Geert Wilders is a Duch citizen and is not resigned to cross the Channel...

Margaret Muller-Johansson

I agree with Melanie 100%, the left wing liberals create the BNP, they also promote and create the rise of Islamic extremism, they lie and keep saying we are multicultural society, so what? no one is getting alone no one, their are places in Britain where the natives feel scare to go, the lefties told the immigrants not to learn the language not to integrate and it is okay to hate us, and yes if anyone says anything about immigrants they say you are racist, they should have listen Micheal Howard long time ago but they refuse, now they get what they deserve, that is what happens when people don't listen, I mean the lefties
I hope not but I could smell a civil war....

Augustus

What mainstream politics, not just in Britain, but throughout Europe, also seems to have been ignoring is the total lack of insight and awareness of how the whole undemocratic EU behometh is controlled, and how the European Parliament really represents its citizens as an elected assembly. So the 2009 European elections ended up by just giving the European voters once more a chance to vent their frustration at the whole proceedings, and protest votes, such as BNP and UKIP were bound to increase and make headlines.

One solution to the democratic deficit of the EU, short of its actual break-up, which could put European peace and prosperity at risk, is for more politicians to step forward and present clear proposals as to what the EU should be doing, and also, importantly, what it should not interfere with. European politicians who would periodically explain to their constituents exactly what they have been doing in Europe on their behalf, i.e. proper European parties should be formed, not just with classical ideologies such as socialism, or liberalism, but with policies on such matters as immigration, safety, mobilty of citizens within the EU, EU budgets etc. These new political
parties aimed at a pan-European level, and transcending the old national parties, could then compete in five years time to give European voters a proper democratic alternative to purely nationlist party interests.

Richard Dell

Very good analysis, Melanie, I think you got all the tropes nailed.

The "far right" narrative, popular on the Left and in the BBC, is deeply unhelpful in trying to get to the roots of the BNP phenomenon. The appeal of the BNP is to the white working class, not Tory Toffs. Can you imagine a Labour supporter ever voting for people he sees as even more objectionable than the Tories?

Yet that is what the BBC would have us believe. The BBC position is not based on history and it reveals their own soft-left ideology. They wish, probably subconsciously, to smear Conservatives by associating them with the BNP, as if only a frustrated conservative could ever contemplate voting for such a party. Yet why would any conservative vote for tax rises, nationalisation, external tariffs, the creation of state-run manufacturing industries, workers' councils to run those industries and (though they tend to keep quiet about this) the abolition of the monarchy - elements of the BNP agenda?

We really have to keep hammering this message home - that Fascists, Nazis and the BNP are parties of the far Left, like Dan Hannan did on Question Time (when Dimbleby gave him a chance to speak), though I suspect that most who heard him probably thought it a slip of the tongue.

john lintern

I do agree with Melanie that the so-called extreme right BNP should not be allowed to tarnish the image of genuine extreme right politics whose adherents can safely be left to foul their own nest - viz. Netanyahu, the Dutch and Austrian fascist leaders etc.
More helpful is to regard the political Left/Right spectrum not so much as a straight line with the extreme Left as far as it is possible to get from the extreme Right, rather as a circular concept with moderate, "liberal" views at twelve o'clock, and the extremists, whether of right or left, as close neighbours at six o'clock, not much to choose between them.

Henrieta Shoemaker

BNP doesn't like anyone but white and they will be friends other European nationalists who don't like Jewish, Muslims, Gypsy and Black

Dai

Where democracy is concerned, Thomas Paine said that a country should have a government, not that a government should have a country. The latter is what the UK has become. The political class has riden rough-shod over the majority indigenous population imposing all its ideological and experimental fetishes upon us e.g Harman's misnomer named Equalities bill which obliges employers to give more weight to recruiting ethnic and female job applicants at the expense of the long suffering beleaguered white heterosexual male. This example and others like it is not regulation but social engineering of the socially divisive kind that has characterised the actions of the political class these past few decades. This and similar destructive policies have driven people - including myself as a former Labour Party member - to vote BNP. I'm no 'racist'(I'd like to know who's definition of this label is the correct one anyway?)but rather I am a Celt who is proud of his heritage, traditions and history. I do not want some Chardonnay drinking idealist wresting this away from me.

C. Gee

Sarah:
It would indeed be a good idea to debate what British values are.
I would argue that the most important value is equality of the individual before the law. This idea, fundamental to democratic constitutions, had English origins and is a reason for national pride. It is also an idea that should be and could be assimilated by all immigrants (regardless of race) who do not have a collectivist, universalist culture inimical to the understanding of relationship between law and the individual.
It is fine to have open immigration, but not without regard to the ability of the immigrant to assimilate this one, overarching, national value. Thus we can have our ethnic restaurants, etc. but keep our national cohesion.
But Britons themselves have lost sight of the fundamental value in being British. Sixty years or more of socialist corruption has turned politics into a competition among sub-national groups, each wanting to privileged by the law.
Britain, as Britain, is probably lost forever. Like other Western nations, it is merely a land-mass filled with cultural/legal identity ghettos.
Bit of a shame, really.

Luscus Britannicus

The simplistic political labels of Left and Right suggest a horizontal axis on which the extremes of both persuasions could not be further apart.
The reality is better represented as a circular spectrum with moderate, "liberal " attitudes at the top and the extremists of both right and left hemispheres side by side - and undistinguishable from each other - at the bottom.
Long may they stay there!

Simon Stephenson

A magnificent piece of writing. Thank you very much.

I understand that you wrote specifically in relation to the rise of the BNP, and the insipid effort made by the mainstream parties to counter this. I wonder, however, whether you see this as a problem with the mainstream that is confined to those issues focused on by the BNP? Or is it just a symptom of a more general malaise?

Corin

Why have you censored my post that the BNP members are in the Northern Islamic Belt? Others have raised this issue. See also this link:
/pryce-jones.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzIwYTE0NWIxMzg4NGUyYzAwZjhjYjFjYjQxMTllNzc=>

What is clear is the people are saying 'No'.

No to the creeping Islamification of society;
No to unchecked immigration without assimilation;
No to Labour and
No to Europe.

What is offensive?

Alf Tupper

As apposite, incisive and trenchant as ever Melanie.

But, we are so far into this nightmare now, that repeated warnings of the path along which the BNP might take us, seem favourable to the demographic drain down which successive administrations seem happy to let our way of life disappear.

Aided and abetted by a media community (as very recently shown here on the Spectator site) which refuses even to listen to such concerns.

Groovy Times

Yes, it's not called National Socialism for nothing. It stands for redistribution of wealth and social justice, but only if you fit the correct racial profile. And that is one of the reasons Nazi ideology remains an anathema to most decent people. But who then can claim the mantle of social justice and wealth redistribution? Not the Labour Party, they have prostituted themselves for power, but political power is transient and now they are ideologically bankrupt what is left?(no pun intended). New Labour has lost its traditional support base through sheer greed, arrogance and cynicism for the principles on which the Labour party itself was founded. And now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Ted

"He won because the Labour vote collapsed not because of any movement toward the BNP."

Another person who doesn't understand how elections work. Let's do this slowly:
Out of the people who voted ...
1. A lower proportion of people than before voted for Labour.
2. A higher proportion of people than before voted for BNP.
Those who didn't vote DON'T MATTER.

Margaret Muller-Johansson

"Well, they were warned over and over again but they did not listen" you are right Melanie, too bad lefties did not listen, lefties are the ones created the British National Party and the Islamic exterimists, being too liberal can create extremism
and now the innocent people are going to pay the price, remember the problem is not only the BNP but the people who vote for them and that is telling us the white British people are becoming angry and racist

Dixon

Miranda Rose Smith
June 8th, 2009 11:51am
2What's the difference between racial prejudice and racism?"

Its the difference between thinking ill of soneone because of the colour of their skin and actually militating for their annhilation. Its a very big difference in my opinion.

Dixon

Penny
June 8th, 2009 2:50pm
" Jesse - I beg to differ.

I was at a count on election night and at one point stood next to 3 BNP candidates, one of whom made it reasonably clear what she thought of Jews.

Her words were crude and blatantly anti-semitic which is why I can't repeat them here."

I read that the Italian Fascists under Mussolini originally had a large minority of Jews among their membership. they were later expelled, before being persecuted, as a direct result of Mussolini trying to be obliging to Hitler.

Dagobert

The real scandal of these elections is that 15% of the voters supported a party, whose leadership, by the principles set down at Nuremburg, is a criminal cabal which has launched illegal aggressive wars. The BNP has been forthright in attacking the illegal wars into which the Labour party has led this country.

Yehuda

The true meaning of "racism' is biological determinism; that is, the belief that groups of people share innherent, innate characteristics which are specific to each respective group, and that these are transmitted genetically, and that they are immutable; that is, no amount of education, training, exposure to other groups etc. etc can ever alter those characteristics.
On the other hand, prejudice involves a belief in stereotypes, but not necessarily a belief in the immutability of group traits.

Mrs Clayton

To ted

"Those wo didn't vote don't matter"

How do you work that out? BNP garnered less votes than in the last elections. Conservative and Lib Dems didn't make any major changes.

Those who were not energised to vote counted alright. They proved the point that all evil needs to prosper is that good people do nothing.

If nothing else this election proved that non voers do have an effect.

MV

Let's put a stop to racism. Time to protest:
http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0396.htm#Top
and
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery06022009.html

Sickening yet barely mentioned over here. Difference is those pursuing policies have real power and huge support - unlike the racist BNP.

Dixon

Its interesting that in America the far right ( Stormfront et al ) are actually forging an alliance with Islamic extremists. David Duke formerly of the KKK was an honoured guest in Syria not long ago.

What a lovely combination.

Terry

Melanie, I more often than not agree with and admire your work. This piece excels though. A first class articulation of the (warranted) fears of mainstream voters in most western democracies, and an explanation of why voting in these countries is regarded as a waste of time.

So keen are mainstream political parties to cluster around a rotting PC 'centre' that it is true indeed - whoever we vote for we just get a politician.

This is how extremism took root in nazi germany and pre communist Russia. This is how we got WW2, 60 million dead and 10% of whom died because they were Jewish.

It seems we never learn and in our nose thumbing of history, we have taken many steps down the road to repeating it.

Terry

By way of a post script to my previous post, I listened to the bbc world service here in Australia and got its coverage of the results in the EU election. It was a half hour post mortem on why the left had done so badly, but not a critique of the left - no, a piece of intellectual smoke and mirrors implying htat anyone with a brain votes left so who persuaded voters not to follow the party line? Who mislead the masses to do the wrong thing? Why was such a large part of the EU electorate out of step with the bbc peoples' army?

I suggest to the bbc that some listeners actually want objective analysis and not leftist propaganda.

How about they look at the conservative side of the equation and ask what it is that truly attracted voters? Maybe the left could copy it and learn the error of their ways? After all, I know that no-one with half a brain would vote left after observing it in power over the years in various places. The most recent place that comes to mind, by way of example, is the bbc.

journeyman

This betrayal of both British and European culture and idenity,through borderless,internationalist,multiculturalist,leftist,white guilt,utopian hypocracy--is often portrayed as deriving entirely from either/or,political cowardice,expediency,ignorance and the dominance which the baby-boomer generation,academic,intelligencia,elite have managed to gain in the media (B.B.C )university campus,and goverment.
But there are surely more deliberate and manipulative forces at work,which utilize this Leftist multi-cultural religion to their own advantage.
Because it suits their agenda.
I suppose I am reffering to some kind of extremely wealthy "Bilderberg",cabal of mercenary corporate,international.Euro-Arab industrialists who appear to have much to gain from the unwitting complicity of the "radical chic,progressive,multi-culturlal,poly-tech,Left".Wage competitive cheap labour,weakening of community identity to enable social engineering.
In twenty years from now,if present Islamist trends continue,both demographically and ideologically--it may be the left will be in an unholy alliance with the B.N.P,when Gaza and Lebanon clone themselves in among the no-go Sharia enclaves of Britain and Europe.
The "Left"proudly protects ethnic minorities from any "discriminatory judgement",at the same time traditionally having contempt for religion.??
I believe we have been in a creeping historic zeitgeist and we are only now slowly begining to understand the implications of it.
And some like Sarkozy and Cameron "let slip",the powers that be, have plans for us.

Miranda Rose Smith

Dear Mr. Thompson: Good point.
Dear Yehuda: Correct. The ESSENCE
of racism is the belief that certain character traits are INNATE in Blacks or Jews or Arabs or Anglo-Saxons.

Barry

Interesting that Nick Griffin is being held to account for his past in a way that Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, former mayors, Lenin admirers, ex-communists in the Labour Party and former members of the necklacing ANC are not.

Tony Blair took us into an illegal war that killed thousands - but he’s not a fascist, so that's OK.

Race and immigration are surrounded by so much humbug and hypocrisy that rational debate is barely possible south of The Wash. Try raising the matter at a dinner party in Surrey and see how far you get. At least those knuckle-dragging, fish and chip eating, northern racists are honest.

Ted

Mrs Clayton:
Very simple. We have no reason to think that the people who didn't vote, WOULD have voted any different from the ones who did had you dragged them to the polling stations and forced them to (as in Belgium and Australia). My contention is that their voting intentions would have been distributed exactly the same way as those of the people who voted. Or are you saying that committed Labour and Tory supporters chose to stay at home, despite the intense exhortations from their party leaders to "stop the BNP"? Hardly.

Anthony Posner

Mel,
With regard to The Tories, they aslo wanted to import cheap labour. Moreover, the recent boom has been fuelled by mass immigration.
And who can deny that some immigrants are beter qualified than the UK's indigenous working class?
Fascism will also raise its ugly head during a recession especially when the main political parties are in The EU camp.

Melanie, are you now advocating that some immigrants should be sent back? If so, how many? And on what basis?

Zebedee

The British,or should I say the white British,have become strangers in their own country and it has all been brought about by successive governments of both persuasions.
Has Dave said anything over the past 2 months to pacify the fears of the British? No? Didn't think so.It's all the fault of the expenses scandal isn't it Dave?
The only wonder is that it has taken so long for this small protest to manifest itself.The only certainty now is that if the British are not listened to the results will only be worse,and I'm not talking votes here either.

michael paris

(Michael from Belgium)
You are absolutely right! Same thing happening in Belgium and Holland and in the rest of Europe.

JMatunde

Thank you Barry, I think racism is everywhere but the lefties don't talk about it, nothing is wrong talking about race or religion at diner party in Surrey but they are too snobbish to talk about that subject or anything accept the weather, I think it is better to say something then being silence, I am African and I see racism everywhere and every country in the world, the left British hide the true and don't talk about it specially the middle class, now things are getting worst, I even know some black Africans or Caribbean lefties who hide the true about the racism in Britain and say the British are not racist only Americans are, we could all see how many people voted for the British National Party, I hope this is just a wake up call

Mjolnir de Jersiase

The thing I love about travelling to any foreign country is being able to immerse myself in the culture of the indigenous people and observe, at first hand, the fascinating differences between the British lifestyle and that of other nations. I would hate to book a holiday to, say, Taiwan, and arrive there only to find that it had been colonised by large numbers of my fellow [caucasian] Brits, to the extent that many areas had been transformed to the point where it was difficult to find much evidence of Chinese indigenous culture. Likewise, if I go to France I like it to be French; if Italy, Italian; if Kenya, Kenyan etc. I suppose this makes me a racist in the eyes of the PC Liberal Left. What nonsense! Surely, it is reasonable for British people to want to preserve their national character and unique culture just as it is considered acceptable, by the Liberal-Left that Amazonian Indians wish to preserve their indigenous culture and even their - dare I say it - racial characteristics.

logdon

"The willed loss of control of this country’s borders, the blind eye to Islamisation, the refusal to allow the people to vote against the Lisbon treaty and the surrender of self-government to the EU – these are the things that have brought the BNP electoral success."

Is Melanie the only one with enough nous and guts to offer honesty to the truth of the matter?

We've been assailed by so many mealy mouthed responses to Griffin’s gain by politicians, a compliant media and of course Labour's broadcast wing, the openly partisan, BBC. None came close, skittering around the ‘ghastliness’ which no one will name.

This cabal has held Britain hostage to political correctness for far too long. Our sinews of tolerance are stretched and screaming in agony, yet any resistance towards the orthodox line results in the hysteria of racism as if that's the be all, the ultimate crime we can commit.

Well, the crying wolf has had the oh, so predictable result of the emergence of the real wolf, prowling around Labours voting bloc and making off with a couple of sheep.

Now all the gnashing of teeth, bewailing what will our European neighbours think? Old solid Blighty voting for the fascists?

Here’s one, if the term fascism is the fashionable lingua franca and lazy shorthand for intolerance how about the other one of totalitarian socialism? You know, the one which Orwell so presciently predicted? How can one be quite acceptable and actually lauded whilst the other reviled? Both are equally noxious yet we’ve been prodded, cajoled and legislated into silent and sullen acquiescence of ultra pc Marxism which actually penalises the majority whilst ramping up the so called rights of minorities without much resistance.

Had some of those minorities acted with good grace and a gratitude that here in Britain they’ve quite literally never had it so good we’d maybe think, job well done but it obviously isn’t so.

So much isn’t so, that the most vociferous of that lot then went on to bomb us, killing 52 innocents in the process. That’s the gratitude we receive for all the social engineering, warped equality and positive discrimination heaped their way by our Labour Government. That fact cannot be lost on our voting public and that fact has pushed many from the easy going torpitude of classic Britishness into the arms of fringe extremism.

When the concept of a state came into being it relied on nationalism to fuse tribal loyalty and build on those shared desires and attitudes. Now it seems that nationalism is a dirty word and the ties which bind have morphed into a flaccid mish mash of opposing cultural norms and postures. This balkanisation could never work and quite frankly it’s quite amazing that it has stuttered along for so long.

Labour has actually toyed with the British public in the gross experiment and now they’re biting back, utterly sick of the way a once great nation can be fractured and ripped asunder by nincompoops holed up in ivory towers whilst swathes of our country descend into bantustan provinces of shari'ah dominance.

That’s the reality. It’s so obvious yet somehow eludes our so called finest minds. Either that or they’re so caught up in lying spin they cannot bring themselves to accept the result of their meddling.

If UKIP, aka BNP lite can trounce Labour into third place what are the voters telling us? They’ve had enough. They’re sick to the gills, watching the decimation and destruction of our culture and values.

Time to take stock. This is real history and those who wish a favourable place in it when the tale is finally told had better heed those masses out there.

Either that or real trouble beckons.

Simon Denis

As so many have correctly observed, this is an excellent piece of writing. Readers might care to look at the June issue of Standpoint in which similar anxieties are very sensitively addressed. The point is that any society has the right to use the fair means of immigration control to maintain its identity over time. The identity in question is emphatically not a purely ethical one as the left tries to suggest. Being British is not to be reduced to believing in "fair play" - code for quietly acquiescing in Labour's multicultural project. On the other hand, it is not to be reduced to some crazed, pseudo-biological concept either. Society is more than a matter of blood and humans are not livestock. Essentially, society is a matter of generation and inheritance - as in a family. The children of that family might be "natural" or adopted. If, however, the number of newcomers attempting to join a society at any one time should exceed a certain proportion, this benign adoptive process is abused and it breaks down. The "family" identity is broken; alienated ghettoes form around a resentful host rump; the long continuity of our shared social history is unhappily perplexed and disrupted. Only fanatical utopians and the cowardly whited sepulchres who run the establishment could possibly look on this process with equinimity. Among the latter grouping I range David Dimbleby, whose moral superior sneer hoves into view whenever any of his panellists question the need for more immigration. I hesistate to go on for fear of sound paranoid, but I sometimes suspect that behind the left-liberal cloak of foolish moralising lies a dagger of marxist intent - a desire to revolutionise society by means of sudden, dangerous movements of population. Is this not so? Doesn't the left always use the presence of so many diverse groupings in society to question the "relevance" of its old institutions?

Ivan the yid from Bradford

I allways enjoy your articles Melanie but there is a factual error in this one. The BNP do not have any restriction on Jews being members. Not only was I a member of the Bradford Branch for a short time, I was 'proscribed' by the Bradford branch's weirdo organiser Cllr Paul Cromie for reasons totally unconnected with my religion. The BNP Council group leader in Essex, Cllr Pat Richardson, is also Jewish.

Nannette

Yes, the BNP getting a couple of seats is disturbing to some, but it's not a threat.

What's REALLY disturbing is the fact that our mainstream politicians still won't listen to us or what WE want.

�œ They think we've forgotten how Brown stole our pensions, but we have a long memory.
�œ They think we've forgotten that Brown reneged on the EU Referendum, and treated us with nothing but contempt.
�œ They think we'll ignore the unlimited, uncapped, immigration which has put such a strain on the NHS, education, prison system, and has reduced people's changes of employment.
�œ They think we'll ignore the sell out of our gold stocks to help fill the dwindling civil service and unions pension funds.

We've seen Brown, the UNELECTED PM refuse to leave. He's resurrected the much-despised Peter Mandelson, the gravy train Kinnocks, and given Alan Sugar a job. These people are ALL unelected by us.

Brown wants to have his cake and eat it. He really doesn't want the bother of an electorate, what he's really trying to achieve is a far left Politbureau dictatorship.

Sadly, the Tories and Cameron come across as a little wimpish, because they also refuse to talk about the taboos like immigration, etc.

I voted for UKIP in the Euro elections, because they promise a Referendum, as well as addressing many other points which affect us on a daily basis.

Martin

The BNP are not nice & have fascist & racist roots.
However, most BNP voters are not fascists or racists. They are people at the end of their tether
who were never asked how they felt about their country suddenly becoming "multicultural". They are people sick of the BBC & the Anglican Church telling them that Muslims are morally superior & seeing their jobs being subject to a Dutch Auction with migrants who have few responsibilities & no loyalities to the UK.
Blame the 3 big parties, especially Labour, for the BNP, don't blame the voters

Martin

Simon

"they will not allow black people or Jews to be members because they don’t regard black people or Jews as properly British"

Surely you're aware that they do allow Jews to be members & candidates, and indeed are in favour of Israel's survival as a Jewish state? Under Griffin they officially rejected anti-Semitism years ago, knowing that it would never win favour with mainstream white Christian British people.

Mark

Perhaps Martin and Logdon will tell us all if those Germans who voted for the Nazis in the 1930s are similarly excused from any personal responsibility?

Neil Saunders

If our elites were going to have second thoughts about uncontrolled mass immigration, multiculturalism and Islamisation they would have had them long, long ago.

No, they are zealots, with a quasi-religious faith in the inherent benignity of these things, and in the inexpungible wickedness of those who oppose them, or cynical opportunists who are quite prepared to sacrifice their country's future for their own personal gain in the present. Either way, they are quite impervious to any evidence against their cherished belief-system (or self-interested immoralism), however conclusive. You would be as well occupied in trying to persuade Moonies or Scientologists that they might possibly be mistaken in their beliefs, or in appealing to a confidence trickster's allegedly better nature.

I could not personally bring myself to vote BNP, as they advocate too many things (such as the reintroduction of capital and corporal punishment) which I cannot possibly in good conscience support. I can, however, understand how the indigenous working class - who have been utterly abandoned by the mainstream parties and are gradually waking up to the fact - are beginning to shift their allegiance to the only party that clearly articulates their concerns, and proposes to halt or reverse the policies that have so disadvantaged and dispossessed them.

Things should never have been allowed to reach this point, and like Margaret Muller-Johansson I too "smell civil war". This is a prospect that fills me (and ought to fill others) with great dread.

Gareth

" I sometimes suspect that behind the left-liberal cloak of foolish moralising lies a dagger of marxist intent "
On Channel 4's internet forum (now defunct), a former Marxist declared that he and his friends supported mass immigration because they wanted to destroy British society.

logdon

Mark
June 9th, 2009 4:23pm

Perhaps Martin and Logdon will tell us all if those Germans who voted for the Nazis in the 1930s are similarly excused from any personal responsibility?

All of them? Heard of the White Rose?

You obviously have a pre-ordained answer. Sorry not to oblige, I didn't vote BNP nor would I but plenty did in the hundreds of thousands.

Turning your question around, are they all Nazis?

Sisi

Could Jacqui Not have "banned" the BNP as she did our Dutch MP Wilders from even entering Britain?1
How ironic especially as Wilders is nowhere near the "far-right'as also his own Father is German who escaped the Nazi's so traumatised he never set foot in that country again for 40 years. Wilders has admitted there is possible Jewish blood in his ancestry and is very pro-Israel having lived and worked there and witnessed first hand the Arab hatred of Jews.
BNP is dangerous , anti-semitic and can spin out of control if given the awful chance, but should be a wake-up call to the other parties they are out of touch with the people and need to radically change their policies

Bailey

'Anyone who objects to multi-culturalism is called a bigot; anyone who wants to curb immigration is called a racist; anyone who objects to the Islamisation of Britain is called an Islamophobe; anyone who wants to leave the EU and regain the power of national self-government is called a xenophobe; anyone, in short, who wants to retain Britain’s national identity rooted in the shared particulars of religion, law, history, traditions and culture and its powers as a self-governing nation finds themselves ostracised as a pariah.'

It is not only ostracism the left inflicts upon the people of Europe and America.

They literally expect people to accept the invasion of their country and participate in their own extinction.

It is ludicrous situation. I for one will not be intimidated or fearful of labels any longer.

In fact I have come up with my own label for leftists and the politicians who succomb to their PC ideals....

TRAITORS

comprehensive boy

I have a sister who lives in Dubai. She and her familiy are essentially economic migrants from the UK. The Dubaians guard their pre-eminance in the kingdom jealously as far as I can tell for instance my sister gave birth there but my nephew did not gain citizenship thereby. I think she regards this as all perfectly reasonable of them. Funny old world.

Martin

Re Nazi voters.
Germany was humiliated after WW1 & was ready,
after the Crash of 1929,for an aggressive nationalist party to restore some sort of national pride. Otherwise, they feared ,1922/3 would
have been rerun. The Nazis were the most organized & best marketed of such groups, the rest is history. Millions of Germans did not vote Nazi, & in the early 1930s most who did could not realize quite how vile Nazism was.

Barry Tozer, Poole.

Good blog, Mel. My second favorite read online;)Please, though, can your contributors help me because I'm struggling with something? What, exactly makes the BNP 'Fascists'? I even looked it up in my dictionary but I can't quite see how the label applies. Seeing as Nick Griffen was nearly beaten up for being one today I'd like to understand. Thanks.

Suki

Gareth, June 9th, 2009 7:06pm, indeed! The academics who influenced this Labour government is where they got all this stuff from. As politicians all they had to do was hide their intentions - and didn't they just.

The Labour Party's hatred of the white working class is visceral in its depth.

None of what's happened over the last decade with immigration was 'by chance' - that's why they were so careful no-one ever got wind of it via the manifestos.

Mark

Logdon - you unsurprisingly failanswer my question , which is about the personal responsibility of those who voted BNP. There is a truth in the explanation commonly given that many people feel cut off and adrift from Westminster Politics. But to what degree can anyone who voted BNP claim that they did so unaware of its racist nature? This is an open question. Politicians will avoid at all costs suggesting that these voters bear any kind of individual responsibility for giving their vote to a racist outfit for fear of offending those voters. Me, I'm not so certain.

Oh, and I do of course know about the White Rose -so I suggest any further attempts to patronise me are redundant.

Dixon

Much as I draw delight in the consternation these BNP successes have caused I guess it would be better if the votes theyve received instead went to a genuine alternative such as UKIP.

However, watching that spectacle outside Parliament when they were mobbed and physically assaulted, it is quite apparent who the real "fascists" were. Then one of the "anti fascist" ringleaders appeared on both CH4 news and Newsnight and sealed this impression. I dont know who he was. Had never seen him before. But I have met many of his type, especially at colleges and universities. He was just a thug! left-wing Gauleiter. In fact, on Newsnight I even noticed that he had braces hanging down at his sides like the veritable "Bovver Boy" street-fighters of the Seventies. Frankly, as someone who has experienced a certain amount of anti-semitism myself, I have to say that this "anti-fascist" thug was a far more frightening figure than Nick Griffin or his BNP pals.

Which brings us back to that episode on the green. Where were the police? What is to stop such gangs ( "environmentalists", "animal rights" or other "activists" ) similarly descending on anyone whose politics they dont like...once they've got away with it, as they have.

If I may paraphrase pastor Niemoller: "First they came for the BNP, and noone wanted to stop them, then they came for ministers who supported nuclear power, and noone saved them, then they came for people who drove 4x4s and where were the police.....then they came for us, but by then we were living in a Socialist paradise."

However, who came off looking shiny out of the episode. It must be the most favourable bit of TV coverage the BNP have ever had, to see them mobbed, assaulted, denied free speech, grievously provoked and yet utterly refusing to resort to the kind of violence their shaven headed lads are undoubtedly capable of. The discipline amazed me. I know I could not have contained a reaction.

Florence

If all apologists for the immigration policies of various British governments over the past 50 years are so convinced that unlimited immigration is the way to go then let's have a referendum about it.
Simple really.....it's called "DEMOCRACY".

Florence

P.S.
An Anti BNP person on another blog that I read today actually advised the "blogmaster" (?) to refuse to allow anyone who didn't agree with beating up BNP MEPs to be banned from the blog.
Now then,WHO ARE THE FASCISTS ?

Miranda Rose Smith

Dear Ms. Phillips: Nick Griffin's views may be abominable, but he has a right not have eggs thrown at him. I urge you to use your influential column to denounce the louts who disrupted his speech and threw eggs-the behavior of people who don't believe their ideas speak for temselves and have to terrorize any opposition.

rezav

Well said Melanie!

I've been pushing this line for years.

I put up the following post on CiF yesterday. It received dozens of ‘recommendations’ before the moderators deleted it. A good example of the left’s censorship and denial, which has created the vacuum for nasty outfits like the BNP to fill.

Judge for yourself:-

How ironic that terms like "fascist" and "extremist" are used by those self-declared ‘anti-fascists' we see on CiF.

They're so convinced of their own stubborn, narrow world-view that they really can't see the wood for the trees.

They hector and bully, they censor and deny, they stifle and accuse. And they shout-down and intimidate, sometimes violently, without appreciating that they are every bit as "fascist" and "extremist" as the people they oppose.

Their arrogance has no bounds. They simply dismiss as "racist!" the views of those people in this country who are deeply concerned by third-world mass immigration. Who oppose the creeping Islamification of our society and the ever-increasing appeasement of Muslim demands. Who support the freedom of speech and the right to criticise, insult and even ridicule any religion, historical figure or culture (whilst of course, understanding that they can’t call for violence). Who oppose those who believe that all cultures and religions are somehow morally equivalent.

And who are these people? Well, they're the majority. Those millions of Sun/Mail/Telegraph readers whose views the sanctimonious ‘anti-fascists' dismiss with contempt as, well, "...the views of Sun/Mail/Telegraph readers..."

People who for decades have been bullied, intimidated and legislated into submission by an aggressive, highly motivated and uncompromising political movement.

And against this overwhelming provocation, it is a vindication of the natural decency of the British majority that only a million or so felt desperate or angry enough to vote for another extreme. The BNP.

To self-declared ‘anti-fascists':

Want to see an extremist?

Look in the mirror.

fellow traveller

There have been some odd comments here, with an odd focus on whether the BNP does, or does not, allow Jews to be members. Which it does. Of course, if you were black and jewish and born in the UK, you wouldn't be able to join. Don't know if anyone thinks that's ok?

Comprehensive boy on Dubai:

"The Dubaians guard their pre-eminance in the kingdom jealously as far as I can tell for instance my sister gave birth there but my nephew did not gain citizenship thereby. I think she regards this as all perfectly reasonable of them. Funny old world."

Exactly the same situation as if a couple from the UAE gave birth here. So not as funny as you think - or perhaps not as funny as the BNP might have suggested to you?

Roy

It is so good to see a breath of fresh air and a gleam of light in a long dark tunnel. Already, as if in payment for some democracy put in place, the hurlers of missiles have rebelled at some minor adjustment to the status quo. Truth and little power in the ballot box really upsets some people.

Brad

Spot on! As you Limeys would say. :)

Matt Bregazzi

Rezav -

Well said, my sentiments exactly. One of the things I hate the most is double standards, and lefties are full of them - using fascist tactics against fascists is a prime example.

I read that the leader of Unite Against Fascism declared that he "supports free speech, except for the BNP". Well I'm sorry, but democracy just doesn't work like that. To sensor people, smear their names, assault them and vandalise their property because of their political opinions IS FASCIST.

Also, where were these protesters when pro-Hamas groups were marching through London, demanding the extermination of international jewry? Oh, that's right, I forgot - they're Muslims, so they can't be racist or fascist, can they?

As Melanie said, as long as the major political parties fail to address a massive concern for voters and instead choose to sweep the issue under the carpet and label them all 'racists' or angry about the expenses scandal, the more votes the BNP will attract.

Jose A. Garcia

There was a reason our collective forefathers kept the fanatical mohammedans from immigrating en masse into western europe.

But we are enamored with the cult of "new." Whatever actions took place in generations past were obviously ill informed, racist and misguided, eh? Not so much, I say.

Western civilization is handed down to us across the wide seas of time. It is ours to wreck or exalt as we see fit. Wouldn't it be wise to immitate those who had the most success with it? The template is there, we must simpy follow it.

Or not, at our own expense.

logdon

Dixon
June 10th, 2009 1:17am

If I may paraphrase pastor Niemoller: "First they came for the BNP, and no one wanted to stop them, then they came for ministers who supported nuclear power, and no one saved them, then they came for people who drove 4x4s and where were the police.....then they came for us, but by then we were living in a Socialist paradise."

Excellent! I've seen so many mangled and lumpen versions of the warning from history, but this one really transforms Pastor Niemoller's wisdom into real relevance, not forgetting humour.

Those self indulgent dour as ditchwater lefties actually do believe that god is on their side. That any means justifies their undemocratic and warped ends.

Listening to all the excuses for the egg pelting was akin to entering a parallel universe where the rules favoured one side only. Where their appallingly smug self righteousness excused violence and intolerance merely because it was their violence and intolerance.

Imagine if those BNP people had invaded a Muslim street meeting, hurling eggs and insults? How long before plod whisked them away?

That is the whole point. If democracy has any meaning no group should be above another.

To talk of BNP fascism whilst allowing Islamist mobs to parade banners urging gruesome ends to all non believers is ludicrous, yet those bearded hordes did not suffer the ignomony of flying projectiles. The boys in blue certainly ensured their safety on that day of national shame and infamy. Where were they yesterday?

Alaji

Fellow traveller, those oil rich middle Eastern countries don't even give citizenship, permission to work, housing estates or free schools to the muslim immigrants who live there, I also think the massive muslim immigrants who been invading Northern Europe for the last few years are the ones who use to live middle east countries where they don't have state benefit system for the foreigners and of course they don't have easy ride like Britain or Sweden, I don't understand why some people can respect and give something back to the western countries who took them and give them jobs, homes, schools etc?

fellow traveller

alaji

You don't get state benefits here either until you have unlimited leave to remain, which, for someone from the Emirates, would be just about impossible to get unless he or she was in one of very few job categories where we still need highly skilled immigrants, or had been married to a someone who does have leave to remain and had been cohabiting with that person in the UK for at least two years.

But I don't know what they do in Sweden.

Pragmatist

How true Melanie after all the NAZI;s were the National SOCIALIST German WORKERS Party a fact which 'neolib' left wingers seem so anxious that everyone forget. In fact along with Socialist Hitler the other two genocidal giants of the 20th Century were also left wing SOCIALISTS. I am of course referring to Mao and Stalin. But the Moonbats persist in trying to blame every evil in the world on the right.

Richard

The Nazis were called National Socialists as propagnda to trick the working class into voting for them. Once Hitler was in, he turned on them, abolishing such leftist things as trade unions and the right to strike.

Interesting also that you choose to reference a book entitled "Neither Right Nor Left" in your argument that fascism is on the left.

George W.

This is by far the best analysis of this subject that I have come across.

One minor point - I understand that the BNP does have Jewish members.

Finsterlohr

For years, the extreme left in Britain has been nourishing a client foreign population to replace the natives. Its efforts to destroy traditional English civilization have succeeded brilliantly.

And if now, in the inevitable reflux, the BNP can do some dirty but needful work contributary to breaking the citadels of the lunatic British nomenklatura, then more power to them. They're simply attempting to destroy that by which they are being destroyed.

Paleo

Well, the BNP are Nazis in the sense of National Socialists...

Roy

Well said Finsterlohr, they are serving a purpose long overdue in the scheme of thing.