Nazis on the Baltic?
Musing on the rather pathetic 6% of the vote gained by the Svenskademokraterna in the Swedish General Election and the amazing response of the Swedish political establishment and media to it.
Listening to the great and the good in Sweden ranting and watching them frothing at the mouth about the forthcoming Nazi takeover this presages and the media's principled refusal to take the party's advertising, I'm reminded of the similar response to the unimpressive BNP on this side of the North Sea.
I remain with my conviction - the cure for bad politics and bad thinking is debate and rebuttal, not denial. If these folk have ideas which you, or anyone, think are wrong, they need to be discussed and analysed, dissected and destroyed - not ignored and not regarded as so wrong as to be too dangerous to discuss. We do ourselves no favours if we consider certain topics as being so seductive as to risk being convinced if we examine them. That gives this sort of nonsense a stature and validity which, ultimately, it lacks.
Our own dear BNP are a good example of what happens if you do ignore the power of the big idea. Putting engagement and discussion of their views outwith the antiseptic of public scrutiny and discussion allows those views to flourish without challenge - because the very fact that they have emerged suggests that there is a conversation to be had about them, if only to convince those holding them that they're dangerous nonsense.
I think this is a symptom of the political and media establishment's fear of ideology. The political consensus now is all about the centre ground and is narrowly managerial and policy-driven. Where are the big ideas, where is the compelling vision of what good looks like, where is the fire, the anger, the optimism?
I have no brief for Labour, beyond wishing they'd just bugger off and be Her Majesty's Opposition (you lost, guys, deal with it), but I was quite heartened to hear Milliband E. of the Lower Fourth talk about optimism. He's yet another apparatchik and a member in good standing of the North London nomenklatura, obviously, but there does seem to be a tiny germ of character and ideology there. I hope it lasts.
Listening to the great and the good in Sweden ranting and watching them frothing at the mouth about the forthcoming Nazi takeover this presages and the media's principled refusal to take the party's advertising, I'm reminded of the similar response to the unimpressive BNP on this side of the North Sea.
I remain with my conviction - the cure for bad politics and bad thinking is debate and rebuttal, not denial. If these folk have ideas which you, or anyone, think are wrong, they need to be discussed and analysed, dissected and destroyed - not ignored and not regarded as so wrong as to be too dangerous to discuss. We do ourselves no favours if we consider certain topics as being so seductive as to risk being convinced if we examine them. That gives this sort of nonsense a stature and validity which, ultimately, it lacks.
Our own dear BNP are a good example of what happens if you do ignore the power of the big idea. Putting engagement and discussion of their views outwith the antiseptic of public scrutiny and discussion allows those views to flourish without challenge - because the very fact that they have emerged suggests that there is a conversation to be had about them, if only to convince those holding them that they're dangerous nonsense.
I think this is a symptom of the political and media establishment's fear of ideology. The political consensus now is all about the centre ground and is narrowly managerial and policy-driven. Where are the big ideas, where is the compelling vision of what good looks like, where is the fire, the anger, the optimism?
I have no brief for Labour, beyond wishing they'd just bugger off and be Her Majesty's Opposition (you lost, guys, deal with it), but I was quite heartened to hear Milliband E. of the Lower Fourth talk about optimism. He's yet another apparatchik and a member in good standing of the North London nomenklatura, obviously, but there does seem to be a tiny germ of character and ideology there. I hope it lasts.