Poll: To all UK Escapists - a new BNP thread (please no flaming) (UPDATED OCTOBER 23rd)

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Yes, because their level of debate will get them laughed out of Leeds.

Right into the loving arms of the 85,000 non-white residents.

 

[Yorkshire_matt]

If you exclude one party they should all be excluded. People may not agree with what they have to say but towns and cities in the north of England are becoming/going to become BNP strongholds.
I'm from just down the road from Leeds and here people talking about them more and more.

There's a reason why they are known as "The British Nazi Party."

Personally, let them - hear them out - if only to question them, and scrutinize their answers.

As a political party, they should be able to handle it.

and its the british National Party, not NAZI party, check your abreviations.

 

[DC_Josh]

Let them come and talk, by all means hold this debate. It is very important that everyone, reguardless of whether they want world peace, or world destruction, should have their say in a verbal arena.

When we stop listening to things, the speakers will force you to listen, through often dangerous and unproductive means. By inviting them into a discourse you disarm them of any self discrimination claims they can throw at you. If the educated world had really listened to what Hitler was saying, I personally belive that WW2 would have been a very different affair.

 

[MindBullets]

Let them. They have the right to free speech. You can use that very same right to tell them what you think of them.

It's that simple.

 

[electric discordian]

On a slightly different tack the English Defence League are marching in my home city tomorrow. Lots of angry white supremacists marching through areas of Manchester which are predominantly pakistani and polish etc. This has not been prevented banned or in anyway controlled by our authorities.

This will not end well and I am staying in with my doors locked tomorrow as I'm a man who basically looks like the poster child for racist skin heads!

 

[Deschain]

I think they should be allowed to say their thing. Mainly because it's at a university and most of the students will rip their policies to shreds. We live in a society where you can say anything (within reason) that you want, but that also means that other people can say whatever they want about what you say.

Convoluted, I know, but I think I made my point...

Us students are a Harsh Breed. =D

We are indeed. *Sinister laugh*

 

[randomrob]

Let them come, then we can arrange to have the building bombed... no seriously, you should let them otherwise it's playing into their whole 'there's no free speech any more' mantra. they're gonna get murdered on question time.

 

[Yorkshire_matt]

There's a reason why they are known as "The British Nazi Party."

and its the british National Party, not NAZI party, check your abreviations.

You seem to think i'm an idiot.

That was intentional, it's a well known joke aimed at the BNP.

You should check your references and humor meter.

I Know alot of people who think thats what the BNP actually stands for

 

[BlackJack47]

I don't agree with them but they should be allowed free speech, just as i should be allowed to call them whatever i want.

 

[UKDeek]

I don't normally get involved in politics (normally very dodgy ground, same as I try to stear clear of discussions surrounding religion and football...), but I personally think you should allow them to come and voice their views.

Don't get drawn into demonstrating or throwing things or anything else like that, as their talk / lecture / presentation will get cut short and they will get valuable media exposure stating they weren't allowed to state their views and tell the people what their party is all about.

You should let them speak.

Why? Because I have always noticed the BNP make some very convincing initial statements stating how they would get the country back in order, but when left to clarify this their speakers can't help themselves and then inevitably end up spouting racist nonsense. I heard one young member of the BNP on Radio 1 recently likening 'white' people to an endangered species and that 'white' people need protecting or they will become extinct.

With lunancy like this any decent thinking person, who remains calm and uses cold hard logic will be able to pull them to shreds.

It would be nice to think the people present could behave in a civilised manner and present awkward, well thought out questions to the speakers and allow them, the BNP, to get angry and show themselves up to be the 'thugs' and not the students.

 

[Trivun]

I heard one young member of the BNP on Radio 1 recently likening 'white' people to an endangered species and that 'white' people need protecting or they will become extinct.

I agree with your entire post, but I just want to clarify one thing. They were on Radio 1, arguably one of the most popular radio shows in the country? In which case surely there's no problem with allowing them to speak at a university or indeed, as some have suggested, on Question Time? After all, I'm pretty sure that the listeners of Radio 1 constitute a much larger number of people than 30,000 students in Leeds, let alone the 200 maximum that you can fit in most lecture theatres on our campus...

 

[BonsaiK]

Don't let them do it. Treating them seriously legitimises their beliefs.

People who have a political platform of disrespect to others don't deserve any respect themselves.

 

[UKDeek]

Trivun, it was on Newsbeat which is the department that prepares and broadcasts the news on Radio 1 - I believe they had been doing a feature on the BNP all day, but (if my soggy memory serves me well) it was the lunchtime / afternoon broadcast I heard, which is 15 minutes of news as opposed to a brief bulletin. But, the BNP were on Radio 1 - they had a brief interview with Nick Griffin who likened the BNP to the Black Police Officers Association... you can't join the Black Police Officers Association if you aren't black, so he claims it is only right that you can only join the BNP if you are "ethnically british", although I don't think he actually clearly stated what "ethnically british" was...

*edit*

Found the transcript of Nick Griffin's answers to listeners questions: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_10000000/newsid_10002000/10002098.stm

 

[effilctar]

I voted yes for one reason. Think, we're pissed off with Labour atm so a large number of us probably won't be voting for them in the upcoming election. Cameron recently made a failure of a speech on how UK is bad but said nothing on how he'd improve, so he's lost voters. The Lib Dems get by by saying "we disagree with everything the current leaders agree with" so voting with them could create a paradox. The last thing we'd need is a fascist party getting more publicity for being denied their right to free speech.

 

[Ambarato]

Oh this is very simple. Let him talk as much as he wants, just make sure the audience doesnt heckle him down and the other panelists get to counteract his points. The BNP strive on peoples fears and they build upon peoples bad experiences. If you don't let them have their say then it is basically saying that the British public are racists that will believe their crap. Their supporters are mainly just gullible fools who have never heard a counter-point to a BNP argument.

 

[Chipperz]

They get sympathy from people who haven't yet worked out why everyone hates them. The best course of action is not to fight hate with hate, but with dissaproval and discrediting - let them turn up, let them speak, and then ask them what should happen to the Ghurkas who fought for their country in World War 2, why tax-paying Indian shopkeepers who have been here for generations should be forced to leave, and what exactly constitutes an "English person" in a way that can't be summed up as "me" or that excludes over half the country.

 

[Raven's Nest]

Fuck this, the flame thrower's coming out for these guys!

I hate everything the BNP stand for and sincerely wish someone would assasinate them...

And this comes from a White, 100% English man...

It's people like the BNP who actively create the problems in the world. It is our tolerance of this groups which makes the UK and USA such a target for Al Queda. Hell, I would actually link arms and fight with them against people like that.


Edit: I apologise that this post in no way answered the question or contributed in any beneficial way to the topic... I'm tired and writing on an iPhone and I hate writing essays on this infernal machine!

But while i'm here again I may as well state that I do not believe the BNP should ever be allowed to speak publically. Being openly racist and intolerant should deprive them of this right surely?

 

[A.I. Sigma]

Choice: No, other.

While I do believe in equality and free speech, why should a party that discriminates and denies equality be privilaged with what they take away from other people? Why should they be given equality if they don't believe in it themselves?

Yes, they have rights, but so do the people they're discriminating on national television, putting ideas into the heads of certain people and influencing them to be to discriminating to others. There are more non-white people in Britain than BNP members and supporters. Let their rights be considered first.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Agreed. By stopping them from doing what they have every right to do (Discuss their policies with the public) we are giving them a chance to claim unfair treatment which can be more damaging.

Let them talk, let them explain their policies, and trust that the majority of British people are not stupid enough to follow a bunch of racist, homophobic bigots.

The problem here is the British people contains a lot of racist, homophobic bigots, or as they are more commonly known, "old people". If our older generations and some of our more senior pub-goers and taxi-drivers were to post in this here thread we it would look considerably less one sided. I am personally worried that giving this man a platform to spout his shite is going to increase his vote, and thus will make some of the more extreme elements of the Tory party think that they could get those votes by becoming more BNPish themselves, thus let extremism in through the back door.