Michael Howard is right
Michael Howard is wrong about a lot of things, of course, and was a truly terrible leader of the Conservatives (or a brilliant one, depending on your point of view) as well as an illiberal home secretary. But that doesn't mean he's wrong about everything, as this story shows:
Mr Howard told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: "I think I am still the only party leader who went to Burnley and devoted an entire speech to confronting the BNP and saying that we've really got to take them on and we've got to take their arguments on.
"I don't think we can afford to be complacent. There are one or two constituencies where they are said to be a potent threat.
"I think you have to take them on, you have to confront them and you have to expose the appalling evil of their arguments."
What I like about Howard here is that he doesn't muck about. He doesn't wring his hands, as many other Tories and Labour politicians would, wondering whether the racists really have a point and whether poor white folk are right to feel 'disenfranchised' and upset by immigration. No, the BNP's arguments are 'appalling evil'.
Which I find myself agreeing with - though it's a kind of uncomfortable agreement. Imagine sitting on the train next to a man with a hideous cold whose nose is dribbling snot down his face. You don't want to be there, but it's late, you're tired, and you can't go anywhere else. There, I've said it: I agree with Michael Howard. As I've said before, a vote for the BNP is not a protest, and it's unfortunate if not entirely missing the point for politicians to wonder whether the racists are right - true, many may claim that the white working-class are the real victims of racism, but I think they're wrong.
There has, in recent times, been a thought in politics that the best way to deal with BNP voters is to say their concerns are genuine and to try and woo them. Phil Woolas is the classic New Labour example of this, but there are others right across the political spectrum. What Michael Howard rightly says is: bollocks to that. Racism is wrong, and the BNP need to be challenged, and fought.
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December 27th, 2009 - 19:40
So, the threat of the BNP in Burnley at the last GE.
So high they came in 5th place, below an Independent and the Tories.
They're now pretty much dead in the water there, which is of course a good thing–in large part due to a well funded, well thought through direct campaign by the Lib Dems, who started campaigning there in earnest after the riots, now control the council and are almost certain to take the seat from Labour this time.
Overall though, he's completely right to say we've got to take them on and defeat them–he may've been the only party leader to go there, but his party only actually put up a token campaign on the ground, from what I understand.
The great shame is that the Lib Dems simply don't have the money to move into other areas in the same way (yet), and that the organisation in Yorkshire is nowhere near as good as in the NW for this sort of thing–huge amounts of praise have to be given to Chris Davies MEP for the work he's been putting in there.
If the same could be done in, say, Barnsley, we could see them of fhtere as well.
(full disclosure as I believe in honesty: a friend of mine is the LD campaign organiser in Burnley, and I've done some (paid) delivery work up there in the last few months, this comment is purely in a personal capacity)
December 27th, 2009 - 19:43
this is very true. the British should learn from recent French history when for similar reasons (failure to face the problem- hoping it would go away) LePen got into the second and final round for president. It was Front National or Chirac so they ended up voting Chirac being the lesser of the 2 evils
December 27th, 2009 - 21:04
I have had numerous dealing's with the BNP, beginning with an invitation for interview to be published in my political thesis at university. The topic was voter apathy, and they flatly refused after initially agreeing until they realised I would not be promoting them, indeed I would have been prinitng all arguments.
They again refused when I invited them to take part in a local radio show on a talkshow I presented.
Each time I contacted both the local representative, and the national party by email, letter and phone call. They refused, and I imagine this would be the case if they were invited onto debates across the land.
They thrive, just like terrorists, far-right groups, religious fanatics et al because they use propaganda and fear. Usually with followers and sympathisers only, never with other groups as part of a logical and transparent debate.
If they did, they would be ridiculed, and just like the 'Question Time' debate, this can benefit and hinder them, but crucially they can never win the argument because they are so very wrong.
They can win the fight. But never the argument.
December 27th, 2009 - 22:19
The problem with trying to woo the BNP voters is that the only way either of the 2 main parties have found is to try to outdo them on some issues and ignore the rest.
The best way would be to genuinely say "Vote BNP and this way lies madness. They will divide the country and bring it to it's knees." Once you get the BNP off their hobby horse (how terrible it is that non-whites are allowed in the UK) their track record is absolutely appalling.
Unless you like wearing a brown shirt of course, then the BNP are just fine.
December 29th, 2009 - 06:43
There was a superb piece of graffiti next to Manchester's Piccadilly train station in 2005.
Underneath the Tory slogan 'It's not racist to talk about immigration' (written in massive letters on a minimal white billboard), someone had scrawled, in equally massive letters, 'YES IT IS YOU F**KING TORY BASTARDS'.
It just seemed so… Mancunian.
December 29th, 2009 - 09:43
I agree but I think we alsoned to move away from race. eg when the country has spent billions on fighting two wars in the middle east they want to withdraw from NATO and instead spend billions more on expanding the armed forces. What the fuck???
Similarly I understand they plan to repeal the law brought in by the last Conservative government (one of the few things Major got right) that allows men to be prosecuted for raping their wives.
It is eye wateringly absurd policies like these that need to be highlited as well as the bigotry and is an area where many people missed a trick during that episode of Question Time.
December 29th, 2009 - 20:42
As Alex Wilcock points out, Howard was one of the worst of the 'well, they've got a point' bunch in 2005.