Would you have objected the Blackshirts being interned during World War II?

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Wed 9 Mar 2011, 23:10, 2 replies)

It's one thing to suggest that those who actively sympathise with an enemy power ought to be detained whilst the country is at war with said power, its another thing entirely to ban a party simply because the politics are distasteful.

The difficulty with freedom of speech is that people tend to use it to say things that other people may find disagreeable.

As abhorrent as I find the BNP's politics, the bit that disturbed me most during the recent elections were the TV pictures showing the twisted, hate filled features of the anti-fascist campaigners screaming at the spam-faced-hate-monger. It wasn't clear where one side started and the other ended.

Don't martyr them, treat them as an irrelevance.
( multijoy, Wed 9 Mar 2011, 23:28, closed)

The BNP are cast from the same mould.
They're the party of choice for madmen, convicted criminals and council estate scum. I say "party", they're more like a terrorist group that wants to seize power by violence and intimidation.

Perhaps the best way to deal with them is with psychological warfare - give them disproportionate attention and large amounts of corporate sponsorship, then plaster them all over every form of media for as long as people can tolerate them and then a bit longer. This will mean a) the general populace will be so irritated with their overexposure they'll rapidly become the most hated people in Britain, b) with greater exposure there's more chance of Nick Griffin fucking up, revealing his admiration of Hitler and having a colossal temper tantrum live on national TV, or c) both.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Wed 9 Mar 2011, 23:39, closed)

Council estate scum?
Careful now. 'Scum' is the very language of the BNP, and to apply that epithet to people simply based on where they live is exactly the same thing you accuse them of doing.

The BNP are simply irrelevant. They survive only through the oxygen of publicity, be that negative or positive. Every egg launched at Griffin is one more thing he can point to and say "they're trying to silence us, we must have an important point to make". Every politician who engages with them only serves to legitimise their goals.

But, and this is the big but, this is a democracy. You proscribe a political party at your peril, especially if they actually have a modicum of support; like nonces, they're best kept where you can keep an eye on them.
( multijoy, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 8:44, closed)

A ready-made fifth column at a time of war?
Let's turn this around a bit then Woodsie, do you object to the interment of British supporters of the Taleban at present?
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Thu 10 Mar 2011, 4:32, closed)