Could the BNP determine who wins the general election?
Dear Nick Griffin,
By your standards you’ve had a relatively quiet few months after your dismal appearance on Question Time back in October. However, this does not mean that your party has become irrelevant for the general election. Rumour has it that you will attempt to capitalise on disillusionment with both Labour and the Conservatives over the expenses and lobbying scandals by appealing to the middle-classes as well as the white working class to support the chase for your first MP. The question is: will it work?
The BNP’s legal officer, Lee Barnes, in an article sent to activists, claims the BNP has “won over” the white working class and that it is now time to use “propaganda” to reach out to a wider circle of voters, suggesting that the court defeat inflicted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over your ban on non-white members might have triggered a new campaign strategy that moves away from race to broader issues of class. Your top target seats remain the working-class constituencies of Stoke Central and Barking, although last year a BNP candidate won a shock victory in a council seat in Sevenoaks, Kent - the heart of Middle England. You are now fielding 300 candidates at the general election, expected on 6th May, and more than 1,000 in the local elections on the same day. In his article, Lee Barnes dismissed the “smug, selfish, apathetic, politically correct parents” of middle-class voters, but said it was time to appeal to the next generation who are under 45. He claimed this group were suffering “racial discrimination” when applying for university places, adding: “As a result of the Equality Commission case we must now refocus our propaganda on a new front – that of the Nationalist Classless Society and the creation of a meritocracy as opposed to the racist multi-cultural system. Even though we have failed to market ourselves properly to the White Working Class we have won them over. But we must now also reach out [to] the children of the White Liberal Middle Class and White Tory Middle Class and explain to them how mass immigration, New Labour and Cameron’s Tories and multiculturalism have betrayed them.”
Strong stuff, but then again it always is with the BNP. The rent-a-quote anti-BNP brigade were, naturally, wheeled out in response to this story. A spokesman for Searchlight, the anti-fascist organisation, said: “This is an indication of Nick Griffin’s desperation as he is unable to break through to the extent he had hoped following the European elections and he is casting around for a new strategy. This will inevitably increase divisions within the BNP which have already been created by his disastrous Question Time performance and his defeat at the hands of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.” Eh? I would have thought you’d be bloody delighted at getting two MEPs elected and, seeing as every other party is trying to appeal to Middle England during the election season, I see no reason why you shouldn’t do it too. In fact, I would recommend it given the recent advances that your party has made. I doubt that you will gain your first MP on May 6th, although I expect you to come closer than you have come before. However, you can still hurt the main parties – particularly Labour – in some of their traditionally strong areas, and with a national swing already suggesting that Labour might lose a noticeable proportion of their 2005 voters, you should certainly be looking to capitalise.
It is worth remembering that the European elections gave a very false impression of general election voting patterns, particularly with UKIP votes now moving back to the Conservatives. Even so, a campaign strategy aimed at the middle-class could help make inroads into the share of the vote held by the major parties. Personally, I think this strategy needed to start back in June last year off the back of your European success if you really wanted to give yourself a fighting chance of ramming your messages home to middle-class voters, but I still think you could make life very uncomfortable for a few Labour MPs in just a few weeks time.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
I still think they could cost Labour a few marginals up North. And I’d really, really, enjoy seeing Hodge lose to Griffin as would most people familiar with her time in Islington.
The BNP are not a threat to the Tories or even really the Liberals – they are old fashioned, traditional, hard-left communists with a thick (in many senses) coating of racism. If there are two parties I trust less with the economy than Labour, it’s the BNP and the Greens, both of whom want to trim our population and both of whom want to nationalise/collectivise our economy.
Hmmm, will be interesting to see if the BNP are strong in any LD/LAB marginals because that could really hurt Labour.
“The BNP’s legal officer, Lee Barnes, in an article sent to activists, claims the BNP has “won over” the white working class and that it is now time to use “propaganda” to reach out to a wider circle of voters…”
Any middle-class voters who Google his name and get directed to ‘Harry’s Place’, where he makes regular appearances in the comments, are in for a real treat!
Shaun Pilkington:“If there are two parties I trust less with the economy than Labour, it’s the BNP and the Greens…”
Seconded!
I don’t support the BNP but if push came to shove and the best way of removing a sitting Labour MP would be to vote BNP I’d hold my nose and do it. Labour deserve punishing for the last 13 years and I don’t really care who dishes it out. I’d quite like to see the BNP do well in Labour constituencies which have borne the brunt of the 3rd world immigration Labour foisted on the country without so much as a by your leave.
Fortunately I live in a safe Tory Constituency.
I thought Griffin did well on newsnight all things considered, and so do a lot of voters who are never asked their opinions on anything by politicians.The best bit was when he reminded straw that his father sat in a prison cell for the duration of the war.I’ll never forget the look on Straw’s and Dumbley’s faces. classic and good entertainment.
I definitely wouldn’t rely my “hopes and expectations” on the results of the European elections. In my country, a party won the E. elections and then three months after lost the general elections.
Boudicca,
you may have hit on a strategy/slogan for the BNP to maximise their votes:
“You know we won’t win
so vote for us and
give Labour a good kicking.”
Could be awfully tempting.
Julia, maybe we could tempt Lee over to this blog to see how he deals with you and Shaun?!
Boudicca, the anonymity of the ballot box can be a powerful tool for change…
Tally, Straw was appalling too and I thought Warsi was pretty useless as well. Even so, it was an unedifying spectacle.
D, the European elections are a strange affair in the UK. The BNP deserved the votes that they got but winning an MP’s seat is a very different matter.
I am to far to the right to consider the voting nonsense,
but most of my Tory friends seem to be attracted to the BNP
thanks to Bolshy Dave. One elderly blue rinser(84) reckons
Dave is more Trot than Brown.
Imagine , a Labour/SNP/Plaid Cymru/LibDem Coalition
Where’s my passport?
Dont Tories listen to the grass roots any more?
“Dont Tories listen to the grass roots any more?”
That will need a whole new comment section to discuss that one! Generally, people fall into two camps: those who think Cameron is just saying lots of nice things before an election but will turn more conservative once elected, and those who think Cameron is just not a conservative. Take your pick.
I’ve sometimes wondered how the polls are affected by the media demonisation of the fringe parties. How many people, when asked by a pollster who they will be voting for reply: “Well I certainly won’t be voting for those nasty nazis. No, I’ll be voting Labour like I always have! Definitly! Honest!”
And I wonder if the same phenomonen applies to UKIP, but to a lesser extent. And the reverse might apply to the Greens.
Me? I’ll be voting UKIP, or Raving Loony, or anyone who doesn’t support the continuing self-destruction of Western Civilisation.
“We don’t support the continuing self-destruction of Western Civilisation.”
*sigh*
Could have been such a catchy election slogan for one of the big three parties. Bonus points for irony if Labour had used it.
“That will need a whole new comment section to discuss that one! Generally, people fall into two camps: those who think Cameron is just saying lots of nice things before an election but will turn more conservative once elected, and those who think Cameron is just not a conservative. Take your pick”.
LFAT. It would be nice to know which one is true. If he is just keeping quiet until elected and then plans to let all hell break loose, then I would continue voting Tory but if things aren’t going to change, I’m sticking with UKIP!
Much depends on whether he tells the truth!
NOTHING more can be said about the severe consequences of unceasing illegal immigration to the United States. Now its up to the American people to decide their fate? However, for all those Americans who have not come to grips with the invasion and the occupation of their country, you should investigate and read about the building firestorm in Europe; as an example the British Islands. The United Kingdom, unlike the United States was not made by immigrants, but has its own indigenous people. Over many decades both the Labor and Conservative parties have opened the door to immigrants and now the British/English people are fighting for financial survival?
Surf the Internet and learn from the British or European blogs and the Independent press of the downfall of a great heritage, as its people are being prioritized to the back of the line. Like America, Europe is being overrun by foreign cultures, foreign languages and the governments have done–NOTHING? IS this–NOT–a reflection of America today? 80 percent of the British people want an embargo on all immigration or halted altogether. Even in the huge expanse of European countries, are now drowned in both legal and illegal immigration crisis. which is turning benevolent people into angry crowds. This will eventually will turn to violence as the only entities who see immigration as a wonderful virtue are the promoters of greed, gain and profit. I am an American but I donated money to the BNP, because United Kingdom has fallen under the spell of the Globalist system of government.