Weekend Blog: Red herrings and the BNP

Sat, Feb 11 2012

Sat, May 02 2009 11:27 CET byGabriel Hershman 3479 Views 50 Comments

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Former prime minister Tony Blair: Tough on crime?
Photo: Wikipedia

Former British Cabinet Minister Peter Hain, writing in yesterday's (May 1) Guardian newspaper, warns us that the British National Party (BNP) is on the verge of power in several parts of North West England.

Here is an excerpt from his article. "Electorally, the BNP has become the most successful fascist party in Britain, gaining 800,000 votes in the 2004 European elections and 238,000 votes in the 2006 local elections - up from 3,022 six years earlier. And last year it won its first seat in the London assembly, doubling its support to 130,000 votes. And now the BNP is looking to benefit from a collapsing Ukip vote; in 2004 the combined BNP-Ukip vote stood at 21 per cent."

Right now my teeth are chattering and I've developed Inspector Dreyfuss's twitch.

Truth is, the BNP's "success" such as it is, is hardly surprising given the social climate currently pervading Britain. Also, I don't believe that the fact that the BNP is "the most successful fascist party in Britain" is all that momentous. How many fascist parties are there? Neither, in the BNP's case, is every voter or supporter of the party necessarily a fascist or Nazi as Hain and his ilk would have us believe.

Of course, there are Nazis in the BNP, just as there are socialists in the Labour Party, but it's an exaggeration to pretend that all BNP supporters are awaiting a Hitler-style takeover. Hain continues his piece by comparing the rise of the BNP to the success the party –  in its previous incarnation as the National Front –  enjoyed in the 1970s. It's a clever ruse but a total red herring. Back then the BNP was an openly Nazi party. Now the political climate has changed to such an extent that many decent people are resorting to the BNP because they are simply at the end of their tether with the current failed political establishment.

In fact, no political party has done more to spur the rise of the so called far-right than Labour  –  and I say this with real regret. From the very beginning it has virtually handed votes to the BNP on a gold platter. Extremist parties, you see, don't grow out of a vacuum. Parties like the BNP flourish in a certain SOCIAL climate (contrary to what the likes of Hain would have us believe) that defies economic factors. The BNP's insurgency can be traced back to the departure of its erstwhile bona fide fascist fuhrer John Tyndall in the late 90s and his replacement by the more media-friendly Nick Griffin. In other words, its renascence PREDATES economic crisis. Its rebirth –  surprise, surprise  –  matches Labour's period in power. That's actually no accident because Labour has done more to undermine Britain's national spirit –  law and order, social cohesion and that intangible sense of 'Britishness' – than any post-war government.

One of the first developments under New Labour was the Macpherson's Report labelling of the police as "insitutionally racist". This undermined police morale to such an extent that the force was emasculated. The Labour establishment fell for this hook, line and sinker because it encompassed their world view. Only a few brave politicians like William Hague dared to challenge it. For years  – as a consequence –  the Metropolitan Police indulged in a bout of introspective navel-gazing that deflected from the battle on the streets. It became scared of confronting black criminals. So was it really a coincidance that this was accompanied by a surge of inner city gun crime? I don't think so.

The Macpherson report was, in any case, fatally flawed. Organisations are composed of individuals –  nothing more, nothing less  –  and policy is dictated by individuals. To say an organisation is "institutionally racist" is very serious because it implied that certain people were racist in outlook and actions, either wittingly or unwittingly. The police should have said -"Who is it in our organisation you believe to be racist?" That would have wrong-footed the accusers. But, sadly, the police buckled under the pressure.

Meanwhile, this charge of insitutional racism spread like wildfire through other organisations. I witnessed at first hand how some civil service ethnic minority employees exploited the race card when they wanted to escape sanction. And, naturally enough, bosses were reluctant to punish them for fear of being branded racist.

Do you remember Labour's promise to be "tough on crime and on the cause of crime"? Time proved this to be empty rhetoric. In fact, violent crime has risen under Labour. Prisons are full to bursting - not because of increased sentences but because the government failed to have a contingency plan to build new prisons. In fact, judges are under pressure not to impose custodial sentences because of overcrowding. Young offenders are not frightened of serving time anyway(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1160245/Yeah-sweet---sneering-words-killer-said-police.html) because they know sentences will be short (e.g two years usually means one, four means two etc.). Conditions inside jail are so unintimidating that many juvenile offenders actually WANT to serve time, wearing it as a 'hardman' credential or badge of honour.

Too many opponents of capital punishment are stuck in a kind of 1950s time warp, watching reruns of Yield to the Night on TV and invoking the Ruth Ellis case as they thumb through their copy of the Guardian. They fail to understand that crime in the UK now has no rhyme or reason. Appalling cases of mindless violence are occurring on a regular basis. What happens to the victims? They're dead and buried or lying in a coma, long since forgotten, or condemned to a life of endless pain and trauma. Meanwhile, the perpetrators (IF they are caught and jailed) get their meal, telly, hooch and drugs. Can anybody seriously read this story (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1080426/TV-presenter-12-operations-acid-attack-arranged-obsessive-fan.html) and tell me that the death penalty is NOT a suitable punishment for these monsters?

Another reason for the BNP's popularity is that the UK under New Labour has become a sanctuary for a barmy army of Islamic extremists and mad mullahs. The BNP has been outspoken in its opposition to these groups whereas Labour's usual suspects –  Galloway, Benn, Livingstone, have supported them.

Hain ends his piece by saying that "all the main parties, Labour especially, must shake off their complacency and take on the BNP directly". I'm not a BNP supporter but Hain has got it directly wrong. The people of Britain are demanding change from the establishment parties. Above all, it is Labour's complacent attitude to crime that must be addressed. If it isn't, I fear that one day Hain really will have something to worry about.

In any case I suspect that Hain's warning about the BNP is nothing more than a cynical attempt to blackmail the British public into voting for centre-left parties, e.g. Labour again. I doubt if it will work. Labour's reached the end of the road. Time to go.