Brits Voting "Nazi"

[Senshi1]

First off, ignore that thread title - it was a shameless attempt to get more hits.

I'd also like to point out, to save my own neck, that I seldom talk politics, don't "do" debates, and will not attempt to flame anybody in this thread.

HOWEVER.

I heard recently that many Brits have been tempted to vote for Nazis. I (tried to) read up on this a little bit, and found that it's not actually Nazis at all, but the BNP (British National Party) - a party who have known ties with Nazism, who are constantly campaigned against by many people, and whose goal is to remove all ethnic minorities from the UK.

There are a few articles about this here:

http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin...&tab=news&edition=d&q=bnp&go.x=0&go.y=0&go=go

These two in particular focus on the BNP's growing influence:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4913164.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4915096.stm

To quote part of the first of those two articles, "as many as eight out of 10 white families admit they are tempted to vote BNP."


What does everybody think of this? Media exaggeration? A serious threat? A good idea?

I'd be interested to hear what people have to say about this.

EDIT: There's more on the BNP at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_National_Party

 

[august spies]

fascism comes in many forms. of course its never a good idea. the only good fascist is a dead one. the BNP or (national front, national alliance in the us) are at the moment nothing more than pimples on the ass of progress. though in places like russia they are activley involved in killing anti racist activists and in the US members or the national front have mananged to get elected to state positions as members of the republican party. however thanks to the hard work of activists they were exposed. will they ever become a real threat again? i duno? they certainly are qutie functional in capitalism so its not like there will be strong opposition from those in power, but i have a little more faith in modern humanity.

 

[taragohn]

nationalist parties do form a threat to any country

What is in my opinion a bigger threat are the people who do think alike but do not directly admit it. The people who would say "nothing against foreiners, but......"

 

[leenotler]

I have heard Europe is having difficulty with the "guest worker" kind of visas causing populations that are not assimilated into the country.

Homogeneity seems to eliminate conflict because everyone is the same. But it never works, we find ways to be different. Political parties and even religions split into factions.

We split into factions because we feel we must compete. When times are tough, we pull in, find a group to belong to, that will "protect " us by competing with (or shutting out) other groups.

I doubt fascism, even the subtle kind, will succeed since I too have some faith in modern humanity.

 

[Journia]

Man....Looks like my underground bunker is going to come into good use.

 

[Senshi1]

In my opinion, it seems as though many people in the UK don't like how "loose" the immigration laws are, and the BNP are exploiting that. The fact that they only allow whites into their party doesn't tend to come up often.

Oh, and a rumour I heard today (JUST a rumour, mind) is that the BNP are using false addresses to try and get into seats they shouldn't really have, or something like that. So if that's true, they're certainly not playing by the rules.

 

[Cave In1]

Media exaggeration. There are many who people who have views on asylum seekers and immigration, but when told it was a BNP policy many were more restrained in there views. People know this party are bad news. But they may well get a few seats in places like Bradford where racial tension is rife. I don't think they are as big a problem as the media makes out tho. Its just in a few select areas they have a following.

 

[pink_sheep501]

I'm with Cave In on this, it's mostly media exaggeration because there's a local election coming up. There has been a national front in Britain for decades, but they have always been a minority. That's one of the reasons St George's day is played down so much - the only people who openly celebrate it are those with clear nationalistic sentiments and the scouts (for reasons I don't know). The media are looking for another way to get a Tony Blair who despite being in charge of the labout party is easily as right wing as many of the conservatives who are meant to be the opposition. British politics is crazy to start with and it's all flaring up at the moment because Labour and Tony Blair have been in office for so long and change needs to occur.

The newspapers (especially tabloids) target their surveys specifically towards groups in society who are going to say stuff which will sell newspapers and that can be portrayed as a scandal. Sure everyone will have their own views on political issues, but I personally have never met anyone who would even consider voting for a party like the BNP and would never do so myself. The voting system in the uk is so flawed anyway that most votes are wasted unless the current government is under serious threat, which is rarely the case.

Don't believe the hype, the BNP only represent a tiny minority of the few people who can be bothered to go out and vote.

There. Rant over. Phew! 🙂

 

[Killerk]

Unlike the Nazi party in Germany 1933, currently the BNP party hold less than 1% of the vote! They have no power, and to my knowledge, they have not won any local elections.

If they start getting a sizeable chunk of the vote and overtake the Liberal Democrats as the 3rd party, then I think we can start to worry!

 

[pink_sheep501]

Yeah, they're not as successful as in Nazi Germany, but they do have about 20 seats in local government across the uk including in essex and blackburn. There's a small contingent within the student union at my uni which is a bit scary. I suppose it should also be considered that the situation in Germany in the 1930s when the nazi party came to power was markedly different from how things are in the uk now. People always become more politically radical at times of crisis, often because their opinion is all they have left as a weapon against the situation foced upon them.