The Elephant in the Room

The BNP have made further inroads into the UK political scene. I think there are a number of reasons.

Firstly, everyone seems to be running round blaming MPs expenses as a strong reason why people have placed their cross against the BNP candidate, but I think they are wrong. I don't believe the BNP would be the party of choice per se for that protest vote.

One thing that the BNP have managed to do recently is to market themselves better than previously and it shows in the fact that their literature tends to give them a better face. They could do even better if they didn't occasionally have a spokesman go into rant mode. This is a lesson that their opposition should learn. If the BNP can show themselves to be more acceptable, their detractors need to put up a better attack than "Don't vote for them, they are evil and rascist!". That is a statement, not an argument. The problem is that this will just incite some to vote for the BNP out of sheer cussedness as they won't be told what to do.


This morning a Tory MP was saying that the public do have concerns about immigration and they need to be proplerly addressed. That is correct but who is going to tackle it. To even discuss that there might be a problem with immigration is to invite a charge of rascism against you.

For the past five and a half months I have been sorting my ex-girlfriends benefits out, the last 8 weeks concentrating mainly on trying to get her housing benefit sorted. As always in these situations you chat to people in the queues. I met a guy last week, probably in his 70s, white, dressed in blazer and tie. He told me he had been trying to get some housing benfit but it was hard going, not just in the form filling etcetera but because he really didn't want to be doing this. He had been paying his way for all his adult life and to ask for a handout was shame for him. A couple of places ahead of us a newly arrived resident to the area was with an interpreter as they spoke no English. They asked for a housing benefit form, and then when they were given it asked for two more as their cousins needed it as well. Now, how should that old guy deal with the situation? Be told to toughen up as he is entitled to his benefits and it's his own fault if he doesn't claim them? Be proud to live in a country that invites people in and lets them receive benefits virtually from day 1 despite never contributing to the country or even speaking the language? I have no idea what way he votes obviously, but I can see how the BNP might just appeal to people in his position.

For myself, I doubt I could ever vote for the BNP but then the only party I've ever said I would never vote for was the Labout Party. This is why the BNP have a chance to make huge inroads into the voting publics psyche with the correct marketing. Don't expect them to go away soon, they are the elephant in the room.