The BNP has established a benchmark for how smaller parties canadvance. There are lessons to be learned there and it is futile to denyit.
The Labour party is dying, and fascism is on the rise. Where does the working class go from here?
‘May you live in interesting times’ is anold Chinese saying. You might be forgiven for assuming it is a blessingbut in actual fact it is intended as a curse. Of course, how you mightregard the inherent implications of some major political or socialupheaval most probably depends on what end of the political or socialspectrum you inhabit.
In any event, for good or ill, ‘interesting times’ we are certainly in.
In 1994, at the beginning of the Blair era, Labour MP Roy Hattersleysuggested that ‘the working class would continue to vote for Labourwhatever the party does’. A number of years after New Labour had takenpower in 1997, when the cracks between the governing party and theworking class electorate were already beginning to emerge, mostly inthe form of a collapsing turnout at elections, it was all airily wavedaway by current Justice Minister Jack Straw. He described the gatheringdisengagement as ‘the politics of contentment.’
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Approximately a decade ago the modernised BNP, under the control ofa new leader Nick Griffin, gave cause for concern when they took 26% ofthe vote in a council by-election in Bexley in Kent. An alarmed Guardiancovered the story on page two but despite the evidence, then and since,their true potential has consistently been underestimated and decried,particularly by ‘professional’ anti-fascists and the orthodox Left.
In the run up to the local elections one poll commissioned by The Observerput their support level at just one per cent. If accurate it meant theBNP would do five times less well than in 2004. So don’t be fooled whenthey tell you that the recent success was purely down to the expensesrow — if that benefitted anyone it was UKIP, who were down and outprior to the election. This has been a long time coming. Wishfulthinking fools no one, least of all the BNP.