5000+ people can't be wrong? - or can they?

[ratbag66]

Woke up this morning to discover that I live in a town where 5000 odd supposedly sane people have voted for the BNP (only 400 less votes than the lib dems)!!

The BNP have based they're campaign on a set of lies that I find hard for anyone with more than half a brain cell to believe, yet so many people have chosen to vote for them.

Is anyone else worried by the support this bunch of neo-nazis are getting?

[lilyfrog]

In barking BNP got 4,916 which was only 27 less than Lib Dem.

Crazy Crazy world, especially when the candidate for Barking Richard Barbrook was all over the front page of the local paper on wednesday stating that homosexuality was" .. not a valid lifestyle choice but a form of behavioural deviency with a shocking impact on the health and happiness of those who suffer from it"

how can this man win any votes???

[delilahcat]

To some extent I agree with Andy, but the fact that the BNP have actually polled over 5,000 votes in one town is decidedly worrying. And the problem is that, if the sane and intelligent ones among us get too complacent, we might suddenly find that the support for these neanderthals increases.

'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing'

It sometimes seems that humans learn nothing from past experience.

[kick3m0n]

I don't think I'd like it if I lived in a  town like that.  I'm not sure it's the kind of place where I'd feel comfortable, but then, depending on it's total population, the %age of actual BNP voters is very small.  Andy is right of course, but you do despair of people who can actually think like that, it seems so unevolved in the 21st century.  Thankfully, there are a lot more of "us" (non BNP supporters/voters) than "them", but it would be disconcerting (and actually quite offensive) to know that a BNP councillor was sitting on my local council, shaping the decisions it makes. 

[Loosehead]

We've been through this before. Abhorrent as they are, they remind us of the luxury of living in a society where you can believe and to a large extent say what you like. It is testament to that system that the BNP are allowed to carry on with their miniscule support. Andy is right, disturbing that some support them but encouraging that it is relatively few. You cannot have selective free speech you just have to accept that there will always be minority extremist views. The kind of public whinning that goes on in the wake of the BNP only supplies them with media "oxygen". Remember there is no such thing as bad publicity.

[kags]

In my town, on the day before the election it was revealed that the BNP candidate was to be on trial later this month for dealing heroin and crack cocaine.The party suspended him & told voters not to vote for him but 1036 people still did. I wonder how many would have voted for him otherwise.  

[El D]

Minority parties get votes when the situation favours their radical approach. I suspect without any furore over immigration the number would have been much less. Frustrated voters who want to make a point probably.

[missnicky]

mr griffin and his bnp party are just as entitled to stand in elections as any candidate and as for people slagging off the party just take a look at what george galloway is up to this saddam supporting monster gets elected and no one raises an eyebrow yet to say you are english these days is a crime good luck to the bnp and may they soon claim a seat in the commons

[jno]

Who on earth has been arrested for saying they were English?

And please missnicky, use a full stop from time to time. This isn't a grammar lesson - it's just that it's nigh impossible to read a sentence that just goes on and on without full stops, commas, capital letters, the usual stuff.

[delilahcat]

Yes, missnicky, they are entitled to stand in the elections.We are entitled to slag them off if want to. It's called the right of free speech. Enjoy it while you can, because if (God forbid!), the BNP ever came to power, you'd lose it for ever. Like any extremists, they want you to think and behave like they do. Simple-minded people believe what they say because they are unable to see through the hype to the real agenda. 

People in Germany in the 30's listened to the rhetoric - and look what happened there.

[cruthinboy]

Yes, I agree it's disgusting that people vote for the BNP, when they could vote for the labour Party who  have a perfectly reasonable policy of bombing any Islamic country that rtands up to "Israel" . honestly, makes you despair!