The Guardian’s Jamie Doward has written a solid piece on the disguised horrors of the BNP in the run-up to the European elections. I recommend studying its messages before voting this week. It may seem simplistic to suggest that in the wake of the MP expenses affair that the BNP’s membership is likely to increase and though the danger may be slight, its diluted presence is fearful enough for me.
The BNP fall alphabetically as the first group listed on my postal vote form. I don’t know who to vote for this year, yet I know the matter of suitable MEPs representing us in the EU is important, but my political leanings feel quashed and tempered by these recent financial revelations. Who is there to believe in and inspire us? Who can we trust? Not the BNP. Not ever.
My local MP and all round good guy (imo), Sadiq Khan, used his newsletter wisely this week:
Dear friend,
On Thursday it is the elections for the European Parliament.
In this week’s email, I’m going to ask you to do something I don’t think I’ve ever done before. That is, I am asking you to vote on Thursday even if you do not vote Labour; instead I’m asking you to vote for a mainstream party to stop the BNP winning any seats in the European Parliament.
The European Parliament is elected on a proportional representation (PR) system. This means that the 8 seats in London are allocated depending on the proportion of votes each party receives. The more people that vote, the harder it is for the BNP to win a seat.
Let me be clear – BNP candidates might now wear suits, and look reasonable. They may not use overtly racist, anti-semitic, xenophobic, Islamophobic or homophobic language – but as Sunday’s Observer highlighted – scratch the surface and they’re still the same nasty far-right extremist party they always have been.
If the BNP win a seat in the European Parliament, this will give them credibility, hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax payers money and an opportunity to build links and form coalitions with other fascist parties in Europe.
Do we really want the BNP to be sharing best-practice and getting ideas from other far-right fascist parties from across Europe?
Labour has a good record in Europe. Our MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) have been trying to make sure that the EU works for all Londoners – from protecting consumers from rip-off prices, dangerous goods and poor environmental standards to working to protect Londoners from cross-border crime.
However, I am not asking you to necessarily vote Labour on Thursday – please just vote for any one of the mainstream parties, and make it as difficult as possible for the BNP to win a seat in the world’s most diverse and brilliant city.
Stuck, I turned to the internet, specifically Vote Match.
This from Shane Richmond of The Telegraph’s technology section on the site:
“Vote Match, created by the pressure group Unlock Democracy, matches voters to parties based on a questionnaire submitted to all parties to find out their policies on key topics. Unfortunately, The Conservative Party and the Labour Party declined to answer the questionnaire so their answers were based on their public policy statements. The BNP, however, rejected the whole process as “inappropriate” and were left out. Also missing are NO2EU, the Christian Party and the English Democrats.”
My results?
| Party | Match |
|---|---|
| Conservative Party |  33/61 |
| Labour Party | 29/61 |
| UK Independence Party | 18/61 |
Good grief.