The current state of British Politics

[lil_shepherd]

My flist is full of people being shocked because the BNP won two seats in the European elections.

I am just surprised that they are surprised. What surprises me is that the BNP does not gain more votes, because I meet the people who express BNP-type views (in private) often enough. I also overhear them on the bus and the tube and the train. Do

Comments

[lil_shepherd]

I live not far away from an area with a BNP elected local Councillor, which, typically, is an area of skilled manufacturing workers which has had large amounts of redundancy, and lots of immigrant population.

However, to be honest, I see posts on the Net and on the News of Republican politicians expressing views that would have BNP members nodding.

You can't put large numbers of people into categories, as I am well aware from my family history.

As it happens, I am half German. Both my parents were in their respective armed services during the war. My father was a Royal Engineer who built oil tanks and pipelines, both under the Channel (the PLUTO project) and across France, Holland and Northern Germany, often under fire. During the latter stages of the war my mother was in the German air spotter corps, stationed just outside Pennemunde - I am named after her commanding officer. My German Granny never spoke of Hitler, I am told, without adding, "Das Dummkopf", but my youngest uncle was a party member, a member of the SS and died defending Hitler's bunker in Berlin.

(And yes, as a half-German child in the 50s I did experience prejudice in the UK.)

We all have to be careful of our freedoms, but I, personally, I a much more afraid of the gradual erosion of our freedoms by the mainstream parties than I am of the lunatic fringe.

[philmophlegm]

"...but I, personally, I a much more afraid of the gradual erosion of our freedoms by the mainstream parties than I am of the lunatic fringe."

Me too.

[madfilkentist]

We all have to be careful of our freedoms, but I, personally, I a much more afraid of the gradual erosion of our freedoms by the mainstream parties than I am of the lunatic fringe.

Yes, and that relates to the distinction I was trying to draw. In the US, we're more likely to see repression happen in a way which is superficially "fair" to all, and in some ways that's worse. For instance, the US government has built up the barriers to passage and trade at the Canadian border not because anyone's scared of Canadian terrorists, but because it would be "unfair" to do that only at the Mexican border. There are random searches of commuters because it would be "unfair" to subject only Middle-Eastern types to acts of pointless harassment. Homeless people are prevented from taking a step up to earning a living because they don't have proper documentation, since it would be "unfair" to do that only to people with foreign accents.

If that got the general population angry enough to want to roll back such absurdities, it might be worth it. But instead, people are accepting them as what's keeping us safe from terrorism.

[lil_shepherd]

It is precisely this type of measure, though on a smaller scale, that feeds the BNP and its ilk.

[steamshovelmama]

"I, personally, I a much more afraid of the gradual erosion of our freedoms by the mainstream parties than I am of the lunatic fringe. "

Oh, absolutely. The dangerous ones are the plausible, reasonable sounding ones...