Thursday will see the 69th anniversary of one of Winston Churchill's most famous speeches. Thurday will also see the European elections takes place, with the big three parties bracing themselves for a kicking from the electorate due to the expenses saga. One of the parties hoping to benefit are the BNP, who are tipped to win one or two seats in the North West and West Midlands constiuencies. Readers of this blog will be under no illusions; despite its best efforts to clean up its image, this is still essentially a racist, fascist party. Don't believe me? Take a look at its section 2 of its constitution:
http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2009/04/03/constitution-of-the-british-national-party-bnp/
Their leader, Nick Griffin, has continually denied the Holocaust ever took place, calling it the "Holohoax".
Recently, in guidance sent to his party members he claimed black and asian Britons do not exist; the correct term for such people is "racial foregners". The manual describes the BNP's "ultimate aim" as the "lawful, humane and voluntary repatriation of the resident foreigners of the UK".
There is absolutely no doubt that immigration is a big issue for people living in Britain today. The question is, are the beliefs expressed above representative of what the British people think, or has the debate been hijacked by racists in an attempt to turn legitimate grievances against government policy into a wider attack on anyone who is different?
For quite some time I have believed there is a need for the immigration debate to be deracialised. While I do not support them, I was glad to see UKIP park their tank on the BNP's lawn with this party political broadcast on Friday:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8074734.stm
It is a question of space, not race, says television cook Rustie Lee on the UKIP European election leaflet. It is more important than ever not to confuse race and immigration. While the issues may be related, they are not the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment