Fuckity fuck ...

[blamebrampton]

Dear BNP,
Fuck off.

Dear Labour Voters who voted for the BNP,
It may shock you to realise this, but David Cameron is a decent person and while I may personally disagree with many of his party's policies, they will not destroy the country. Giving power to a bunch of racist thugs will. If you must protest, and I accept there is a lot to protest, vote for the Conservatives. That you should vote for those execrable scum in the BNP at the same time as celebrating the 65th anniversary of one of the greatest stands against fascist bigotry the world has seen should fill you with shame.

B

Comments

[georgia-hawkins.livejournal.com]

Hear hear! The thought of Nick Griffin representing my country makes me feel physically ill. Alternately, the Greens make a nice happy protest vote.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

The Greens are always a good protest vote, though the people voting BNP presumably thought they were too soft. Which is of course ridiculous, it takes real intestinal fortitude to commit to recycled toilet paper, everything else aside ;-)

[georgia-hawkins.livejournal.com]

Ha! Too true on the loo roll front- I reckon I'd make a pretty good environmentalist if it wasn't for the chafing.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

There are some good ones, and all better than handfuls of grass (don't get me started on the grass ... Bloody communes!)

[georgia-hawkins.livejournal.com]

Tell you what's really not good- newspaper. Leaves print all over your arse. Gosh, was that too much information? :P

[curia-regis.livejournal.com]

I can't help thinking that maybe these protest voters had more in common with the BNP than the conservatives. :| I mean, they had to have chosen to vote for the BNP for some reason...

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Because the BNP position themselves as a party of the people. The Labour Party used to hold that position, but since severing many of its traditional links with the unions, it's seen as being less for the working man and more for the middle class.

And, of course, when times are rough, there is form for England moving to the right. Twenty years ago I had a screaming argument with a skinhead which I won by pointing out that I was whiter than him, so therefore, by his logic, I was righter and smarter than him. I had hoped we'd moved on.

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

I 'did' the count in our county on Friday for the local seats, and one borough in our county had four (count 'em) second and third place placings for BNP district councillors. We were actually resigned to getting at least 2, so the fact that the seats went Tory instead has been counted as a blessing, and I never thought I'd hear myself say that.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

It's all a question of perspective, isn't it? I keep looking at Cameron and thinking 'Well, you're not a complete cock, it's not the worst option.' Of course, today I found myself thinking that Lord Mandelson was being kind and thoughtful, so clearly these are strange days indeed.

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

Mr Cal, who has never voted in his life (don't get me started...) likes Cameron. I don't particularly although at least he doesn't look like an automaton when he smiles, unlike Brown. Problem with the Tories (yes, lots of them I know) is that Mr Cal and I will likely both be out of work when they inevitably get into power.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

It won't be such an issue if you've a book on the bestseller lists by then, though.

And actually, will you? I would think that after shamelessly flogging every single 'We fail these children!' case for the last five years they would be honour-bound to increase services. Or is that hopelessly naive?

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

The Tories do not believe in the youth justice system, and nor are they in favour of ensuring the plebs and downtroddens in every community are given a voice and allowed to contribute to decision making in their locality. So yeah - shit for us.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

So, youth crime and violence will still be Labour's fault because they failed to solve it while spending money on it? That's Thatcher redux!

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

I think you'll fid the stance they use is that Labour took a namby-pamby approach to problems that needed electric cattle prods, a remote island, and a canister of botulism.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Kinder, gentler conservatism sounds just like old school conservatism, then.

[aella_irene]

Grr, yes. This was the first time I was able to vote (being proxy for my father when I was 8 doesn't really count), and I voted Lib Dem, due to one of the candidates being my father, and the other being a man I have met more than once, once at school and once at a Lib Dem wine and pizza evening when I was 14 or so.

I hateses the BNP. Hateses them.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

That's because you're sane. And the Lib Dems are fine and worthy, though unlikely to appeal to new BNP voters for the same reasons as the Greens. Alas.

[aella_irene]

If it is possible to be born into a party, I was born into the Lib Dems, and in their publicity 'Look how many women we're trying to get into parliament' as a toddler. Not that I can remember this, but my mother still has the photo. Dear Lord, I was a hefty baby.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

But very handsome, I am sure!

[goddessriss.livejournal.com]

The problem is that the BNP are positioning themselves as the natural home for 'Old' Labour supporters. We always used to joke that in County Durham, where I live, Labour could run with a monkey as a candidate and still win. (Oh look, Hartlepool re-elected theirs as mayor...) It saddens me that people would rather vote for these bigots than for any of the other parties or even for an independent candidate.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. And of course those people would rather bite off their own leg than vote Tory. But I do think there is a sizable difference between upholding the Struggle and voting for a party that thinks racism is an excellent plan. Of course, some of the independents are even worse ... I will never understand this way of thinking.

[goddessriss.livejournal.com]

I'd rather eat my own feet than vote BNP. Like you, I just can't understand why anyone would.

Mind you, politics in general is a dreadful mess here at the moment. You know what scares me? Mandy is essentially running the country. *shivers*

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

It's worse than that, he's the least bad option to be doing so. *Shivers more!*

[goddessriss.livejournal.com]

Thanks to you, I can't see him without thinking of Draco hiding under a desk to escape him. This makes me giggle every time. 'Course, everyone just thinks I'm laughing at him because, hey, that's what you do... ;-)

I try not to think about the other options. I'd not stop crying.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

At least he brings a smile to your face. And Draco can have fun while under that desk ... And Mandy is quite clever, I think. Either that or unbelievably lucky.

[goddessriss.livejournal.com]

I forget sometimes just how clever he is. I think it's because when he does screw up it's in such a spectacular manner! Did you see those emails he sent last year to Draper about the PM? He writes dispassionately, very clinically, about how best to handle him. Almost like a psychiatrist. He reminds me of one of those 'special adviser to the king' types that you always get in fantasy novels - you know, the power behind the throne, architect of all plots o' doom, the one one who trips himself up with something bloody stupid and ends up dead. God, I read some crap.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I've little experience of them in fantasy novels, but there are several great examples of them in history, including Machiavelli himself. And yes, exactly right as to the archetype. The funny thing is that he was not wrong in what he wrote, only in committing it to type when a phone call would have sufficed and left no trace.

[goddessriss.livejournal.com]

You d find that sometimes the cleverest people are utterly lacking in common sense (or are feckless, as my dad puts it)!

[oddishly.livejournal.com]

I just can't get my head around the fact that there are (against all evidence) intelligent, knowledgeable people out there that actually chose to vote for them against, oh, ANY OTHER OPTION AT ALL EVER. And that so many people didn't vote at all, even if just to keep the BNP out, is nauseating.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Perhaps some of the people who chose not to vote were doing so because they could not bring themselves to vote BNP? *Searches desperately for silver lining*

[astarael02.livejournal.com]

I know! When I woke up and found out this morning I was like :O :O :O

How did that happen???

If you don't like labour, vote conservative, lib dem, green party! Resort to BNP only when there are NO MORE parties in the world, people! Argh.
Plus, I think it was yorkshire and the northwest who voted BNP, right? I live in the northwest and I go to uni in yorkshire. Oh, the shame :(

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I will absolve you of any slappings you feel obliged to administer in the next few days. Magistrates may not, so you might want to be careful about using this power ...

[astarael02.livejournal.com]

*puts on cunning disguise and gets out slapping-fish...*

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

*Cheers you on!*

[empress-jae.livejournal.com]

sheesh, and i thought american politics and voters were frustrating. ;)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Oh they are, but they're not alone ;-)

[pingrid.livejournal.com]

Oh Brambram, why are people so STUPID? Everything would be so much easier if the would just be smart instead!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

It really would. And it makes me cross because it's only 20-odd years since the last time we went through this cycle, and if I am old enough to remember it, it's too recent to require a redux!

[cassie-black12.livejournal.com]

The really scary thing is that I think a lot of these people genuinely believe in what the BNP are saying. They actually think that if only we got rid of all the immigrants that the recession would just disappear.

I know a few people who voted for them -- and they are the kind of people you wouldn't necessarily imagine to be supporters. Believe it or not, I work with an asian guy who voted for them - go figure.

Thank God we have the 'first past the post' voting system here, otherwise we could be looking at the first BNP MP.

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

I rather thought that any party whose campaign flyer begins with "We're not racist" had pretty much said everything about themselves that needed to be said.

Lib Dems are a good bet for protest votes - ineffectual, but harmless.

[mabonwitch.livejournal.com]

I'm rather dumbfounded by the countries with more than two actual viable options...

Also, however contradictory it may be, I am simultaneously committed to democracy and feel that some people are too stupid to be allowed to vote. Sigh.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

I can't get over the number of people who actually voted for the BNP. Almost a million. :( What the fuck are these people thinking? (Possibly a protest vote, as you say in this post, but jesus, anyone but the BNP as a protest vote.)

[alicambs.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear! Racist, fascist scum bags the lot of them.

And where the hell where the LDP! I feel like I wasted my vote.

[sarcasticpixie.livejournal.com]

*ignorant and American, the subject toddles over to Wikipedia*

According to its constitution, the BNP is "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948." The BNP also proposes "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home."

...so there are Labour voters who signed on with this? Good Lord. I thought Labour was all Gordon Brown and dancing on Maggie "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SOCIETY!" Thatcher's grave and Cherie Blair and Hugh Grant's character in Love Actually.

I think David Duke might still have some lovely white cloaks hanging around for these folks...