Springtime for Wannabe Hitlers

David Weigel | May 5, 2006

The racist British National Party has beaten expectations to win a total of 44 local council seats in the UK's elections. In the London borough of Barking and Dagenham (which should be familiar to Morrissey fans) they picked up 11 seats - making them the 2nd biggest party in a local government for the first time, ever. The reason: Barking and Dagenham is a popular settling ground for Muslim immigrants.

There's some hand-wringing and speculation over whether this is the start of a far-right fascist revival like the Le Pen movement in France, or whether it's a flash in the pan. Check out BNP leader Nick Griffin's hilarious BBC interview and noodle whether this guy has the stuff to take over a country.

UPDATE: If it's not immediately clear, you need to click on the video link at the top right of the BBC page to see the interview.

Comments

|5.5.06 @ 10:28AM|#

ROTFLMAO! More seriously, how long will it take politicians to learn that they should read their own websites before appearing for interviews?

|5.5.06 @ 10:34AM|#

Does anyone else think calling someone "Barking Labour MP" is funny?

|5.5.06 @ 10:37AM|#

Maybe it's a flash in Le Pen.

|5.5.06 @ 10:37AM|#

There's some hand-wringing and speculation over whether this is the start of a far-right fascist revival like the Le Pen movement in France, or whether it's a flash in the pan.

The "Le Pen movement?" The Front National is a something more than the collection of some voters around a singular personality. Of course Le Pen would not describe the Front National as fascist, he would say that it is:

Ni droite, ni gauche, fran�ais.

(I am not defending the Front National; if I were French I'd never vote for them.)

|5.5.06 @ 10:39AM|#

The Beeb had an interview with a local govt employee (I think they said he was mowing the grass in a park) who had voted BNP. He would normally have been a reliable Labour voter. He was something else. It's funny we are not normally exposed to the "lower orders" in other countries. It was quite an eye-opener.

Aparently a lot of Britons believe that immigrants get huge cash payments and preferential treatment in housing. Sound familiar?

Warren|5.5.06 @ 10:52AM|#

What's up with the interview link? It links to the same BBC article at the top of the post. There are some quotes by Griffin, but no Q&A that could be called an interview. I certainly don't see anything "hilarious" in there.

Wikipedia informs me that the BNP is of the "Far right" and according to its constitution, the BNP "stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples". That certainly makes them sounds like a bunch of neo-nazi douche-bags.

However, the Griffin quotes in the BBC article make them sound much more reasonable, even appealing:
"When you look at some our results elsewhere in the country where we've hammered the Conservatives as well, this is a revolt against the entire liberal political elite by the hardworking people of Britain who resent being taxed to have our country transformed."

"We're not a Nazi party. People can look at our manifesto online and see we're committed to a libertarian position in many things, and most certainly to the extension let alone the maintenance of democracy."

Also www.bnp.org.uk is not responding (at least to me, at this time) so I have no idea what SR is talking about either.

|5.5.06 @ 10:56AM|#

Great. Now I'm gonna have the Strangler's Dagenham Dave running through my mind all day.

|5.5.06 @ 10:58AM|#

Warren, on the BBC page click on the "Video" button under the headline "Nick Griffin speaks about his party's election gains" in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

|5.5.06 @ 11:09AM|#

Barking Labour MP Margaret Hodge

That's not a very nice description of this lady.

|5.5.06 @ 11:13AM|#

Watching that interview made me hear Pink Floyd's "Waiting For the Worms" in my head.

Warren|5.5.06 @ 11:32AM|#

SR,
Thanks

The "I'm quoting your website" was a great gotcha. The bit about no choice in school lunch, registered on the loony tune meter. And there were other things I disagreed with.

However, on the whole I thought he was well spoken, and less ridiculous than other British politicians. I don't see that it rose (or sank) to the "hilarious" level.

Of course the fact that Griffin says some things I agree with, and denies being a racist while exposing racist policies as core principals, doesn't make him and his party any less a band of asshats.

I'm just saying, I don't see that this yahoo would, on the whole, be a net decline from the dingleberry they got now.

|5.5.06 @ 11:34AM|#

Is there a chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Barking? The Barking MADD? (I can hear the groans already.)

|5.5.06 @ 11:36AM|#

jf,

It reminded me of The Police's "Rehumanize Yourself."

|5.5.06 @ 11:41AM|#

I hear they have a lot of spiders in Barking.

|5.5.06 @ 12:00PM|#

Don't be so dismissive.
Haven't you heard that "Le Pen is mightier than the sword"?

|5.5.06 @ 12:02PM|#

This "wannabe Hitlers" stuff is ludicrous, however distasteful their actual ideas may be. Have they announced any plans to conquer Europe?

|5.5.06 @ 1:14PM|#

I am the Law around these parts!

|5.5.06 @ 2:13PM|#

Ah, NoStar, I'll take the Penis Mightier for $1,000.

|5.5.06 @ 2:33PM|#

Wouldn't LePen be considered more of a Chauvinist (in the original political sense)?

|5.6.06 @ 5:46AM|#

I think John McCain is the wannabe Hitler.

|5.8.06 @ 12:49PM|#

Wow.