Posted on 05/03/2002 8:05:04 PM PDT by Spar
Right-Wing Wins British Elections
Fri May 3, 3:51 PM ET
By BETH GARDINER, Associated Press Writer
BURNLEY, England (AP) - The anger that once exploded into riots in this ramshackle northern English town made itself felt again this week, more quietly but with equal power.
Voters put three far-right anti-immigration candidates from the British National Party on the city council, prompting outrage in the political mainstream and fear among many foreign-born residents.
"A stain on the town," proclaimed the local Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
"Good luck to them," said Geoffrey Haworth, a BNP supporter.
David John Edwards, Carol Hughes and Terence Grogan took three of the Burnley Council's 45 seats, the extreme-right party's first electoral victories in nearly a decade.
They were the only successful candidates among 68 the BNP ran in local elections around England on Thursday. The Labor Party easily retained control of the council in Burnley, a town of about 90,000.
The small BNP victory — less than two weeks after an impressive showing in France by right-wing candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen _had no national significance in balloting for almost 6,000 seats on 174 English town councils.
The elections, which were followed as a barometer of public opinion but had no significance for national government, went well for Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s Labor Party, which had feared public disenchantment over rising crime and failing services. Labor had some modest losses and the mainstream opposition Conservatives made modest gains, but not enough to signify that the Tories were making a comeback as a credible threat to Labor.
The BNP concentrated heavily on Burnley and a handful of similarly rundown former milltowns where unemployment and racial tensions run high.
Party leader Nick Griffin lauded the victories as a major step forward, saying Friday they marked the beginning of a right-wing resurgence.
"It's a tremendous breakthrough," he said after Grogan's win was announced. Griffin predicted "an explosion of growth, new membership, new branches and particularly come (elections) next May, hundreds of winnable seats."
Many disagreed, pointing to the BNP's dismal showing nationwide and arguing that Burnley voters had supported the party because they were dissatisfied with the status quo, not because they hated outsiders.
"They've got poverty problems, they've got drugs problems and if you turn around and say 'those people over there are the problem' some fools listen," said Terence McCabe, 29.
Shahid Malik, a Burnley Labor Party official, said mainstream parties had to counter such scapegoating.
"We've got to expose the BNP for the Nazis that they are so they aren't able to hoodwink the people as they did last night," he said.
The BNP, which advocates sending immigrants back to their countries of origin, sought to capitalize on the mistrust that burst into violence last summer
White and South Asian teens clashed in Burnley and several other northern towns, the country's worst racial violence in years, throwing bricks and firebombs and jarring the nerves of Britons who see their country as tolerant and harmonious.
The party's candidates told voters that the 7 percent of Burnley residents who are from minority groups received a disproportionate share of public resources, money that should be going to whites.
Mainstream leaders called the charge a lie, but voters in neighborhoods that supported the BNP repeated it again and again.
"The white people have voted because they want their share ... a fair share," said Kenneth Shapcott, who whooped and clapped when Grogan's victory was announced. "Burnley town council, by their racialism-in-reverse policies, are fully responsible."
The outcome of these recent elections in Europe, IMHO, is a backlash against a media and political elite that has simply dismissed an honest discussion about assimilation of immigrants...and not an endorsement of an "all-white society".
I think you are right. There are intersting times ahead for us all. Aside from the occasional high-visibility terrorist attack, the MO for these heathens is to emmigrate into a country, reach a critical mass, begin exerting political pressure, destabilize the society, and then take control. The critical point is when they gain enough influence to mute the opposition (usually through their influence on weak politicians and the PC media). Marxists must indeed be in deep envy.
It is happening in the EU big time right now. They may be starting to wake up, but the socialist PC influence is very well imbedded into their socieities. Will have to see how they respond (study France, England, Germany). Violent crime could become the last straw for them.
However, this scourge is coming our way too! Better get prepared. Main difference is: faced with a steep increase in violent crime perpetrated by radical muslims, the "rank and file" will step in to take care of them. If they think that they are ferocious, they will be very surprised indeed.
You have described the political conditions in California exactly. Thank you.
I agree with you, but it's sad if they can't do better than that.......on the other hand, maybe that is what it takes to get some reaction.
Oh, are you right, in Denmark they had a young Somali coming on vacation, he would be selling drugs openly on the streeet, he would get cought, sent home......... back 2 weeks later, he kept doing that, and all officials were AFRAID to charge him, and thats the kind of thing which makes it easy for the extreme to get support.
Sadly true. Have to add to the formula: degrade constitutional protections by liberalising the judiciary, create an ignorant, government-dependent populace by infiltrating and coopting educational institutions, throw the borders open to uncontrolled immigration.
Shocking!!
The rioting in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford was caused by the far-right. The British National Party, the National Front and Combat 18, they act as "agent provocateurs". Before each of the riots, the NF and C18 had been stirring up trouble in areas mainly populated by asians. After a few weeks of this sort of activity and plenty of verbal and physical intimidation, all that was required to start a riot was a small incident. I know because I was in Bradford and I witnessed the NF and C18 taunting peaceful asian residents. They also tried to do the same thing in Sunderland, but the Police stopped them, something that should have happened in the other cities where rioting occurred. The asians were reacting to provocation from the NF and C18.
The BNP deliberately facilitated the riots so that they could profit during the elections from the resentment felt by local white people towards the asian community. It’s a cynical right-wing political strategy, in the old tradition of 'divide and conquer'.
If you don't believe me then look at what David Copeland (the Soho nail bomber and a member of the BNP) told the Police after he was caught: "…my aim was to start a race war in this country, there'd be a backlash and then all the whites would go out and vote BNP".
Also look at what kind of people lead the BNP and the NF. The BNP Election Organiser, Tony "Bomber" Lecomber, has been jailed for a nailbomb attack. Terry Blackham, National Activities Organiser of the National Front, has over twenty convictions for violence and was sentenced to 4 and a half years after being arrested boarding a ferry to Northern Ireland carrying submachine guns and a grenade launcher. Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, received a two year suspended sentence for inciting racial hatred when he published literature denying the Holocaust.
I didn't know the FBI had infiltrated British right-wing groups too. Gosh they're everywhere, aren't they? Well, there's not much cookin' over here and they have a lot of time on their hands. They need to keep busy because we all know what idle hands are....
Yes the law is especially tough on those who tell the truth. Look what happened to Living Marxismwhen they dished the truth on corporate media giant ITN's coverage of Bosnia....
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