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Date Posted: 19:24:54 05/03/02 Fri
Author: Perceptor II
Subject: Thoughts
In reply to: FawnDoo 's message, "Worrying news from the English local elections" on 13:51:05 05/03/02 Fri

Seems the British National Party, the far-right nationalist group who want an "all white Britain"

Yep, that's what you guys need, to be even more homogenous. *rolls eyes*

have gained two seats on a local council........not good news which seems to have outraged a lot of people.

I think I would have the attitude to let those voters have what they want. There's downsides to that I know, and it's probably not the right attitude, but I think that would be my primary attitude.

However, as one commentator on the BBC website has pointed out, voter apathy in these elections seemed to be very high and so these people were able to get in with their usual minority vote.

"Minority" vote. What an ironic term! :-p

That's what happens with voter apathy. The extremists end up running things. Of course, there's still hope that the extremists will cancel each other out.

People are comparing these gains to the French right-wing Presidential Candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, being elected to run for the Presidency.

He's the guy who's being accused of being an anti-Semite, right?

Are these people being alarmist?

Possibly. The danger of such a party gaining control of the government is probably greater in Britain than it is here, with the whole "separation of powers" thing and a larger population, but I'd think that it's still rather remote. Even assuming that only voters with extremist interests voted, they'd be different end up fighting amongst each other, rather than pass a lot of worrisome laws.

I would see their point if the BNP had got into Parliament as opposition party, or had a credible chance of fielding a BNP Prime Minister, but as it is they are an extremist fringe who have managed to cash in on the economic deprivation of one area (Burnley) to gain some seats

Yeah, that's basically how I see it. Britain is big enough that it'd be extremely difficult to convince a majority to buy into that sort of agenda.

......or do you disagree? Is this a worrying trend that you can see continuing?

Call me pessimistic, but I don't see racists going away any time soon. It's human nature to hate and fear that which is different. Fortunately we're at least civilized enough that most of us can overcome this prejudice, but I think we may always have people who can't. However, I think Western society is far enough along in terms of racial understanding that such groups should stay on the fringe.

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