Despite all the free publicity, the BNP is fizzling out

So, where's this BNP breakthrough, then, eh? There's a protest vote on the doorsteps, alright, but it's steering well clear of the national-socialist party which Norman Tebbit aptly describes as "Labour with racism".



There's nothing British about the BNP

There was a moment when I feared that the BNP dummkopfs would benefit from Labour's well-intentioned attacks. While a tiny number of people might be attracted by the BNP's racism, and a handful more by its Left-wing populism, the party's main appeal was always likely to be as a stick with which to belabour Labour. Whenever I heard Harriet Harman or Tessa Jowell saying "Whatever else you do, please don't vote BNP", I winced. Some voters, I thought, might say to themselves, "Right then, if that's the thing you bastards are most frightened of, I'll do it".

Happily, it seems British electors are above such calculations. We know that the last thing the UK needs is a retreat into hard-Left protectionism. We won't express our concern about parliamentary malfeasance by voting for convicted criminals. We don't get excited about uniforms and shiny boots and führerprinzip: we leave that sort of thing to foreigners. Above all, we understand that our country is defined by a civic, not an ethnic, sense of nationality.

Twice in the last century, millions of young men crossed half the world in order to take up arms for a nation they had never set eyes on, because they felt loyal to its values. To prejudice the equality of British subjects before the law, to deny the patriotism of Britons whose fathers chose to settle here, is unfair, ugly, alien - un-British. The video says it all (kudos to Tim Montgomerie http://www.nothingbritish.com/ ): there's nothing British about the BNP.

Telegraph

Voters must hear the truth about the BNP before it's too late

There is nothing British about suggesting to a black child who was born in Britain and loves this country that he's not welcome here, writes Tim Montgomerie.

I have long believed that the best way to defeat the British National Party and other extremist groups was to deny them the oxygen of publicity. That belief was shaken when I talked to two people in Salisbury cathedral after Sunday morning worship. We were having a pleasant conversation about the state of the nation and they suddenly mentioned that they'd be voting BNP. My jaw dropped.

It quickly became clear that they had no idea what the BNP really stood for. They said that they liked its patriotism and opposition to political sleaze. They wanted to register a protest vote. I asked if they knew about the Nazi ideology that many BNP activists followed. I asked if they knew about the party's preference for an all-white Britain. They didn't. They were horrified and promised to find a different vehicle for their protest vote.

The no-oxygen strategy was successful only when the route to publicity was more or less monopolised by a few TV channels and national newspapers. Without any attention from the mainstream media, and because Conservative governments pursued firm immigration policies in the 1980s and 1990s, support for racist parties declined.

It's different today. The most popular political party website in Britain is owned by the BNP. Its most watched YouTube videos receive many times more views than any videos put out by David Cameron. The ether is buzzing with pictures of Gap-style line-ups of young BNP supporters attempting to normalise their party's brand. Without a hint of embarrassment their leader, Nick Griffin, even talks about learning the lessons from Barack Obama's online campaigning.

This use of the internet has contributed to a comeback by the party. It has been winning council contests and, helped by the introduction of proportional representation, it won a seat on the Greater London Authority. Now, most experts expect the PR electoral system to help them win seats in the European Parliament on June 4. If victories are achieved, it will be the biggest story of the election and Britain will no longer be able to proudly say it has kept fascists out of high office. The BNP will have a new platform – funded generously by European taxpayers. Support for the extremists has grown because of failures by the Labour Government on jobs, welfare, housing and immigration. Its support has also grown because of cosmetic change. The skinheads and boots are gone. Suits are in.

But by not contesting the ground we are giving them a walk-over on the critical playing fields of the internet. That's why I'm supporting a new online campaign to expose the party's true beliefs. The Left already have websites that target the BNP. NothingBritish.com is the first attempt by the centre-Right to offer a critique. It's a very focused campaign at present, but we hope it will grow into a very substantial resource that will ensure all moderate opinion shuns the BNP.

There will be those who argue that this campaign gives the racists the attention they crave. However, they already have got the attention. The BNP wants to define itself. It's vital that decent, mainstream Britons define it instead – before it's too late.

The main difference between the BNP and other parties is their determination to deport, one way or another, the non-white population of the UK. Most Britons want to reassert control of our borders. They want fairer allocation of housing. They want more jobs. The BNP wants you to think it shares those aspirations. But they are not the party's core motivation, which is still a belief in a largely all-white Britain.

There is nothing British about suggesting to a black child who was born in Britain and loves this country that he's not welcome here. There's nothing British about the BNP's core beliefs.

Tim Montgomerie is part of the NothingBritish.com campaign against the BNP.

Telegraph