Would the BNP throw me out?
A cracking video this morning from nothingbritish.com. Short, snappy and straight to the point.
The interesting thing is, I’m exactly the same as Ben. My mother isn’t British. She certainly isn’t Anglo-Saxon. Any student of European ethnicity understands that culturally and linguistically the Bavaro-Austrian people are not Angles or Saxons.
Of course, the BNP Constitution says that’s OK, because it’s about whites and non-whites.
“The BNP stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples. It is therefore committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948.”
But how exactly do you make such a distinction? Who are the acceptable whites? What criteria should you use to make the distinction between those who are entitled to stay here and those who aren’t? Where will it all leave the cute kid whose picture is right next to this paragraph?
The Mission Statement of the Party attempts to answer all this:
The British National Party exists to secure a future for the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic which have been our homeland for millennia.
We use the term indigenous to describe the people whose ancestors were the earliest settlers here after the last great Ice Age and which have been complemented by the historic migrations from mainland Europe.
The migrations of the Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Norse and closely related kindred peoples have been, over the past few thousands years, instrumental in defining the character of our family of nations.
Ahh, so that’s clearer. We all remember the 6th Century migration to these islands of the Bavaro-Austrians don’t we? I’m safe. I can stay. I’m wanted by Nick Griffin!
What do you mean you don’t know anything about a Bavaro-Austrian migration to Britain? It didn’t happen? Bavaro-Austrians have had absolutely no part to play in “defining the character of our family of nations”? You’re kidding me? I guess Reuben and I should get going back to where we came from as soon as possible…
Of course, you’d expect such nonsense from the kind of people who don’t even know how to fly the Union flag properly.
My father is Italian, and I’m born in the UK. So, am I to assume that I will be sent ‘back’ to Italy? My children were born here, their mother is Italian. So, they will be sent ‘back’ to Italy, too? My skin is the brown of a southern Mediterranean, so to call me ‘white’ isn’t accurate. My children are white in colour, so, they fit the colour test. This whole policy from the BNP is idiotic, and people need to open their eyes and realise how dangerous a ‘protest vote’ for the BNP could be.
Peter,
On a related issue, I wondered what you thought about David Cameron’s plans to form a block in the European parliament with parties that are not so dissimilar from the BNP. Two of them are extremely homophobic – Polish and Latvian parties, and one of them, the Latvian, celebrates the memory of dead Nazis officers.
Yours, Winston
Winston,
I think I’d need you to give us some links to clarify what you’re asking. As you know, one man’s homophobia is another man’s social conservatism.
On the issue of the memory of dead Nazi officers, once again I’d need you to clarify whether the parties were remembering soldiers who happened to have served in the Wehrmacht, or whether they were specifically celebrating the Nazi political philosophy.
We need to be very careful around this subject. Germany and Austria have veterans associations which include in them former members of the Waffen-SS. That doesn’t mean that they celebrate Nazism, it simply means that they recognise that it’s complicated trying to separate who was and wasn’t “evil” when you were serving during a time of conscription.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6289822.ece
Quote from above: ‘Mr Van Orden refused to confirm the other members but Conservative sources said that they included For Fatherland and Freedom, a staunch nationalist party in Latvia. Some of its MPs are backers of the controversial annual ceremony every March to honour the Latvians who fought for the Nazis in the Waffen SS against the Communists in the Second World War.The new group will be called the European Conservatives and Reformists. The other founder members, the Czech ODS, recently passed the Lisbon Treaty despite Mr Cameron’s policy of holding a referendum on it if it remains unratified somewhere in Europe.’
By the way, just because the Germans and Austrians do it, it doesn’t mean it is right. I am sure that you could argue the same about the BNP – how do we seperate how good and bad members, the light from the darkness?
On the homophobia, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6466205.stm
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/06/04/poland-official-homophobia-threatens-basic-freedoms-0
These people do not sound like people who you would want in the Conservative party?
Winston,
You have to be really careful to distinguish between remembering those who fought against the communists, and assuming that that automatically meant that were national-socialist and anti-semitic. I’d like to see some evidence that the memorials are not just about the fight for Latvian liberation and are actually about a particular nazi perspective.
As for Poland, I’d like you to provide the actualities of the political program of the Law and Justice Party, not it’s coalition allies.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting that some of the attitudes of the Poles aren’t incorrect, I just want us to give both sides a level playing field. A law to limit the discussion of homosexuality isn’t necessarily “anti-gay”, it’s just not “pro-gay”. If you follow your line of argument then the ban on prayer in US schools is “anti-Christian”. And the bill certainly won’t prevent discussion of HIV/AIDS as we know from our experience here with Section 28. On the other hand, if the report that the HRW presents on the request for investigations is found to have no substance and no evidence to support such a charge in the first place, then you have every right to begin to use the language of homophobia.
Peter – I do not have time at the minute to debate this which is a shame. However, it does seem to me that for a party like the modern Conservative party to even be associated with these two parties is a serious worry. You could easily imagine the BNP wanting to be in the same political block as these people, but a progressive centre party in twenty-first century Britain?
It’s far more likely that the BNP would sit in the same block as the nationalist parties who want to withdraw from the EU.
I like the word ‘likely’; it reveals an element of doubt about whether or not the BNP, and the Conservatives might be in the same block. Let’s hope for the sake of the Tory party that they do not find themselves sat alongside a possible BNP euro MP. Maybe though, it would be a good thing for pro European Tories in that it might mean that they are not forced into an alliance with some pretty awful eastern European parties. Let’s hope Russia does not enter the EU, or the Tories could find themselves next to the likes of the Mayor of Moscow who describes gay people as satanic.
Oh, so the Celts are part of an “indigenous family of nations” that define British character?
Tell that to my Irish forebears, who were driven to seek a new life in America a hundred and fifty years ago.
Tell it to my Scottish forebears, who came here a hundred years before that.
Indeed, tell that to my ancestors from Warwickshire who had to come here to practice their religion nearly *four hundred* years ago.
I’m your cousin several dozen times over. If I’m here on the western shore, and not with you, the BNP’s view of history is surely clouded by nostalgia, or worse.
But tell me more, as I’m intrigued about the possibility of reclaiming dual citizenship…make that triple, nay quadruple, citizenship.
I understand the concern about loss of culture, folkways, etc. But this debate needs to be engaged on the firm footing of objective reality. The British “character” has defined itself in the eyes of countless millions as a character that ruthlessly drives away from its beautiful shores all who cannot conform to the smallest detail.
I deplore it, and I still feel kinship with you, but let’s not pretend history is otherwise.