The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

Black Sky Thinking

Voter Apathy Is Responsible For The BNP's Success
Olly Parker , June 9th, 2009 07:57

In the wake of the European Elections, Oliver Parker argues that an end to voter apathy must stop the BNP at the general election

As we all now know, the North East and North West regions have decided, in their wisdom, to send one BNP member each to Brussels to sit as their MEP. You probably saw it as the top trending topic on Twitter, or perhaps you, like me, had seventeen of your friends saying "OMFGOG" or whatever when you logged on to Facebook yesterday. You then perhaps glanced at the pile of post in the corner of the room with your election registration sitting somewhere in the middle and though, "ah yeah, maybe I should have got round to that". Raw data shows that fewer people voted BNP this time round than they did at the last European and local elections — yet they ended up with not one, but two MEPs. Why?

Because too many of you "should have gotten round to that", because too many of you "didn't have the time", because too many of you thought, "oh they're all the same, these politicians, aren't they?" Well, no they're not. Some of them may be complete idiots, most of them speak strangely and occupy a world cut off from you that you don't have the time or patience to understand — but the group you let in by staying at home, by not taking ten minutes out of your day, are convicted criminals. And we're not talking parking fines and a bag of weed here; we're talking convictions for full-blown racial hatred, the like of which would make even the most ardent free speech libertarian chime in with an "actually, let's throw away the key on this one, eh?"

No point hiding your head. The Londoners amongst you who say "it happened in the north" should remember that you already elected a BNP assembly member last year — and if the London vote was repeated at the next mayoral elections they'd only be 0.1% from putting one back there. For those of you who think this is a working class Labour problem, remember that our brand new BNP Councilor in Lancashire was elected to represent a posh middle class village. One of the most telling moments from the election coverage on Thursday night was when an idiotic Tory on the radio, having spent fifteen minutes saying how this was Labour's problem, tried to explain how "such a lovely village" could possibly elect someone from Britain's far right. This is everyone's problem: right and left, North and South.

And for those of you who say "it doesn't make a difference who's in charge", let's take a minute:

London Assembley Member gets suspended for broadcasting false murder claims

Nick Griffin MEP — "Every last one must go":

Think about that "Every last one must go." Everyone of you will know somebody who, by the BNP's criteria, "must go". Just watch the video again — he's our MEP now, and he's selling that idea, before your very eyes. We watch as BNP voters interviewed on TV say, "it's not about racism, it's about our identity"; true, he fooled enough people to get a base, but it's those who have sleepwalked through the elections that have put him there. "Every last one must go" — remember to register. "Every last one must go" — remember to vote. Every last one must know there is no place for the BNP in our society, and that there is only way to keep them out: vote.