So One In Five Support The BNP? So Few?

I don't think the so-called "chattering classes"--of which I suppose I'm an honorary, if rather down-at-heel, member--should be too surprised at the poll which said 1 in 5 British voters would consider voting for the BNP, unless the surprise is caused by how minimal the poll suggests their support still is.They do reflect a strong vein of opinion in white British (and to them there is no other) life when it comes to immigration.

A great many white British people think there are too many "foreigners" in the country; and their scorn is not just reserved for those with darker skins than theirs--they curse the supposed preponderence of Polish people walking our streets and renting our mouldy over-priced terraced houses as well. "The Government's just letting anyone in," they'll tell you (I've heard it); though if you ask any of them for statistics relative to other European countries or immigration levels twenty years ago, they won't be able to give you any.

It's a feeling, you see, which is why it's so difficult to challenge; and as far as I'm concerned the feeling comes from racism. Listen to those same people, those people who think "something should be done" about immigration and admire Mr. Griffin for having the "courage" to try to do it, even if they profess not to admire all his methods (fearing, I suspect, the Nazi comparisons that are attached to him and his party). Among the worried white voters I know racist jokes about, and stereotypes of, Indians and Pakistanis are freely heard; so is the racist nomenclature. And anti-Muslim sentiment is as commonplace as ignorance about the Koran.

The latter has spread like a plague since the twin towers were destroyed and the buses were bombed in London. And in light of the horrors of those attacks it's almost understandable. When you feel that your lifestyle is threatened you draw in, become defensive, unreasonable about the person you perceive to be your enemy. It's a shame the Muslim-beaters I know can't see that this tendency in them is the same tendency we see in some quarters of the Islamic culture. And we aren't allowed to see what our guns and bombs are doing in Afghanistan, what they did in Iraq. What horrors were perpetrated there in the name of the spread of democracy? (other than the 800,000 Iraqis who died in that war, I mean).

Our political classes like to reassure themselves that Britain isn't a racist country; that we are to the last man or woman generous, open-hearted, gentle liberals whose destiny it is to nurture and suckle the world. I don't think that's true. I don't even think it's necessary to strike fear of difference completely from your heart to be considered an acceptable human being. But there's a meanness in the British character now (whether it was there before or not I don't know); there's an intolerance and a readiness to commit violence against the objects of our judgement which makes the dialogue on race that Mr Griffin has set raging not only distasteful, but frightening.

Let's have actual statistics on immigration from an objective source before we decide whether anything needs to be done about it. At the moment everybody, including me probably, is shouting their opinion from a point of view of complete ignorance.

And let these people who express sympathy with the BNP, but hide from themselves and from us behind the mask of polite concern for the state of the nation, understand what kind of party they are proposing to elect . If you put a cross against the BNP candidate at the election you are supporting, ultimately, the exclusion of all non-white people from the political debate and the forced repatriation of anybody who wasn't born pink-skinned singing "God Save The Queen" under a giant flag of St. George. You are also endorsing the leadership of a man who denied the Holocaust and finds the sight of two men kissing "creepy".

If that's okay with you, vote BNP with the blessing of everybody. But for Heaven's sake, stay away from my door.And be honest about your bigotry.