Yeah I know about that Spectator editorial. You've got to live here to know that he is actually spot on about the "deeply unattractive psyche", as many citizens are xenophobic (fuck the north/south divide, it's liverpool/britain divide, at least from their point of view), as well as badly notorious for clinging on to stuff like the Ken Bigley thing for sympathy. The comments on Hillsborough are dead wrong, but I'm not sure how accurate that Wikipedia article is as I seem to recall reading some explanation of the Spectator article affair somewhere that didn't mention that at all. Either way, he's made it a big deal in one of his books to explain his motive for the whole thing as well as apologise for any offence. I don't hold it against him.

As far as his Mayor of London position goes, I don't know too much about it. He doesn't appear to have done anything disastrously wrong. I heard he hates bendy buses, which I hate too. I wouldn't know what a Tory council is like to live under- I've been living under a shit Lib Dem council for years, we've apparently got the highest council tax in Britain but also the shittest roads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIUp19bBoA This is more like it

Ive never been to Liverpool so i respect yr perspective. I only brought it up as a bit of a joke and an aside really, ive never been arsed about that Spectator thing.

I almost went to that Germany thing, it was in Reading where i was living at the time but we didnt in the end. To think, i could have witnessed a piece of history...

As for the BNP, im dead worried about the fact alot of far right people have been elected across Europe, in Hungary etc. We also have UKIP who despite what they say are more in tune with the BNP than alot of people think. Dead concerned, like.

on a warmer note. leader of the bnp nik griffin was pelted with eggs and had to abandon his news conference and be bundled into a car today. lovely stuff.

I know he's a racist, but Cameron is a total cunt. Why no eggs for him? Or some sort of machete-shaped egg?

or a brick covered in egg?

Then he said it "was like Zimbabwe". Yeah it was exactly like that.

^^^I thought it was amusing that Little Lord Griffin had to be protected by his "security" boys - at least John Prescott knows how to throw a left hook at any passing egg-throwers. Did he have to heil a passing taxi to get away, I wonder?

as much as i dislike the BNP, the anti-fashist protestors today appeared to be campaining against democracy, weird huh.

It's an important point, one I try not to engage with. It's not democracy they object to, and that's precisely the sort of rhetoric that ghettoises the BNP, and thus makes them attractive to a certain portion of the electorate who feel alienated by mainstream politics. The argument from the anti-BNP sorts is that the BNP is not 'democratic' in the slightest. I don't agree with this argument, but a lot of people do. The thing is, I know full well that the BNP do not stand for democracy or the common Brit (me), they stand for thuggery, idiocy, hypocrisy, intimidation and a poor/ narrow view of British history. So long as they stay on the right side of the law, I'm happy to continue not paying any attention to their confused bile.

Anyway. Get off the BNP, it's Cameron who's the real problem at the moment (I wonder if the BNP aren't just a Tory smokescreen sometimes...).

Absolutely.

obviously i'm not doubting the protestor's good intentions, but the BNP have won those two seats and there's nothing that can, or should be done to remove them from them (as said, provided the BNP stay within the law) until the next election. It wouldn't surprise me if the entire "outdoor conference" was planned to attract such attention - all publicity's good publicity, etc...

but yeah, enough.

Regarding Cameron, I'd agree that Cameron's in need of the old three egg omelette treatment....but maybe an Eton trifle would be a better thing to lob at him?

yes glice, cameron is the real enemy here. smug little twat that he is.

The direction of this thread is sort of indicative of part of the reason why the BNP have had an upsurge in popularity. They're probably the only party out of those discussed that are being attacked for their policies rather than the personality of their leader. The coming together of the political mainstream around certain 'key' issues has promoted the importance of personality at a time when people seem less and less interested in it. Single issue parties like the BNP, UKIP and the Greens are gaining popularity in part because they offer political solutions (however ludicrous) at a time when people are most looking for them. The people who voted for the BNP etc should feel less ashamed than those within the political establishment who edged them towards it, simply by removing real politics from their agenda.

Absenteeism mixed with the rise of a racist party's profile is certainly not to be thought of with dismissive complacency, even more so since that same complacency was widespread in economical analysis throughout the mid-to-late 90's, when the thought of an American economy collapsing wasn't regarded so much as something that would trigger worldwide recession. See what happened.

It's a natural progression that the initial hatred for the banks, at first demonised for being the main cause of the recession itself, is now directed at the very organ that gives them the kiss of life, the government and its infrastructure of conflicting/conspiring parties.


The fascist fringes of aspiring government parties like the BNP find their natural habitat in times of acute crisis like this, since they touch an already super-volatile nerve in the (scarce) working class electorate, the most likely to push them up the scale at large, unless, of course, conflicting and more rational political forces sway them to their side.

It's too early to really asses what the outcome might be, since a possible BNP rise will find a labour marketplace drastically changed from what it was 50/60 years ago. It's not just people who happen to be white and 'traditionally' British who vote for the conservatives either, and not all the immigrant labour force is a unified entity as it is often thought of.

There seems to be an insistence by the mainstream parties to keep saying that they need to get their "message" across - it's as if the need to communicate takes precedence of having any genuine political beliefs, ideas and conviction. This McLuhanesque strategy is Tony Blair's real legacy to UK politics, but the thing is that the UK public are heartily aware of this and sick of it too. A state of affairs that continues further with our present government - that press conference they held Sunday just gone would have embarrassed Nicolae Ceascescu. Small wonder that the BNP find an audience for their bilious stance.

"You must spread rep etc" also for what Sarramkrop said.

I think its probably worthwhile to point out that votes for the BNP have actually gone down since the last election. It's just that a lot of people didn't vote in, i.e. a lot of people who usually vote for Labour just didn't vote rather than vote for any other party.

A good point.

Monstrousities like this are more likely to happen, and grow bigger, if having a political conscience is still lazily regarded as a marginal part of what makes a person whole.

has anyone here ever seen the red watch website. thats a somewhat disturbing piece of the internet.

you're a disturbing piece of the internet.

I've heard of it - apparently run by former members of Combat 18, and with close BNP and NF links. I'm surprised it hasn't been shut down yet.....mind you, Combat 18 was heavily infiltrated by Special Branch, and it could also be a front for entrapping Nazi fuckwits....

I just had a look. Lots of pics of anti-BNP protesters. Hard to see what the point is.

British National Party's London leader, Nick Eriksen wrote on his blog

"To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that force feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched"

more here http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/04/02/brits/

The Swan pub in Stratford houses some of those people's meetings, including that guy who went on to carry out the bombings a few years ago. I'm not sure if the person who runs it is still in charge, but I know first hand that she's an incredibly NASTY piece of work.

yeh there is a theory that c18 are just a made up cover/counter orgainsation to infiltrate the more radical members of the bnp. not sure if thats true or not?

And also, as far as the gays are concerned, Club 333 in Shoreditch houses club nights for nazi gays too. They don't advertise it, but I ended up in one by accident, and the crowd was definitely made up of that sort of crowd, which only means they (the nazi gays) keep it secret, so that the idiot who ends in there clueless will, who knows, succumb to the flesh and joins the forces.

God. i never knew that. i used to drink in the Swan quite regularly and never saw any signs of dodginess in terms of clientelle. I know there's a pub in Plaistow (can't remember the name) that used to be a real meeting place for what was then the National Front. I went in there once, before I knew what the score was, and the heavy vibe was pretty obvious the minute I sat down. Quickest pint i ever drank.

the nf turned up at a pub in leeds once and i suddenly felt the urge to go into the beergardedn even though it was november and it was raining. they where filming people and sticking cameras under girls skirts too. luckily i left mine at home.

They'd keep it low-profile, wouldn't they? I walked into places where the vibe was strange when it came to other dodgy political activity, but how do you decide extremists look and act like in public places? I am certain they'd be weary of outsiders, or alternatively plain stupid to act in a certain way in public houses. Rival fans of Millwall and other football teams organise riots in obscure corners of the internet too, so that's the way I imagine they'd go on about it.

this might not have anything particularly to do with nazis (actually it does if you followed the investigation), but did you read the whole Islington council thing about the baby p case, who, by the way, died at the hands of a nazi-sympathiser?

Amongst other people.

You're obviously right about the low profile thing. I suppose it was easier to spot nazis in the 80s compared to now. Shaved heads, DMs and black bomber jackets tended to be a dead give away (assuming you hadn't accidentally wandered into Bang, of course).

To think of a racist as looking a certain way is naive at best, though.In this time and age. C'mon, all of us, regardless of nationality could be racist in one way or another. Take jonboy, I'd assume he was a nazi if it wasn't for the fact that I don't even remember what he looks like.

MIAOW!!!

Yeah, but they do have a certain look about them don't they? I mean you can sort of spot a mild racist pretty easily I think. An England football shirt tends to be a pretty reasonable indicator that the wearer isn't likely to be too pleased if his daughter comes home one evening with a sikh.

The're confused, though, aren't they? Look at Melly, he's the face of racism, and he's not even aware of that.

Are you insinuating that my bellowing out the Horst Wessel song outside the King's Arms is racist? *Desperately tries to rub swastika tattoo off of forehead*

Swastika cocks always make your journey to the toilet one that you will never forget.