Will support for the BNP grow as a result of qt?

[Joe Reilly]

Well, now the furore surrounding Question Time has abated it seems to me it is back to square one for the BNP. Extreme party looking for extremists.

Potential support of almost quarter of the population suggests they have transcended that bracketing.

 

[The39thStep]

Whilst the BNP will have inflated the number of enquiries they have had the fact is its about the only party which more people contact to ask to join than they actually go out and recruit.

 

[The Black Hand]

Originally Posted by weltweit
Well, now the furore surrounding Question Time has abated it seems to me it is back to square one for the BNP. Extreme party looking for extremists.

Potential support of almost quarter of the population suggests they have transcended that bracketing.

You know, I am not so sure. I think that fixed positions for the 'extremist' label are not only qualified by the amount of people who vote for them. The Nazi party was still extremist even if it had a vast majority of the vote.

Thus, in a world situation where politics has drifted to the right, then it is apparent to me that the far right will pick up votes regardless of who is representing them because of this rightward drift (not the only factor of course). As for the size of the extremist label, it is wrong to look at it in a fixed manner. That extremism can be defined as something once and for all, which does not change in quantity or quality.

 

[Joe Reilly]

Whilst the BNP will have inflated the number of enquiries they have had the fact is its about the only party which more people contact to ask to join than they actually go out and recruit.

well the 22 percent potential vote is from You Gov. The BNP meanwhile is claiming 25,000 enquiries/wannabees...

 

[butchersapron]

The Sunday Times also reports that ICM have carried out polling in Stoke on Trent, Blackburn and Leicestershire North West for the Equalities and Human Rights Commision, which shows the BNP at 18% in those areas. There are no figures yet – the report suggests it is not being published for several weeks – but it’ll be something to look out for.

Link

BNP support up 50% in far right strongholds

The BNP is likely to improve its share of the vote in some key regions by 50% at the next general election, a leaked Whitehall report has forecast.

A study of the growing influence of the far-right party found that 18% of those polled in three areas where it is strongest said they would vote BNP.The report says that would be an increase from 12% in previous polls.

The study, for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the race watchdog, is the most comprehensive official analysis of the BNP produced. Supported by polling from ICM, it was based on three samples of 1,500 people in Blackburn, northwest Leicestershire and Stoke-on-Trent.

 

[treelover]

I wonder if SWP/UAF, HNH blame the rise on the BNP being on QT?

 

[The Black Hand]

Link

BNP support up 50% in far right strongholds

Are you surprised Butchers?

In areas which tolerate the far right then there will be more people closer to their positions, the 'enlarged right wing pool' thesis. If the sides are hardening, which seemed apparent to me over the Question Time happening, then perhaps the question is whether there is a possibility of an anti BNP popular front (which seems to have de facto happened). So perhaps you either join in with the Anti BNP attitudes, or you are not in the political arena.

Fretting over whether the BNP are Nazi, fascist, or my preferred label 'neo-fascist' doesn't really help the political process. Instead widespread informal & popular independent positions and activists should be encouraged as a means to have an effect on the political process, rather than the gesture politics of purity, which has no effect in the political arena on a national scale and barely an effect on 3 local ones.

 

[treelover]

the hardening of which you speak is imo, less about the growth of fascism, etc and more about the 'crisis of identity' which seems to be prevailing and growing about 'what is Britain/England, coupled with turbo-capitalism/globalisation and now a recession/growing unemployment.

 

[The Black Hand]

the hardening of which you speak is imo, less about the growth of fascism, etc and more about the 'crisis of identity' which seems to be prevailing and growing about 'what is Britain/England, coupled with turbo-capitalism/globalisation and now a recession/growing unemployment.

Yes, of course fascism is a symptom of deeper malaise and not the cause (even though it doesn't help solve the issues).

However, my point was that consciousness, 'how people become conscious and fight it out' is the arena I was referring too, and the ability or not, to interact politically with this.

 

[Blagsta]

the hardening of which you speak is imo, less about the growth of fascism, etc and more about the 'crisis of identity' which seems to be prevailing and growing about 'what is Britain/England, coupled with turbo-capitalism/globalisation and now a recession/growing unemployment.

"All that is solid melts into air..."

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

the hardening of which you speak is imo, less about the growth of fascism, etc and more about the 'crisis of identity' which seems to be prevailing and growing about 'what is Britain/England, coupled with turbo-capitalism/globalisation and now a recession/growing unemployment.

When it comes to "what is Britain/England" the far right are among the least qualified to answer it. Their England is a product of too much concrete and booze, too little education.

They are more or less a cultural vacuum, but anyone who dares to point this out risks being called a "snob". Still, you won't get many an EDL or BNP member who is well up on Northumbrian folk tunes, Shakespeare or a fan of the diggers.

Over 30,000 turned up for the summer solstice at stonehenge. I'd be suprised if the fash were represented.

 

[butchersapron]

Fuck me, Muggeridge lives!

 

[treelover]

Over 30,000 turned up for the summer solstice at stonehenge. I'd be suprised if the fash were represented.

But how many just for a party,

btw, 'too much concrete' indeed, yes a snob is quite apposite

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

btw, 'too much concrete' indeed, yes a snob is quite apposite

What has respect for a pleasant built enviornment got to do with snobbery?

 

[Louis MacNeice]

What has respect for a pleasant built enviornment got to do with snobbery?

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[kyser_soze]

 

[Blagsta]

Over 30,000 turned up for the summer solstice at stonehenge. I'd be suprised if the fash were represented.

I dunno, there's some links between the far right and paganism/the occult.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

I dunno, there's some links between the far right and paganism/the occult.

That's fair comment, but I can spot are some marked differences between this and your average EDL rally or BNP meeting

 

[The Black Hand]

When it comes to "what is Britain/England" the far right are among the least qualified to answer it. Their England is a product of too much concrete and booze, too little education.

They are more or less a cultural vacuum, but anyone who dares to point this out risks being called a "snob". Still, you won't get many an EDL or BNP member who is well up on Northumbrian folk tunes, Shakespeare or a fan of the diggers.

Over 30,000 turned up for the summer solstice at stonehenge. I'd be suprised if the fash were represented.

I agree with most of it, though I think there might have been a few esoteric fascists, third position variety types at Stonehenge. Not many certainly, prob less than a handful (5).

 

[revlon]

let england deal with me

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I agree with most of it, though I think there might have been a few esoteric fascists, third position variety types at Stonehenge. Not many certainly, prob less than a handful (5).

I saw a Confederate Flag on one of the traveller vans when I was going into Solstice... They might have just been trying to be controversial of course...

 

[The Black Hand]

I saw a Confederate Flag on one of the traveller vans when I was going into Solstice... They might have just been trying to be controversial of course...

True.