BNP, eggs and democracy
I like a good demonstration as much as the next man, and I am sure that I am in numerous police and security service files marching down Princess Street decrying the Government policy of the day.
But I find the attempts to prevent a duly elected politician from speaking to be slightly disturbing.
I utterly and completely reject his message, but there are people out there who agree with what he says and have elected him to the European Parliament fairly and squarely.
The biggest danger is to turn Nick Griffin and the BNP into some kind of oppressed minority and hence increase the alienation of their core voters.
The way to tackle the BNP is to let them have their say, and then demolish the message. They need to be tackled head-on and not ignored in the hope they will go away.
They won't; they are here to stay. But if we want to minimise their influence then their message has to be undermined and demonstrated to be fundamentally wrong.
It is no good the left trying to stop Griffin speaking one week, and demonstrating against the Burmese military junta the next. Deal with the poisonous message, and engage with the alienated and use the power of reason.
Or the BNP will just get bigger and stronger.
But I find the attempts to prevent a duly elected politician from speaking to be slightly disturbing.
I utterly and completely reject his message, but there are people out there who agree with what he says and have elected him to the European Parliament fairly and squarely.
The biggest danger is to turn Nick Griffin and the BNP into some kind of oppressed minority and hence increase the alienation of their core voters.
The way to tackle the BNP is to let them have their say, and then demolish the message. They need to be tackled head-on and not ignored in the hope they will go away.
They won't; they are here to stay. But if we want to minimise their influence then their message has to be undermined and demonstrated to be fundamentally wrong.
It is no good the left trying to stop Griffin speaking one week, and demonstrating against the Burmese military junta the next. Deal with the poisonous message, and engage with the alienated and use the power of reason.
Or the BNP will just get bigger and stronger.
6 comments:
Perhaps they should have thrown a "non indigenous" pineapple.
Absolutely. Well said.
Thought provoking stuff
I see on Heb News that we have lots of Phillipinos working our fishing fleet, but the inference is that they are good workers. Some how does that lie with a time when we are continually told there are no jobs, the fishing is going down the pan etc.
My take is that there are jobs available, but locals are not capable of filling the posts. A sad enditment at a time of recession.
Well said Angus. Hitting people with objects is assault and makes the demonstrator no better than Griffin. Egg assault happened before but Prescott immediately hit back (both were in the wrong) cancelling out the egg assault. Let them put forward their policy and then tear it to shreds.
Expressing discontent with politicians by the use of eggs, paint, pies etc. etc. has (rather had)long been a an accepted risk of being a politician.
I agree that the way to destroy the BNP is through debate and then if there any people who are stupid enough to vote for them they should be disenfranchised and sterilised (joke [about that last comment]).
Whether you agree with the views of the BNP or not, it is a sad reflection on the principle of free speech.
We have a similar situation on Lewis where a lot of people support a sunday ferry but are terrified of saying anything !!!!
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