August 08, 2010

Democracy's Great Pageant: BNP Nominations About to close in the Great Free & Fair Leadership Contest.

As the deadline for the close of nominations in the BNP's Leadership Challenge draws near, I thought it may be helpful – for the benefit of any passing trolls – to give a quick run-down of the pro's and cons of your various contenders.

Nick Griffin

Con:
Past Baggage: Holocaust denial, a history of making inflammatory, racist statements and the small matter of once having made a speech in which he outlines how the BNP are just going to “pretend” to not be racist bigots, but they are really. No matter how Griffin tries to squirm his way out of this one, it'll always be there, both in print and on video. This alone should bar the man from ever gaining the public trust. In much the same way as my once collecting every album recorded by Donovan should automatically wreck my own chances of ever running for public office.

A Divisive, Dictatorial Party Leader: No leader of a modern political party has ever run his or her outfit in the way Griffin conducts his. Concentrating all power to his own diktat and sacking, suspending and excluding perceived opponents at will, Griffin has alienated so many people in his Party that the result was inevitable.

Choice of Friends: Jim Dowson, Clive Jefferson and Arthur Kemp. Not exactly the Bloomsbury Set of politics.

No Grasp of Media Presentation: From the downright idiocy of the Marmite episode to his bizarre appearance on Question Time – an hour spent wriggling, giggling, propounding his bizarre racial theories and generally demonstrating the kind of incisive grasp of human history we haven't seen since the days of Eric Von Daniken – Griffin may see himself (and be admired by his followers) as a seasoned old TV pro', but to the rest of the Nation he's got all the charisma, presence and easygoing charm of Peter Sutcliffe guest-presenting Loose Women.

Financial Dealings and Allegations of Nepotism: Look. There might be a perfectly innocent explanation for all of the allegations. It could be that everything Griffin and Dowson do is open, honest and above board. It could be. No, it really could. Honest.

Pro:
Owns a suit.

Richard Barnbrook

Con:
Owns a suit. Several suits. All the same. Assuming he's trying for a Martin Bell, Man-In-The-White-Suit-Saviour-Of-British-Politics shtick, the choice of a muddy beige is unfortunate, in that it merely comes across as second-division. It's like Superman couldn't be bothered one day and decided to wear trackies and a polo shirt instead.

An Obvious Spoiler Candidate.

Loose Cannon: Allegedly suffers from a drink problem. Although no-one outside of his close circle will ever know for sure, Barnbrook's appearances at Mayoral Questions and various episodes captured on video in the past certainly point to a man with – how best to say this? - some eccentric ways about him. The very fact that he can share the same room as Boris Johnson and, by comparison, make the Mayor look a model of coherence and gentlemanly decorum speaks volumes.

Pro:
You've got me there.

Eddy Butler

Con:
Lack of Personality: Such a lack in fact, as to constitute a potentially dangerous “Personality Vacuum”, as proposed by scientists a CERN. If, the theory goes, he were to come into contact with another such Personality Vacuum – say, an Orlando Bloom or Michael Gove – the resultant Personality Black Hole could suck in all charisma for miles around. Also, he's the spitting image of Patrick Malahide, who I don't think I've ever seen playing a Good Guy.

Past Baggage: Butler, although he attempts to portray himself as the Fresh Start Candidate, carries much the same baggage as Griffin: The NF past, several less-than-sensitive articles and pieces of writing under his name and a seeming complicity in everything the Leadership got up to until he lost his BNP job. It has been easy for the Griffin Camp to portray Butler as a Man With A Grudge.

Pro:
A level of support among senior Party Figures and influential characters of the far-Right. Richard Edmonds, Jonathan Bowden, Michael Barnbrook, Nick Cass, Scott McLean, etc. Unfortunately, the sad truth for Butler is that while these people might be well-know to anoraks like us, they're probably a mystery to the lumpen majority of Members, whose limited grasp of their own party is that Nick Griffin IS the BNP (and they've never heard or read a bad word said against him, at that).

Derek Adams:

Con:
Who?

Pro:
Who?

So that's it. Not much of a choice. Saying that the BNP tends to attract the Confused, Antisocial and downright Sleazy is a little like saying that the Nobel Prizewinner's Club appeals to fairly bright people, or that there are a surprising number of young, single men at a sci-fi convention. The truth is, of course, that Griffin has so rigged the entire process as to virtually ensure his own continued stewardship of the rapidly sinking enterprise.

A change of Leadership would make little difference to us – they're all cut from the same grubby cloth. The Press and the undemanding Membership may be fooled for a while, but the damage, this time, runs so deep that it's hard to see how they can ever pull back from the brink.

Whatever the next step is, come Tuesday, things look bad for “The REAL Opposition Party”™. Talk of bankruptcy, sex scandals, shady financial dealings, splits, expulsions... What next? The tragic disappearance of Griffin from a French Beach, leaving behind only an extra-large, neatly-folded cummerbund?

The Far-Right will always be riven with factional infighting: It's the one thing they share in common with the Far-Left (as a student I once shared a flat with another Socialist. Within a fortnight the two of us had split into five opposing factions). This time, though, they've decided to take the whole, tottering edifice down with them.

13 comments:

Wisteria said...

This is my stab at the permutations.

1) Butler gets enough sigs on the BNP form

2) Butler fails to reach target on BNP form

3) Butler gets enough sigs on own form, declared valid

4) Butler gets enough sigs on own form, declared invalid

5) Butler fails to reach target on own forms

Can't think of anything else, unless anybody else can do it better.

1) 25/1

2) 4/5

3) 15/1

4) 2/1

5) Evens

Anonymous said...

Butler has a higher chance of getting the number on his forms not the yellow ones as half the people didn't even get them.

Anonymous said...

what about going to court option lol

Anonymous said...

"to the rest of the Nation he's got all the charisma, presence and easygoing charm of Peter Sutcliffe guest-presenting Loose Women."

You, sir, are a fucking comedy genius. You're wasted on here, but long may you continue to undersell yourself. This blog has always been a compulsory read for keeping up with what the bad'uns are up to, you've made it an essential

Anonymous said...

Bulter won't get enough nominations on the official forms but will on his own ones. If loads of elligible members didn't get the official forms then Bulter has an excellent chance in Court in getting the whole thing ruled invalid.

The atmosphere is so toxic in the bnp now that if Bulter doesn't win eventually then he will split off and form a new party as Tyndall did in 1980. Tyndall's split later became the BNP.

The Lecomber's comment about the moribund state of the Party is interesting and important. The average BNP member is a fairweather one with a woeful level of political understanding. Essentially they're a bunch of bigotted Powellite Tories and very few could be classed as 'fascist'. It's true that Kemp has run educational workshops in order to improve things. These attempt to inject some "Nationalism 101" into selected would-be cadre. This is real 'Janet and John' stuff about the basics of the 'Corporate State', 'opposition to Usury', 'disguised anti-Semitism using code-words and inference' etc. but most the the attendees leave clueless. This is one reason why Griffin has had to bring in so many people from his NF past. At least these people have some political understanding about the "old cause" unlike the new intake whose politics comprise a mix of populism, extreme victimhood and wooly 'we're not racist' bigotry. They don't strike me as the types who are in it for the long haul.

anarchist said...

Hey, lots of women go to sci-fi conventions.

Compared to BNP conventions anyway.

AndyMinion said...

Just a thought, but isn't an election (with specially printed, individually numbered voting slips, mass-mailings, pre-paid reply envelopes, tellers, etc, etc), quite an expensive thing to run?

How could the skint BNP even afford such an enterprise anyway?

In the meantime, I'll have a quid on 1.

Astute gambler that I am, it can go on the list alongside The Rams winning the F.A Cup this season and Gri££in being voted Man of the Year by The Voice.

Barbara said...

I'm going with 4 - butler gets enough sigs on his own for, declared invalid.

Anonymous said...

I would think that Butler must have enough on his forms, but I would be surprised if he got them on the yellow ones.

AndyMinion said...

@ Anarchist. Not the sci-fi convention I was dragged along to, years ago.

I like to think that the Suicide Bomber, waking up on a cloud, finds himself surrounded by 72 pudgy young men wearing Star Trek tee shirts and fiddling with iPhones.

And after reading some of the vile filth on the Talkboards aimed at Shelly Rose, I think I can see why most women would avoid the Nazzers by a mile.

Griffins pie dealer said...

I think Griffo is intending on using the costs of this leadership race as the excuse to collapse the bnp. Like all his other money making scams, it is doomed to failiure and the best he can do is skim off what he can before resuming his place at the euro trough.

Reminds me off a little child throwing a 'if i can play with it . . nobody can' tantrum.

Anonymous said...

can I please have an each way bet, 1 box of choc ices on 1 and 1 box of choc ices on 3

OK I dont really understand betting, but am going with my belief that Griffin/Dowson will allow a proper election

tulip

Anonymous said...

Rumours starting to come through that there has been mass suspensions of Butler's supporters today from the BNP, letters having been falling through dozens of doors up and down the country.