A sad day for democracy

[B2019]

The BNP has somehow won 2 seat in EU...
I have lost all faith in my country and democracy.

Anyone who supports the BNP want to somehow try and explain how the BNP is going to help in any way?

[Spike]

What is it?

[Megadude]

They won because of people not voting. Even the BNP didn't get as many votes as they did last time AFAIK, but a lot of people, (idiots), decided that they would make their opinion heard by not voting, so BNP won. It's the non-voters who we need to blame for this. Voting is how you make your opinion heard, not staying away from the poll centres. It would be good if we could move all the non-voters to a small island off the coast, and let them be rules there by the BNP, then they may get the message that they should vote instead of being a bunch of lazy arses and not voting. I'm just glad my area doesn't have a BNP MEP member, although they did come 5th.

Spike - BNP is a political party called the British National Party. It claims that it is going to do stuff for Britain and the British people. However, a lot of the people in it are completly xenophobic. They basically think that to live in Britain, you have to be their version of British, i.e. white skin, born and bred in Britain, etc. If you want an examle of this party, think of the Nazi party before they got into power.

[Sathor]

The German CDU lost 6% or so (still 38%, though) - which is a good thing. They are the Christian Democratic Union, I don't know to which foreign party you can compare them, but most crazy ministers and other politicians are from that party. For example those wanting filters (for child porn, they SAY) on the internet and want to ban "violent" (very open definition) computer games. Anyway, the results showed that the traditional big parties (which are 5, including the CDU) have more older voters than younger. The Pirate Party Germany didn't make it yet, but scored about 0,9 % of all votes.
Right wing parties did get more votes then it should be, I agree. But left wing isn't that cool either. And at least in Germany, even the moderate big parties are fucked up currently.

[B2019]

Its scary to think of what the future of the UK is going to be as the Tories are going to be in power after the next general election and the BNP is now going to be looked at as a serious party. A lot of people would vote for the BNP but know that its prolly going to be a wasted vote and vote Conservative (Tories for people not from the UK). Now people will think the BNP has a chance and its going to be a lot easier for them to rally support. Not to mention the fact that we are in the middle of a credit crunch and there have been record job losses and the BNP offers up easy blame for those who have lossed their job.

[Sorrow]

Same thing is happening in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe, for some reason a lot of people decide not to vote and nationalist parties are surging ahead.

It's sad yes, but the main reason why these parties are getting seats is because they're the only ones not willing to compromise and have a clear point of view for most people to understand.
I think both the left and the right should draw their conclusions from that and communicate more openly to the people what they want exactly and don't deviate from it, we've already had our share of twists and turns these last few years.

This is ofcourse all based on politics in the Netherlands, I don't really have a clue about what's going on in the UK or elsewhere.

[Mess]

I don't think it's a sad day for democracy - people voted for BNP, so they got seats. That sounds exactly like how democracy is supposed to work to me. It would be a sad day for democracy when people start questioning the public's choice of vote.

[Sacul15]

This is what happens when we as a culture promote democracy ahead of rights and freedoms. It's not a sad day for democracy, it's a great day: the majority of the people got what they wanted. It is a very sad day for freedom, however.

On another note, how is the BNP a "far-right political party" (Wikipedia)? I don't know much about the party, so maybe someone can enlighten me.

Central to the BNP's domestic policies are greater share ownership and the establishment of worker co-operatives. The party advocates the provision of extra resources for "especially gifted children" and the reversal of closures of special needs schools.[16] It has proposed that repossessed homes should become council houses, to prevent these being sold off cheaply to undercut private sellers, and to provide housing for those who need it.[95]

The party supports animal welfare (such as the banning of Halal and Kosher slaughtering and the phasing out of factory farming) and environmental policies, supporting Greenpeace in its fight against Japanese whaling ships and the RSPCA's campaign against the docking of dogs' tails. [96]

Since when does being racist make you right-wing?

[Woe Kitten]

It's terrible that people voted for the BNP here in GB but it's pretty straight forward why it happened.

a) We have a lot of racial tension in certain towns in the North of England because:
- Our country has failed to invest or support the north for a long time
- Immigrants to our country are treated very badly and as such are often very poor
- Poor people move to where they can afford to live, which often tend to be already poor areas with already high unemployment.
- If you take a large number of unemployed people and move them into an area with high unemployment you are likely to spark tension. It has little to do with race and lots to do with competition for scarce resources but if you are a poor person in that situation it is hard to see it from a detached perspective. Hence racial hatred.

b) We have had a massive political scandal in this country with perceived and actual corruption being blown out of any reasonable proportion and we have a Prime Minister who, despite actually being very good at most parts of his job, is not nearly 'showbiz' enough to maintain support in these tabloid led times. Thus Labour have lost a big portion of their votes (particularly amongst the tabloid readers). Labour is a left wing party but if you step too far to the left you end up on the extreme right. Many of the left wing supporters of the Labour party have moved to the extreme right because of poverty, ignorance and propaganda. Because Labour usually controls the areas where the BNP have won, their collapse has created an opening for the BNP to exploit.

c) In an economic downturn people get desperate. Desperate people need someone to blame. Race is the easiest thing to blame.

[Major Banter]

As my dad so well put it:

"Labour are fucking useless scrounging twats, Conservatives are slimeballs and power hungry, lib dems are full of old gits scratching thier bollocks and UKIP are totally and utterly crap."

All that's left is BNP.

But a more important point is the fact that since so few vote (just 38% here in Norfolk, which is bugger all really) those that actually believe the Fascist policies are able to get thier vote in edgeways, as the normal votes that swamp them have declined dramatically.

Frankly, I personally see this as an opportunity; we need a government to rise out of the dirt and show the country what it needs: The people to be left alone, our money to be spent properly, and our kids not getting pregnant until they're 20.

[Megadude]

Sacul15 - never trust wikipedia when it comes to political parties. They can alter it how they wish to make them sound appealing, and leave out all the bad parts. To give you an idea about how bad they are, think about this - how many political parties are there that the police are now banned from joining?

To find out more about the party, check out this undercover documentary.

Rotinaj - there were 9 or 10 parties taking part in the elections, so BNP were not the only party left. There were plenty of other parties to choose from that don't promote racism and discrimination.

[Sacul15]

I really hope Europe hasn't forgotten its past. Because of the harsh times, the people elect politicians who promise an end to all their economic and social problems, but are so blinded by the promises they forget to actually take a good look at whom they are voting for.

Sound familiar?

[zombie@computer]

I really hope Europe hasn't forgotten its past. Because of the harsh times, the people elect politicians who promise an end to all their economic and social problems, but are so blinded by the promises they forget to actually take a good look at whom they are voting for.

Sound familiar?

obama? bush ? mao ? kim jong il ? (oh, wait, he wasnt chosen)

[Major Banter]

Rotinaj - there were 9 or 10 parties taking part in the elections, so BNP were not the only party left. There were plenty of other parties to choose from that don't promote racism and discrimination.

Problem is, they're just at rubbish as the others. They either don't have the funding, or the leadership. Look at the Green party, I don't want a bunch of hippies in my garden. However, I do see your point - it would have been better to do as the Hindi communities have and voted for a shitty party, as oppose to the BNP.

[Mr-Jigsaw]

Bet you wished you lived in a two party system now, eh?

Just kidding, but seriously, you say they won seats in the EU parliament, well, might as well just leave the EU.

And I think that Sacul was saying that their policies seemed somewhat left-wing in so far as the excerpt was concerned, not that they weren't bad or anything. But after all, it is wikipedia. So then,would you mind telling us Americans exactly what the BNP stands for? I mean like fiscal and social policy, not all the supremacist stuff.