Loading ...Hope Not Hate misses the point
The words of warning etched into the wall at the exit of the Imperial War Museum’s Holocaust exhibition are “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.
Words more apt for Britain in 2009 would be: “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for Labour politicians to care more about their own careers than the concerns of ordinary people”.
At the 1992 general election, the British National Party, occupying their natural place in British politics, polled 1000 votes less than the Monster Raving Loony Party.
New Labour came into being in 1994 introducing Thatcherite free-marketeering policies with a Socialist facade with Tony Blair, an outrageously talented orator as the pied piper in chief.
In 2009, after a disastrous pre-emptive war against Iraq, the introduction of top-up fees, a ruined economy and the expenses scandal it is plain to see that the electorate feels betrayed by New Labour and huge numbers are turning to Nick Griffin. We’re staring into the abyss.
The BNP are on the verge of representing Britain at the European parliament in Brussels. It’s a spine-chilling prospect.
A party whose past members include the mass murdering nail bomber David Copeland, a party who counts amongst its number Nick Eriksen who said during the mayoral election: “Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal… [It] is like suggesting forcefeeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence.”
People like this representing Britain? Britain which is supposed to be one of the most liberal, tolerant and civilised nations on Earth? It’s shameful, it’s depressing, it’s a disaster.
It is happening because the electorate feels let down by Labour. Who is to blame? Tony Blair for bringing about ideologically bankrupt politics based on spin and PR, now cynically copied by Cameron’s opposition?
Gordon Brown for not regulating The City, who’s amoral accounting and selfish greed has helped quicken the country’s descent into recession?
The parliamentary Labour Party for being enamoured with big business and not questioning their own dazzling leaders?
Answer? All of the above.
You could also point your finger at Wes Streeting member of Labour students and as President of the NUS, the most influential member of the student movement in Britain.
The BNP are playing on people’s fears that a University education is unaffordable and are peddling the abolition of tuition fees, introduced by New Labour. It will win them votes.
For those recently returned from Mars, yes, a ‘left-wing’ government introduced tuition fees. How did this happen? Surely the NUS fought tooth and nail to defeat it?
Well, not quite. In May 2007, whilst Streeting was Vice President of the NUS, Gordon Brown launched his bid for the labour leadership. Brown, as chancellor, was a known supporter of top-up fees.
Both the candidates he was running against supported the abolition of top-up fees. Surely Wes, with the best interests of students at heart, backed one of them?
Quite the opposite, Streeting, who is often accused of using the NUS as a stepping stone to becoming a Labour MP, knew better than to offend the bad tempered, most powerful man in the Labour Party.
Even more troubling, a London Student reporter saw Streeting at Gordon Brown’s launch rally. Well, not just attending the rally but clipboard in hand, working for Gordon Brown, advancing his own career at the cost of saddling future students with astronomical debt.
Perhaps the most cynical example of Wes backing a failed Labour government is him giving his support to Searchlight’s Hope Not Hate Campaign, a glitzy anti-fascist campaign that ignores the fact that the reason the BNP are increasing in popularity is not because vast swathes of the population have become racist overnight, it is that they have become disenchanted with presentation-driven politics and expense fiddling politicians.
Hope not Hate might convince a few people not to vote for the BNP. Filling British political life with less self-serving, less careerist politicians would send them back into the political wilderness.
Of course, fighting the BNP wherever possible is important, but surely it is better to kill the weed at its root instead of trying to trim the leaves? Would Wes’ and Searchlight’s time not be better spent putting pressure on his Labour colleagues to apologise for having failed the electorate? And convincing them that apologies should be followed by profound change?
Certainly aesthetically, The Hope not Hate video screened at the NUS conference is depressingly New Labour, an example of how the established left would rather court celebrity than fight the root causes of this new fascist menace.
Of all Britain’s articulate anti-fascists the video features The Kooks, who’s words of wisdom were you shouldn’t vote BNP because “errr that’s the only way to be” Not exactly Martin Luther King is it?
Is this supposed to appeal to young people? It’s patronising in the extreme.
The video certainly seems to have been organised by Labour activists. The presence of Labour party member Eddie Izzard is the first clue, the ‘random’ students interviewed conclusive proof.
Yes Paul Riley is a UCL student but he was UCL Labour president 2008/9. Shani Gray? She’s a student too, but coincidentally also UCL Labour President 2009/2010. More slick presentation from the party that brought you war-launching Dodgy dossiers. Still, Riley and Gray sound more convincing than Wes’s scripted bleatings.
It is likely Labour will be obliterated at the next general election and there certainly won’t be a seat for Wes. In a strange way you have to feel sorry for him. All these years spent toeing the party line with dog-like obedience and all the class of a used car salesman. He would have made the consummate New Labour MP.
I don’t think anyone, including Hope Not Hate, would deny that there is a malaise in British politics and the reasons for it. People have a right to protest against the system and there are plenty of parties to choose from in the European Parliament elections. The danger is that letting the BNP in as a protest against the mainstream will cause another set of problems. If you want to see the results, do some research on the anti-Muslim riots in Luton at the weekend and see the face of the BNP’s Britain. BNP leader Nick Griffin has said that “rights for whites will be defended by well-directed boots and fists.” And despite this recent thin veneer of respectability, that is exactly what is happening and will continue to happen.
For those of us that face the BNP in our communities, and the associated racist harassment and violence, Hope Not Hate helps local activists with the tools to fight the extremists who seek to divide our communities and turn people against each other. It does the research, it helps with leafletting and it is a nexus for grassroots anti-fascist activism – and people from across the spectrum are involved. I have misgivings about some aspects of it – namely the counter-productive ‘no platform’ policy – but on the whole, we are all on the same side.
I would like to invite William Wilkes to participate in anti-fascist activism and speak with those who are beating back the extremists in their community.
To poster #1 “Epping Forest BNP Watch” — “If you want to see the results, do some research on the anti-Muslim riots in Luton at the weekend and see the face of the BNP’s Britain.” — I suggest you check your sources before you start spouting unsubstantiated nonsense. There is not a single news source at all anywhere that states that the BNP had anything whatsoever to do with the Luton riots. I lay an outright challenge to you (or anyone else for that matter) to prove me wrong, supply some links to back up what you say or retract your completely misguided statement.
(And no, I’m not a BNP supporter, but that still doesn’t mean I feel the urge to make stuff up about them)
I didn’t say they actively organised it, I said this is what happens when the BNP is not challenged and defeated. Recent weeks have seen the BNP actively whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment in Luton, which has culminated in a bomb attack on a Luton mosque and these anti-Asian/anti-Muslim riots. It is naive to suggest that these violent actions have absolutely no connection to the BNP’s presence in that town, even if Nick Griffin did not himself direct the thugs.
Websites don’t just naturally acquire dofollowed, high pagerank links. If you have good content, which people want to link to, you’re going to be getting links from a wide variety of sources – dofollowed and nofollowed blogs, social bookmarking sites, social media sites etc.
When “BNP leader Nick Griffin has said that “rights for whites will be defended by well-directed boots and fists.” ” he was referring to BNP members defending themselves from the violent activities of UAF and oufits like the so called “Epping Forest BNP Watch”, not against ordinary people. As for “Would Wes’ and Searchlight’s time not be better spent putting pressure on his Labour colleagues to apologise for having failed the electorate? And convincing them that apologies should be followed by profound change?” – no, they realise that mass immigration, politically correct indoctrination in schools, homosexual rights and other disruptive dogmas are on their and Labour’s agenda to ruin our country. They won’t drop that. Only the BNP will – and they know it. Anyway, I really shouldn’t intrude in private grief.
I do agree that this kind of thing would be more common if the BNP were unchallenged; however I think it plain paranoia to associate every act of thuggery to the BNP, as if you do this you become like the boy who cried wolf and no one will take you seriously when the real threat is there.
I also find it hard to believe that none of the main stream news sources have managed to pick up on the BNP link, especially as there’s nothing they like more than a bit of well placed Nazi bashing, especially around election time.
Do you not think it possible, if not more likely, that it actually started out as a march of outraged people some of which developed a violent mob mentality and went on a rampage?
“Do you not think it possible, if not more likely, that it actually started out as a march of outraged people some of which developed a violent mob mentality and went on a rampage?”
No, it was organised violence. The march was prepared in advance and the thugs turned up with matching balaclavas. The evidence from social networking groups and various websites suggests that football hooligans and extremists combined their efforts. But for weeks beforehand, Luton had been subjected to a relentless BNP campaign to stir up animosity towards the town’s Muslim population, who it has termed “invaders”. After parking their “truth truck” outside a mosque in Luton in an attempt to inflame the Muslim community, a BNP spokesman said: “We have let them know that this is our country, even if they have colonised Luton. We intend to take our country back, and will not stop until this goal is achieved!” (http://bnp.org.uk/2009/03/bnp%E2%80%99s-truth-truck-faces-down-islamist-extremists-in-luton/)
How do they intend to “take our country back”? BNP leader Nick Griffin has gone on the record saying that his party will “defend rights for whites with well-directed boots and fists.” I put it to you that the Luton riot is exactly what the BNP is trying to incite, even if the BNP – which now has a virtual monopoly on far-right activism – was not active in staging it.
Joan Walters, I think you are being a little deceitful. Griffin mentioned nothing about anti-fascist organisations in his comments. Here is the full quote and I’ll leave it to others to decide what he meant: “The electors of Millwall did not back a postmodernist rightist party, but what they perceived to be a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan ‘Defend Rights for Whites’ with well-directed boots and fists. When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate.”
Epping BNP- Do you believe everyone who votes BNP is rascist? Or do they do it because they feel misrepresented? Who is to blame for that?
“Do you believe everyone who votes BNP is rascist?”
No, I don’t.
“Or do they do it because they feel misrepresented? Who is to blame for that?”
No doubt that disillusionment with the political system is driving protest votes for the BNP. But the BNP is not the solution. It is not simply a racist party (the antisemitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Black hatred of Nick Griffin and other leading members is on the record). It is a fascist party that seeks to deny non-white people jobs and expel them from the country, regardless of whether they were born here or not. The party’s own internal mechanisms are totalitarian and its leadership has a free reign over expenditure (and the party’s deficiencies in accounting are raising concerns within the Electoral Commission). A totalitarian party that lacks transparency is not the answer for a public that complains of a nanny state and the corruption of the political class! Anti-fascist groups like Hope Not Hate are trying to put that message across, but it is not their role to tell people the alternative – that’s the role of electoral politics and civil society.
If you want change, then you should vote for something not against it. If you want politicians to be brought to account, then you have to do it yourself. If you want the system to work for you, then you have to make an effort. Voting BNP won’t change anything but cause more grief. The problems with the political system have arisen out of apathy. If you’re angry, then do something – don’t waste your vote on a dangerous group like the BNP.
So the root cause is apathy… Why do you think people are apathetic?
The BNP does not aim to establish a one party state, it is not totalitarian, it therefore cannot truthfully be called ‘Fascist’ but hysterical ‘we can’t get enough immigrants’ leftists and liberals like to spit this dubious insult to make themselves feel worthy and close down all rigorous debate. The BNP does not propose racial domination or advocate racial supremacy, therefore for rejecting mass immigration it will not only be called ‘racist’ but also , quite ridiculously, ‘nazi’ by same silly leftist liberals.
Yes, some of their people have said some daft and unsavoury things in the past and held particular opinions – but is it reasonable or fair to allow that anyone’s political views can alter unless you happen to be a member of the BNP. Has anyone stopped to think of all the fruitcakes and criminals who have passed through ( and in some case remain)in the other political parties?
“it reasonable or fair to allow that anyone’s political views can alter unless you happen to be a member of the BNP”
You could argue that if there had been a fundamental change in an individual, but an entire party set up and led by those who, just a couple of years ago, were denying the Holocaust and quoting Hitler (Nick Griffin, Richard Edmonds, etc) doesn’t simply have a complete and radical lurch into the mainstream. It has not, for instance, removed the requirement from its constitution that bars non-white British citizens from joining. It wants to repeal all anti-discrimination legislation and advocates jobs first for those it deems “ethnically British”, ie non-whites will be denied jobs. It wants the “voluntary repatriation” of non-white people, presumably assisted by the “boots and fists” Griffin wants to employ and possibly using the violent ex-cons he has in his ranks.
The BNP is a neo-Nazi party, proven by its pledge to create a European grouping that includes other racist, totalitarian groups that include Forza Nuova, an Italian fascist group led by Griffin’s old friend, the terrorist Roberto Fiore who has convicted for his involvement in the Bologna massacre. Fiore and BNP deputy leader Simon Darby spoke together at a recent meeting of European far-right groups, including France’s National Front where they were met with Nazi salutes. The BNP is also in alliance with European antisemitic groups such as Hungary’s Jobbik and the anti-Muslim, anti-Roma Czech National Party.
Anybody who denies the fact that the BNP is neo-Nazi does not have the full facts, is deluded or is an apologist hiding the truth. No good will come of a protest vote for the BNP. There are many other parties to choose from at the election – UKIP also has a strong stance on immigration that is not racist. And politics is not confined to electoralism. If you are angry, then do something.
The BNP may well wish to allign itself in the E.U parliament with parties like Forza Nuova but this is pragmatic as much as ideological – there is agreement and there are differences. The BNP is not totalitarian in its’ constitution or its wider political aims, whatever the other parties may be.
The Holocaust is often employed as a moral stick with which to impose multi-culturalism upon the population in whom it is instilled ,by the leftist intelligentsia, that if they wish to maintain their country as being predominantly for its indigenous people then they are morally culpable for the Holocaust! It is this intellectually and morally qestionable ruse that has driven ethno-nationalists in the past to fall into the trap of Holocaust denial, rather than necessarily wanting to do a whitewash on Hitler. We are never reminded that utopian leftist notions of ‘equality’ have resulted in mass murder.
Affirming ethno-cultural identity as the BNP does is not in itself totalitarian neither is it racial supremacist (nazi) in tone or intent.
P.S the famous Mark Collet programme ‘Young, Nazi and Proud’ shows him praising Churchill,Stalin AND Hitler. Make of that what you will.
Epping BNP – the attacks on Muslims in Luton were a direct response to Muslims openly abusing soldiers of 1 R Anglians returning from Iraq, by waving placards branding them “baby killers” and “cowards”, and the police being seen to openly condone these extremists’ actions by failing to move them on.
I suggest your attempt to link the entirely natural reaction to the authorities’ inability to act to some form of BNP activism is tenuous at best and deliberately disingenuous at worst. Don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt that the BNP tried to exploit the situation as it developed, but to brand an understandable popular reaction as being a direct result of extreme politics undermines your own credibility and brings your motives into question.
Incidentally, you’ll find the BNP are alarmingly left-wing. The old “nazi” label simply doesn’t ring true in areas of their policies andd reduces the opportunity for debate to expose them as the idiots they really are.
Most BNP supporters clearly are racist,anyone disillusioned with the 3 main parties could vote and support UKIP or the english democrats(2 right wing anti eu,anti immigration but not racist parties),but they don’t because race obviously IS the major factor in their/your voting intent.
I shouldn’t worry too much. Hope not Hate and all these other groups will be largely redundant in twenty years time. As for UKIP they are just another establishment party who will let immigrants in. They haven’t done very much since 1999 have they? But it doesn’t affect me anyway, I’m making money from the immigrant boom.
Brits will be an ethnic minority in every UK city by 2025, so anyone who argues against the implementation of the new culture may as well stop!Luckily, most of the new immigrants are coming in from places such as Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan and they take a less tolerant view of the evils of this society.
Keep going with the campaign to outlaw the BNP, chaps, I really hope you are successful and I am supportive of your efforts. I’m planning on a new venture to establish an ethnic minority housing iniatiative in the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District, and the more anti-racism voices that can be heard, the better as it’s helping me in my quest to make a lot of money. Thanks chaps!
Why is fighting the BNP wherever possible important? You mean in an undemocratic way like through media slurs, misinformation and ABH.Why not fight them democratically, without the need for slurs and violence…or is that too democratic?I might just vote for them, at least they give a damn about what is happening in the UK.