Monday 8 June 2009

If the BNP knew our history ...

The BNP win their first seat in the European Parliament.

Hope Not Hate have already launched a Not in my name petition to be presented to the European Parliament when the BNP arrive.

The first MEP Andrew Brons gave a rather muted acceptance speech, stressing that he was a former politics teacher and banging on about the d'Hondt formula in the style of the more anorak-ish type of old Liberal party councillor. Nick Robinson of the BBC had some interesting information about his National Front background, and suggested some National Socalist appreciation society affiliations too. No doubt more will be revealed.

The BNP think they are proud of our history, but perhaps they could learn some more of it.

It is not just the chutzpah and ignorance of a racist party using second world war imagery in a campaign to win seats on the weekend of the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

I was rather surprised to hear Nick Griffin say this in their electoral broadcast.


In the end, the answer to the question “by what right should native britons be put first?” can be seen on every war memorial in the country. Just think with me for a moment of all those names carved on those cold, sad slabs of stone. English names, Scottish names, Irish names, Allied British names. Nobody else’s.


Conservative activist James Barlow blogged some pictures of Commonwealth War Graves which suggest otherwise, in a very effective post on his blog.

There was an excellent Guardian letter from Alan Shaw of Norwich, noting that he had served during the second world war in the Indian Army, also making this point.


I served throughout the second world war in the British army. This included four years with the Indian army, which expanded on the outbreak of the war with Japan to approximately 2.5 million, all ranks, the largest volunteer army in the world. This was at a time when the UK armed forces were at the limit of their manpower resource. That Indian army won many VCs and lost very many Indian officers and men killed in action in what was a war against extremism. Its Indian officers and men looked for, and received at its end, independence from British colonial rule.


So one way to counter political extremism - let's teach British history properly in our schools, so even the far right as well as the rest of us might learn something about who we are and how we got here.

2 comments:

jailhouselawyer said...

I cannot help thinking that the whole point about a united Europe was in response to the Nazi atrocities during World War 2. Never again would such fascism get a grip in politics. Now the unthinkable has happened.

Last night it was suggested that the BNP should not be tackled head on. I beg to differ. In my view, Griffin and Brons can and should be challenged legally under EU legislation.

Anonymous said...

In my opinion, it is both a failure of the National Curriculum to teach the Holocaust and its origins in moderate facsism in a 'Socialist' party, and a failure by politicians to not just say that the BNP is bad, but to say why they are bad. If the public knew their policies, they would not vote for them. Surely 10% of the voting public in the North West is not racist?