Far Right In Britain Today

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29525146

Chilling evidence, if we needed it, of the rise of the far right here in Britain. The BNP may be in tatters after losing its leader and only Euro MEP but coming right up behind are this awful lot.

[ummmm]

Some people join these groups on facebook just because they want to see what they're saying.

[naomi24]

//In the UK, groups like Britain First and the BNP have failed at the ballot box, but could their social media success lead to real support?//

I can't see that this group will succeed where the others have failed. Why would they?

[mikey4444]

Ummmm...if that is true, then I would expect most people would then unjoin, when they have seen how racist the organisation is. But this would not appear to happening. A local shopkeeper in my village had this on her Facebook account, but didn't think it was anything other then some kind of support for injured soldiers, until I explained it to her. She has unjoined.

[naomi24]

ummmm, I'm thinking the same thing. Half a million 'followers' doesn't equate to half a million supporters. I doubt the woman who wrote the item is a supporter even though she's 'following' them.

[ummmm]

You don't unjoin if you want to see what's being said. It doesn't make you a supporter.

[Svejk]

who on earth do you think you are to 'explain' anything to anyone?

[mikey4444]

Naomi...it is just part of the rise of the far right in Britain, something I have been warning about for a long time. There is a growing presence in our society of these organisations.

There are two by-elections today. In Clacton, in 2010, the BNP managed to get 1975 votes, 4.6% and in Heywood they got 3239 votes, with a much larger 7%. In both cases they achieved far more than the Greens and in Heywood, the BNP got nearly 3 times the votes of UKIP. I don't know about you but I think this is a worrying trend.

[naomi24]

Mikey, because of its failure to gain a substantial number of votes, you dismiss UKIP as ineffectual. Nevertheless you worry about this which by your reasoning must be even more ineffectual because it has never fielded a candidate in an election and probably never will. This group will go the same way as the rest.

[mikey4444]

I hope so too Naomi, but the Far Right isn't going to go away. If this group withers away, then it will be replaced by another, and that is what is worrying.

The situation is even worse on the Continent, where the Far Right is gaining real representation and consequently real power. We ignore it at our peril. We have already done that once and we shouldn't be repeating our error again.

[ToraToraTora]

extremism rises when people feel excluded from their own country. We are bossed about by a corrupt foriegn power, our borders are under seige because we have the softest benefit system in the world. Immigrants and foriegners seem to take precidence to the indiginous. Our children suffer because the schools are swamped with non English speakers. The left/right on brigade are systematically dismantling what it is to be "British" - Gawd help us if red Ed wins next May. Is it any wonder people are looking round for something else? OK Britain First is full of racists and thugs but they got one thing right, the title.

[naomi24]

There’s a strange anomaly in all this. The predominant fear seems to be that immigrants are in peril from the far right – but there are none so far right as the proponents of fundamentalist Islam who are also, without doubt, making their voice heard. Just an observation.

[retrocop]

That is for sure TTT.Perhaps they are giving out a message that a lot of the indigenous population actually wish to hear for a change. I am sick of my country being sold down the river and being dismantled into a third world state by the leftists and bolshies.

[andy-hughes]

Svejk - "who on earth do you think you are to 'explain' anything to anyone?"

To whom was your comment directed - I can't see evidence of anyone 'explaining'.

[andy-hughes]

naomi - "ummmm, I'm thinking the same thing. Half a million 'followers' doesn't equate to half a million supporters. I doubt the woman who wrote the item is a supporter even though she's 'following' them."

I am moved to agree with both of you on this.

A relatively small number of actual 'activists' does not present any real threat to democracy in this country.

If you look and listen to the people who turn out for this kind of thing, they tend to be the usual 'followers' who like to feel they belong to something that is actually going to address their fears and concerns in a genuinely effective manner.

In fact, like the BNP, they may make a lot of noise, but their actual impact is minimal - t'was ever thus.

[anotheoldgit]

Sensationalising nonsense, I can't see that half a million followers on Facebook, can be classed as chilling evidence of a rise in the far right in Britain.

[andy-hughes]

I think that just about nails it AOG.

[anotheoldgit]

We hear very much about the far-right, but very little about the far-left, why is this, are they any more a threat to democracy?

[VHG]

I hate the phrase "far right".

Nobody ever says "far left" is a threat yet Stalin, Pol Pot, Chairman Mao etc were all "communist" / far left and between them killed millions of people, very often their OWN people.

You can be concerned about immigration without being so called "far right".

I live on the edge of Birmingham and can see the huge damage done by uncontrolled immigration.

Birmingham has Asian and black ghettos where whites are not welcome, it has schools where 100% of the children are non-white, it has women walking round with burkas not wishing to show their faces, it has mosques popping up everywhere, it has schools being taken over by hard line Muslims, it has drug shootings and drug gangs from ethnic groups, it has people being arrested as terrorists.

I am concerned by that, but I don't call myself far right.

Can you imagine in the 1930s allowing Nazis to come here from Germany and preach their hate on the streets of the UK. Well that is what has happened with Muslims, we have stood back and allowed them to preach hate and threaten to kill the queen and policemen, but have been scared to do anything for fear of upsetting race relations.

THOSE are the reasons these so called "far right" groups are springing up.

If you want to blame anyone for the rise of so called "far right" groups all over Europe blame the weak and spineless politicians who have allowed unrestricted immigration in to Europe.

The "problem" is not going to go away and I can see the time in 10 or 20 years were we have civil war between the "whites" and some of these ethnic groups.

[Ric.ror]

I am sat in an office where one of my line managers openly said 'We (her and her husband) are not in the slightest bit racist BUT we have a BNP councillor and they have cleared all the snow off the paths of the old folk in the village'

I wish I had thought to say even Mussolini got the trains running on time

[andy-hughes]

Ric.ror - "I am sat in an office where one of my line managers openly said 'We (her and her husband) are not in the slightest bit racist BUT we have a BNP councillor and they have cleared all the snow off the paths of the old folk in the village'"

The golden rule is, if someone starts off an observation by qualifying their position in a negative way, that automatically points out that the statement following is going to contract that position.

The prime example is - "I'm not being funny but ..." which absolutely assures you that what is to follow is going to show that the individual is indeed being 24-carrat 'funny' with bells on!