alien.jpgI know they’re racists. I know they’re fascists and totalitarians. I know they’re liars and frauds. I know they’re criminals. Enough about New Labour, though, I’d like to know what exactly is so scary about the BNP?

The British National Party stand to gain at least one seat in the European Parliament at the coming Euro elections. That seems pretty much unavoidable at this point. They’re being helped along, obviously, by the fact that just at the moment any of the mainstream parties calling them crooks and liars is much like the pot describing the kettle as decidedly stainless-steel-looking. From the way some (particularly those of a ‘Sunny’ disposition) are talking about this, though, you’d think the world is about to be destroyed by Red Matter.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t see why.

Back in the strange place we like to call reality, not only do the BNP (slightly disturbingly) represent the views and beliefs of a statistically relevant number of, well, British Nationals, but gaining a seat at the Euro elections is about as relevant and useful as coming fifth place in whatever the Fourth Division is called nowadays. There really isn’t that much call to be scared.

Euro elections are near enough meaningless at the best of times – even the Lib Dems have managed to hold seats without inflicting any serious damage. There’s a reason that turnout at Euro elections is pitiful, even in comparison to the embarrassingly low General Election turnout, and that’s the fact that we, the voters, recognise the futility of choosing a candidate, and the pointlessness of the whole charade.

What’s more, if the Liberals and Lefties who are most concerned about the rise of the BNP ever do get the Proportional Representation electoral system that they so long for, the BNP will become a fact of life. If only half a percent of the people in this country feel the way the BNP do (and I’d hazard a guess that this would be an underestimate) they’d have several seats in Parliament under Proportional Representation. It may be an unpleasant fact of life, perhaps, but much like death, or Windows, it’d be a fact of life which we just have to deal with.

I’m not suggesting that the BNP are anything other than a vicious and vile party, of course. They are clearly not deserving of the space they occupy, and there’s certainly nothing British about them. The BNP are no scarier than the Monster Raving Loony Party, though1. They have less influence than UKIP, for God’s sake. Who gives a damn about such a miniscule and unimportant force in politics? We really need to stop talking about the BNP as if they’re some kind of genuine threat.

The people who are actually doing damage to Britain, right now, are Gordon Brown and his cronies. They’re the ones in power, they’re the ones busily driving the country so quickly towards the cliff edge that in another year we may have lost our credit rating, be borrowing from the IMF and have to spend decades repaying the debt they have accrued, with little or nothing to show for it.

I think we’d do well, as a nation, to go ahead and ignore the side show of the BNP and worry more about what damage Labour are going to do next. At least that way, we’re shining the spotlight where it deserves to be shone.

  1. Of course, the MRLP at least have a more coherent policy platform… [↩]