The BNP’s Easter message + UKIP and the BNP – What’s the Difference?
Two interesting articles relating to the BNP today. The first comes from Symon Hill over at Ekklesia:
Turning on my radio on Saturday, I heard ranting right-wing rhetoric and a demand for a freeze on immigration. I could easily have mistaken the speaker for a member of the British National Party (BNP). But it turned out to be a report on the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which came second in last year’s European elections and hopes to gain seats at Westminster.
So what’s the difference between the BNP and UKIP? The BNP is described as far-right, racist, fascist. It’s regarded as beyond the pale and many politicians refuse to share platforms with its members.
UKIP is seen as basically mainstream. It may be regarded as firmly right-wing and perhaps a bit wacky, but its members are not treated as pariahs. UKIP representatives regularly appear on BBC Question Time without demonstrations or record viewing figures.
As I considered this, I knew that my dislike for both parties might have led me to overestimate the similarities between them. So I decided to compare their policies. And I found that I had in fact underestimated their similarities. On most issues, the policies of UKIP and the BNP are largely indistinguishable.
As I was ruminating on this article, serendipity struck and the BNP released the following:
The second article comes from George Pitcher over at the Telegraph:
A charming and peaceful Easter message from Nick Griffin, the visionary powerhouse who runs the BNP, arrives on my desk. As an illustration for the most important festival in the Christian calendar, I rather expected the BNP’s creative geniuses to come up with a white chocolate egg, or a pagan attack bunny with St George’s cross.
But no. Old Nick’s epistle has an etching (though they probably think it’s a photograph) of “English king Richard the Lionheart holding back the Muslim tide at the Battle of Acre in the Middle East in the 12th century.”
As a political model, I rather suggest the Coeur de Lion leaves something to be desired. The BNP’s bovines are always eager to circulate videos of Muslim beheadings: They should know that, after the siege of Acre, Richard decapitated 2,700 Muslim prisoners.
Still, it’s this model of militant Christianity that the BNP wants to adopt over the Easter weekend: “Only the Nationalist parties of Europe, such as the British National Party, celebrate the legacy of the Christian heroes such as Richard the Lionheart and Edward I, both English kings who led Crusades,” raves Nick. “No other political party wants to preserve Britain as a Christian state!” he foams, referring to the forthcoming manifesto commitments of Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to dis-establish the Church of England (hint for BNP members: That last bit isn’t true).
Getting into his oratorical stride, Nick nearly bursts a blood vessel: “We will fight to the bitter end, just like our Crusader ancestors, to preserve our Christian culture and heritage. The spirit of the Medieval Knights lives on in all of us!” (Historical note for Nick: Richard didn’t fight “to the bitter end”, but beetled off back to Blighty when he heard John was usurping the throne – except he got arrested in Vienna).
And the worst “outrage” that Nick can summon up of Muslim oppression of our Christian heritage? A Yorkshire school with a large Muslim student population “banned” its traditional Easter Bonnet parade (perhaps they went to church instead). Finally, Nick concludes his epic rallying cry with the words “Have a happy Easter and God bless”, which is a bit like Hitler finishing off at Nuremberg with “Don’t catch cold now.”
But what also catches my eye is that in referring to “Britain…being colonised by hordes of Muslim immigrants”, Nick says that “some areas are now ‘no-go’ areas for Christians.”
Tags: Politics
March 25th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Hum. You just wait until you find your wages dropping because employers can bring in cheap labour from India at a fraction of the price, thereby boosting their profits. It’s no fun at all trying to compete with people on what to us are starvation wages, and to them are unimaginable riches.
That’s the issue, and it’s already biting worst in the Northern towns. Do you think all those Polish plumbers were any help to them?
The rubbish about “Nazi” is just a smokescreen, and a distraction from the real issue. Hitler got his votes when times were hard and the main parties ignored the concerns of the electorate. That is what is happening again, and for the same reasons, and it will have the same results.
And the policy of the establishment? To try to make legal protest votes impossible, sit on the pressure cooker and clamp the lid tight. Result: every few weeks we learn of yet another youth from the North building nail bombs. Sooner or later one of them will get it right.
It’s got to crack. The longer we sit on the lid, the more violent the explosion will be.
And … in a democracy, don’t we LISTEN to the people, rather than lecture them? Don’t we? If the main parties hadn’t conspired among themselves to ensure that no debate on immigration was possible, there would be no BNP.
March 26th, 2010 at 11:18 am
The Pitcher article seems to be based on the 2009 Easter letter from NG – or are they so lazy they send the same letter every year?
March 26th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Dear webmaster, why quite so many posts on the BNP? It’s depressing. And it’s not as though there aren’t lots of other stories.
Apparently one in five Americans think Barack Obama is the AntiChrist. I’m agog. Are they mad?
Or the inspiring story of “A sub-postmaster who defrauded Royal Mail of £28,000 so that he could keep his shop afloat has been spared jail after a judge heard how villagers rallied round to help him to repay the stolen money. ”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7076690.ece
Does your heart good. I know controversy’s essential to keep things lively, but it’s refreshing to dwell on the uplifting aspects of life.
March 26th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Hi Sophie. You are right. Ironically I saw this comment as a posted a new one about the BNP. Perhaps a sign eh.
March 26th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Didn’t mean to be critical. You do an amazing job, and with such good humour.
March 26th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
No Sophie, a bit of constructive criticism doesn’t hurt at all, especially from such a valued contributor.
March 28th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
@Webmaster,
Be advised to look both to the left and the right when you cross a dangerous road and do not forget there are some scary people on the island in the middle.
March 29th, 2010 at 7:18 am
Well said. And isn’t it strange how the far left and right, seem to morph into one another. They have an extremely close symbiotic relationship. One couldn’t survive without the other.
And yes the “fence dwellers” are sometimes no better.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
My dad used to explain it to me that the left and the right don’t actually go off in different directions, but that – as in our planet – they meet at the back.