Not even the military can lay a glove on the BNP
The total failure of the mainstream establishment to tackle the BNP seriously has again been in the headlines with a bunch of military worthies bemoaning the party’s use of a spitfire on campaign posters.
General Sir “Mike” Jackson says, “How dare they use the image of the Army, in particular, to promote their policies. These people are beyond the pale.”
Where were Sir Mike and the rest of the top brass when the Tories used the imagery shown here as a central plank of Thatcher’s re-election campaign in 1987.? I don’t remember any of them expressing disgust and outrage at the time.
There are lots of good reasons to find the British National Party completely loathsome, using the imagery of a spitfire isn’t a very compelling one.
The “campaign” against the BNP since the Euro elections has consisted of pelting Griffin and his entourage with eggs at their first press conference, obliging the party to admit non-white members through the law courts, seeking to block the BNP leader from appearing on Question Time and now this.
The catastrophe is that Nick Griffin has been able to present himself as a fairly reasonable bloke at each and every stage.
At least the LibDems have the party’s best attack dog against him on QT on Thursday night – here’s hoping Chris Huhne eats him alive.
October 20th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Is that the Chris Huhne who’s telling the BBC we should have exit checks to make sure the government knows who’s left the country? – yes right, he’ll be a great advocate for a non-racist approach.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8317184.stm
October 20th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
I didn’t say Huhne was right on everything, merely that he’s our best atatck dog. He should be good on TV vs. the BNP. Certainly hope so.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:25 am
Hey! Worse than that, Griffin is pointing out that Gerry Adams was subjected to no such threats before his appearance(s) on QT.
He is working the crowd, with Labour and the rest of the righteous handing him every opportunity for Thursday.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Chris not-Huhne has a point, though. Rather than argue the case for open borders, the Lib Dem leadership adopted a populist but economically ignorant and illiberal policy of quotas. That effectively cedes the philosophical point that immigrants who intend to work in this country should not be seen as an evil (necessary or otherwise).
October 21st, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I hate to tell you this Chris, but the government already monitor you when you leave and enter the country – or else I’m confounded as to why I got some rather sinister forms when I re-entered because I’d spent more than the ‘usual’ 3 weeks outside the country
October 21st, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Tarquin,
That is a very interesting point. I understood that the Tories had got rid of “Exit Controlls” in the 1980s.
This is often cited as a problem, as we know how many immigrants have entered the country but not how many have left. This means that we only have gross immigration figures, which suggest that over a million immigrants have entered the UK in the past decade, without our knowing how many have also left.
I do wonder, however, what happens every time my passport bar code is scanned (or is that just at the other end?).