The Student Room Group

Is the BNP a spent political party?

The BNP's results in the recent local elections were some of their poorest yet: their mayoral candidate came an embarrassing last (after contradicting their key policies on national TV) and their hopes of even a single GLA seat were dashed by a London wide vote of only 2%.

Debt and factionalism plagues the party, despite powerful rhetoric and a plethora of weak excuses for the party's failings. Is the party finally finished and has it been relegated to a mere rag tag collection of cranks and conspiracy theorists?

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Reply 1
I hope so.
Reply 2
This may seem a strange thing to say but I hope the BNP and Nick Griffin keep going. The BNP is pretty pathetic & they have a pathetic leader if they collapse there will be something to replace it. A lot of people are going through tough times and are angry therefore a replacement new far right party could be very appealing to them.
Reply 3
Original post by djj
This may seem a strange thing to say but I hope the BNP and Nick Griffin keep going. The BNP is pretty pathetic & they have a pathetic leader if they collapse there will be something to replace it. A lot of people are going through tough times and are angry therefore a replacement new far right party could be very appealing to them.


Good logic, better the enemy we know than one we don't
Reply 4
For the sake of democracy and genuine public choice I hope not. I see no reason why the white working classes should be denied a voice at the national level.
Reply 5
Original post by djj
The BNP is pretty pathetic & they have a pathetic leader if they collapse there will be something to replace it. A lot of people are going through tough times and are angry therefore a replacement new far right party could be very appealing to them.


Pretty much this.
Original post by chefdave
I see no reason why the white working classes should be denied a voice at the national level.


I'm pretty sure the white working class are in the majority; hence they do have a voice... or at least they would if the media wasn't in the hands of the wealthy.
Reply 7
Original post by chefdave
For the sake of democracy and genuine public choice I hope not. I see no reason why the white working classes should be denied a voice at the national level.


They do have a voice- but the results show us that they don't want that voice to be the BNP.
Original post by Magda1502
They do have a voice- but the results show us that they don't want that voice to be the BNP.
Exactly. People like chefdave need to realise their opinions are in the very small minority. Voting is a completely private event, so it can't be blamed on anybody but the voters.
Reply 9
Original post by whyumadtho
Exactly. People like chefdave need to realise their opinions are in the very small minority. Voting is a completely private event, so it can't be blamed on anybody but the voters.


Except that the powers that be have connived to deny the BNP a level playing field though thus depriving them of the support they may have otherwise won. Look at the fuss made over Griffin's appearance on Question Time for example, that wasn't a 'private' event it was a very public attack on a legitimate political party that have decided to focus on certain pertinent issues. People like yourself need to realise that the systematic supression of the people and views you disagree with is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
Original post by chefdave
Except that the powers that be have connived to deny the BNP a level playing field though thus depriving them of the support they may have otherwise won. Look at the fuss made over Griffin's appearance on Question Time for example, that wasn't a 'private' event it was a very public attack on a legitimate political party that have decided to focus on certain pertinent issues. People like yourself need to realise that the systematic supression of the people and views you disagree with is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
Who doesn't know what the BNP's policies are? The have a website and there are plenty of sympathetic websites where people can discuss their nonsense.

Are you suggesting the prospective voters lack the ability to seek information by themselves?
Reply 11
Original post by whyumadtho
Who doesn't know what the BNP's policies are? The have a website and there are plenty of sympathetic websites where people can discuss their nonsense.

Are you suggesting the prospective voters lack the ability to seek information by themselves?


No, I'm suggesting that the BNP have been subject to a targeted campaign of hate and discrimination that wouldn't be tolerated if they were New Labour for example. At every turn the courts and the media have attempted to deny the BNP a platform and these actions are bound to have a cumulative impact on party morale.

No self respecting nationalist party would put up a South American candidate in an election for control over the country's capital, they chose to do this (imo) because they've had their hands tied and been forced to swallow a certain amount of multi-culturalist dogma.
Reply 12
I hope they still exist, if the British Freedom party took their position then you will see real fascism in the political sphere.
Reply 13
Original post by chefdave
No, I'm suggesting that the BNP have been subject to a targeted campaign of hate and discrimination that wouldn't be tolerated if they were New Labour for example. At every turn the courts and the media have attempted to deny the BNP a platform and these actions are bound to have a cumulative impact on party morale.

No self respecting nationalist party would put up a South American candidate in an election for control over the country's capital, they chose to do this (imo) because they've had their hands tied and been forced to swallow a certain amount of multi-culturalist dogma.


I think that's totally over egging it. All political parties get a hard time by the media- that's the whole point of having an independent media to challenge their viewpoints. Otherwise people could spout any old drivel and have it taken as fact.

The expenses scandal is a prime example- that was a protracted, targeted campaign on exposure against the political mainstream. And rightly so. The BNP complains that it isn't allowed a level playing field with the other parties because it doesn't get any media exposure, but as soon as it is given the exposure, it complains that it portrays it in a negative light (and calls it "hate campaigning").

What it seems to be asking for is the right to espouse all its opinions and policies without any challenge or criticism whatsoever.
Reply 14
Original post by Magda1502
I think that's totally over egging it. All political parties get a hard time by the media- that's the whole point of having an independent media to challenge their viewpoints. Otherwise people could spout any old drivel and have it taken as fact.

The expenses scandal is a prime example- that was a protracted, targeted campaign on exposure against the political mainstream. And rightly so. The BNP complains that it isn't allowed a level playing field with the other parties because it doesn't get any media exposure, but as soon as it is given the exposure, it complains that it portrays it in a negative light (and calls it "hate campaigning").

What it seems to be asking for is the right to espouse all its opinions and policies without any challenge or criticism whatsoever.


You're missing the point. The major parties attract criticism when they do something the electorate is unhappy with, take the foxhunting ban or the war in Iraq for example. The BNP are attacked simply for having audacity to exist, and they've suffered no end of legal battles because an over zealous liberal elite want to use every (dirty) trick in the book to close them down. There's nothing wrong with scrutinising BNP policies, what I find abhorrent though is dragging Griffin through the courts on trumped up charges of racism and the like. You seem to suggest the media etc are only innocently doing the former when it's obvious even to a simpleton that they're engaging in the latter.
Reply 15
Original post by chefdave
You're missing the point. The major parties attract criticism when they do something the electorate is unhappy with, take the foxhunting ban or the war in Iraq for example. The BNP are attacked simply for having audacity to exist, and they've suffered no end of legal battles because an over zealous liberal elite want to use every (dirty) trick in the book to close them down. There's nothing wrong with scrutinising BNP policies, what I find abhorrent though is dragging Griffin through the courts on trumped up charges of racism and the like. You seem to suggest the media etc are only innocently doing the former when it's obvious even to a simpleton that they're engaging in the latter.


You seem to think that the major parties, the government, the prosecuting authorities and the media are all the same entity, and that that entity is out to get the BNP, which is simply not correct and is typical of the BNP's victim complex.

All politicians are criticised by the media, not just the government, and not just for government policy decisions. A brief look at some of the things coming out of the Leveson inquiry would tell you that. If the BNP can't take the pain, it shouldn't play the game. The difference is that when a scandal hits a politician in a mainstream party, they usually resign and move on. Griffin has a criminal conviction, and he's still hanging around.

The Court battles were some time ago now, and there have been other elections since. If your argument were correct that the the media's persecution of the BNP through the Courts is the cause of its poor results, it should have done better this time, not worse.
Original post by chefdave
For the sake of democracy and genuine public choice I hope not. I see no reason why the white working classes should be denied a voice at the national level.


You mean the racist working classes surely?
Reply 17
If you mean they're bankrupt and can't even manage the finances of a tiny political party then yes very much so :colone:
Yes, the electoral results prove that just because there is a minority of BNP/EDL types that shout loudly on the internet, posting threads every day about race issues, how the whites are being bred out by genocide, how Muslims/blacks are responsible for all the crime in the UK etc, that the electorate as a whole is not really listening.

Over the past few years we've been hearing how "the system has failed" and "the public has lost trust in the main parties" and predictions about the rise of the BNP and how it would fill in the vacuum, but the BNP has been on a downward trend since 2008 and is now at a very low ebb.

In contrast you have got the Greens getting an MP in parliament, George Galloway getting back in parliament with his Respect party, the irony is its actually the far left that has made some headway into the parliamentary process, and yet you hardly ever see their supporters posting all over the internet in the same way you see the far right do. Also the big gainers in the most recent round of elections were the Labour party, which we had been assured by a lot of people were 'discredited' in the eyes of the electorate and 'would never be trusted again'.
Reply 19
Original post by walterwhite123
You mean the racist working classes surely?


No, the only racists are those in government who want to 'blend' white working class folk out of existence with mass immigration and state multi-culturalism. Standing up for your community's right to exist does not make you racist.

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