The British Nationalist

Notice how the other muppets do a runner as soon as the BNP candidate stands to address the hall. What a total lack of respect, this is not just aimed at the BNP but the whole political system.

In effect, Labour had this in the bag, mail bag that is. Postal voting claims rose from 2,000 at the last election to over 7,000 for this by election. It is being widely reported that in the new labour election handbook, not only will every sitting MP get £10,000 of tax payers money to advertise to the electorate but they are being willed to make sure every labour voter has a postal ballot form. Third world politics for a fast becoming third world country.

By Election Correspondent

The only high point of the Conservative conference came when international aid ambassador, cool guy, virtue embodied, dog biscuit-named singer known as Bono – appeared on a huge TV. The elderly Tories wore the facial expression usually the stable of  permanently confused dementia patients, ‘who is this fellow?’, ‘I didn’t know Gerry Adams shaved his beard off’, I imagine were the common sentiments.

He went on to list his usual demands; mainly maintaining the level of foreign aid at 7% of GDP, even though we’re insolvent, even though we’re handing out billions to countries with less national debt than ourselves and space programmes.

The Ultimate Western Hypocrit

Bono is a multimillionaire, he has amassed vast wealth from record sales and tours. Lately, his financial speculation has  led him into the stock market; it was revealed that he is a board member of a private-equity firm which is a minority shareholder in Forbes Magazine, the stake is reportedly worth $250,000,000.

He professes to care for Africa and Africans, his air-miles would suggest so, and yet he refuses to denounce the murderous regime of Robert Mugabe. Oh yes, let us give the tyrants a few hundred million more and leave to hope that some of those funds will reach the poorest, less the fleet of Mercedes S-class’s, less 100,000 AK47’s and palatial mansions.

Since 2005 he has become an annual fixture at the G8 summit of the world’s most powerful leaders, and often appears at the World Economic Forum in Davos. His efforts have earned him three Nobel Peace Prize nominations, in 2003, 2005 and 2006, and an honorary knighthood. Now, I will say this for Bono, he probably does deserve the prize more than Barack Obama, but why oh why do leaders listen, or at least pretend to listen, to this narcissistic, uneducated popstar? The only thing going for the man is a distinctly average singing voice, he’s no Freddie Mercury.

Furthermore, why doesn’t this little annoying man pester his own Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) for funds? Probably because Bono would rather bypass the monkey and go straight to the organ grinder; soon to be European President Blair, another one of Bono’s old friends. I can see it now, Blair’s coronation, complete with the seemingly standard issue, Armani ’sunglassed’, Bono tugging at his coat.

Paul Theroux -Author of ‘The Rock Star’s Burden‘ – put it best: “Mythomaniacs, people who wish to convince the world of their worth.” Theroux, who lived in Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer, added that “the impression that Africa is fatally troubled and can be saved only by outside help — not to mention celebrities and charity concerts — is a destructive and misleading conceit.” I can say it in three words: ‘Bono, jog on!

The Difference Between Left and Right Wing and Where British Parties Stand – An Introduction

For too long there has been confusion between Left and Right wing in British politics.

In economic terms, those on the Right hand of the political spectrum tend to favour low taxation, privitisation and a free market to encourage competition in business so to become more efficient and provide a better service.

Conversely, those on the Left tend to prefer a strong hold over the economy and suggest nationlisation and a tightly controlled market is the way forward.
Those on the far Left favour income redistribution, high taxation and a welfare state to eliminate the social economic class system and promote “equality”.

The British National Party (much like the Green Party), by some of these definition, are economically Left wing.
Their policies regarding health, transport, housing, protectionism and globalisation fall strongly on the Left side of the political spectrum and may explain why they receive so much support in traditional Labour strongholds.

Parties such as UKIP on the other hand profess their support for a freer market and the scrapping of Inheritance Tax, though both UKIP and the BNP stress the importance of reforming the current welfare system so that it acts as a safety net as opposed to the hammock it has become.

The Labour Party after Blair and Brown’s reform (although still economically Socialist in the vaguest of terms) do not hold the same views towards privitisation as Old Labour did.
Tony Blair, though forced to re-nationalise Railtrack, was intent on privitising the London Underground and Royal Mail. This is a far cry from Old Labour policy and has undoubtedly lost the Party a crucial following.

Socially, those on the Right hold conservative values such as an authoritarian attitude to crime, often supporting corporal and capital punishment, are against immigration, asylum seeking and multiculturalism and emphasise the value of National identity and tradition, insisting that social change should be organic rather than manufactured.

Contrarily, the Left argue for tolerance towards (read ‘preferance towards’) minorities, hold liberal attitudes on law and order emphasising the importance of reform as opposed to punishment and imply the state is justified in intervening to create social change.

By this definition the BNP is certainly on the Right hand of the political spectrum when it comes down to their policies on immigration, asylum, law and order, the military and school discipline.
In this sense it is easy to see the parallels between todays British National Party and yesterdays Conservative Party with the likes of Enoch Powell possibly springing to mind.

Today’s Tories under David Cameron could be said to be more ‘Blue Labour’ than Conservative.
Cameron has made massive reforms within the Conservative Party, defeating the New Right and traditional Conservatives in order to implement policies worthy of battling the Labour Party for the Centre ground.

Cameronites supported the idea that significant minorities within Britain were excluded from mainstream society due to economic deprivation and social discrimination.
The advocacy of grammar schools was abandoned, instead taking on board the Labour policy of creating different types of secondary schools that would be available to all irrespective of background.
The traditional Conservative hardline stance on law and order was softened, for example by proposing measures to combat youth crime by lessening the amount of custodial sentences given.

It can safely be said that Labour and Conservatives to lean firmly more towards the centre in comparison to their original standpoints.

It is difficult to accutely differentiate between Left and Right especially when it comes down to Party alignment where it is almost impossible to find one that lands squarely on one side with all its policies.
As earlier exemplified, the British National Party harbours policies that fall both on the Left and Right side of the political spectrum and is thus wrongly described as “far-Right” by the media.

It is therefore better to avoid using these terms to describe a party altogether, rather only to label significant policies as either Left or Right.