We Are Europeans Now

By “we,” I obviously don’t mean you, the vast majority of Rumproasters, who aren’t British. But there’s been a lot of gnashing of teeth over here because the British National Party just won two seats in the latest European elections.

In that respect, we have come closer to joining the European club, where countries like France and Italy have long had some representation from parties with anti-immigration and racist platforms, and in the latter case, have joined forces with neofascist organizations and enacted some of their policies.

To explain briefly, the European elections rely on a form of proportional representation. You don’t vote for individual candidates, you vote for a party, and they are allocated MEPs on the basis of share of the vote. So nobody specifically voted for Nick Griffin, the BNP’s leader, who as you’ll see has a somewhat checkered past, but he is now one of two BNP MEPs, the first time this has happened in the UK. Apart from their seats in the European Parliament and the opportunity to work with similar-minded party groups in coalition, it gives them access to substantial funding and a degree of political legitimacy they haven’t enjoyed to date.

It’s certainly disturbing, to say the least, especially since the BNP has also won more seats in local council elections. But I’d be more disturbed if it weren’t for two reasons:

1. The turnout for Euro elections has always been low, and the recent scandals over MPs’ expenses from the two main parties along with a resulting near-meltdown in the ruling Labour Party depressed the turnout even more. In fact, the Conservatives and Labour haven’t polled this poorly since the end of the Second World War. This rather than any substantial upsurge in support for the BNP’s platform gave them an electoral opening. I mean, turnout was so low that the Monster Raving Loony Party beat two Labour councillors in one seat.

2. When BNP candidates have taken office, they have often soon been exposed as incompetent, corrupt, and even criminal, and the oxygen of publicity has proven an overdose.

Not that I’m happy with this situation, naturally. But the BNP in its various incarnations has been around a long time as a constant undercurrent, and I have a feeling that the next few months will prove revealing, and maybe a reality check for those whose gripes about the deal they feel they’re getting from successive British governments have led them to sympathize with some of its publicly stated aims.

But beware the siren call of disreputable hacks like Melanie Phillips (linked to and cited approvingly by some of the you-know-whos, and some of their number have even commented on her strongly Islamophobic blog - I’ll leave you to do your own searches for that if you can be bothered, but there may be some mild surprises there), who has been as opportunist as the BNP in trying to portray this electoral blip as evidence that the BNP has its roots in the Left, since she claims, with no evidence, that the BNP won because it poached Labour voters.

Check out any of her posts and you’ll see American commenters pop up and laud her for expressing views they feel are under-represented in their own country. Heaven help us. Maybe they want to be Europeans too.

I’ll leave aside for now consideration of links between the BNP and even more extreme and violent groups such as Combat 18 and the KKK, as I suspect some of our commenters may have something to add there.

UPDATE: I changed the link for “local council elections” since the Digg site now returns a 404 message. It now links to a Stormfront forum where the results are discussed.

Posted by YAFB on 06/10/09 at 09:24 AM • Permalink

Categories: Politics •

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Thanks for the low-down. Groups like the BNP and their continental counterparts seem to gain ground everywhere when turmoil of some sort roils the waters, be it cultural changes, economic distress, etc. We in the US have had our own incarnations here with George Wallace, Axe-Handle Maddox, David Duke, et al. As you said, they don’t usually get too far because they expose themselves as incompetent, corrupt idiots, thankfully. Still, they bear watching.

Comment by Betty Cracker on 06/10/09 at 10:31 AM

Good update, thanks for providing us some perspective on this disturbing development.

Comment by Allan on 06/10/09 at 10:37 AM

Another thanks for the update. I am sure alot of this has to do with the immigration thing. There is a muslim school in my home town (housed in what used to be the mental hospital). My mother has always been a “right minded” woman, boat loads of common sense and all that and yet the very idea of a muslim school, behind high stone walls scares the treacle out of her. “I mean we have no idea what they are teaching them behind closed doors and for all we know the girls are carrying bombs under those burkahs” was a comment she made to me once. (and remember this is a woman who adopted a bi-racial child (my sister) in the late 50s) so if my mother is thinking stuff like that then you can guarantee that those not so liberal minded are thinking alot worse. Oh and thanks for the chuckle about the Monster Raving Looney Party, I used to love those guys on election nights hearing the returns, usually dressed appropriately for the name of the party :) Ahhhh good times, pity they don’t allow that in the US.

Comment by Litlebritdifrnt on 06/10/09 at 01:40 PM

Oh and thanks for the chuckle about the Monster Raving Looney Party ...

Well, they do remind me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU

Comment by YAFB on 06/10/09 at 02:18 PM

links between the BNP and even more extreme and violent groups such as Combat 18 and the KKK

Former BNP and AFBNP (American Friends of the BNP) member Mark Cotterill work for David Duke’s congressional campaign in 1999 and for Pat Buchanans 2000 presidential campaign (until his association with Duke and the BNP was revealed and he was tossed off the back of the Pitchfork Brigade bozo bus.) Cotterill also worked for William Pierce’s neo-Nazi National Alliance before returning to the UK. As I understand it James von Brunn was also a member of Pierce’s National Alliance at some point in the past.

Comment by the farmer on 06/10/09 at 09:37 PM

for what it’s worth (links between the BNP…), saw this in a recent splcenter report (bold emphasis mine):

Von Brunn also lived in Hayden, Idaho, a few years ago with a racist named Stan Hess, who has claimed that the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were orchestrated by a rogue faction of the federal government. Hess also started a group called the European-American Human Rights Task Force and wanted to designate October as “European-American Heritage Month,” the Spokane Spokesman-Review reported.

Stan Hess was also a founding member of the AFBNP. (Hayden, Idaho being the former location of the Aryan Nation HQ compound)

Comment by the farmer on 06/11/09 at 10:43 PM

Thanks, the farmer. Also, this is from the Washington Post:

Von Brunn sometimes spoke of having fought for the wrong side in World War II, Blodgett said, and the two men sometimes attended meetings in Arlington County of the American Friends of the British National Party, which raised funds for the British white supremacist group.

h/t Ms. YAFB ;)

Comment by YAFB on 06/11/09 at 11:30 PM

thanks for the WaPo link YAFB (and Ms YAFB).

Blodgett, as the article mentions:
“was part-owner of Resistance Records, which distributed music by white racist groups, and worked for Willis Carto, the founder of Liberty Lobby, a radical right group.”

The other “part-owner” of Resistance Records (a hard core neo-Nazi white nationalist lable) was William Pierce (National Alliance) author of the Turner Diaries. Pierce eventually bought out both Blodgett and Carto’s interest in the company.