We Need Positive Politics to Defeat the BNP

On Sunday night, the BNP had two MEPs elected to Brussels. Less people voted BNP in these elections than had done five years ago, when we last elected our MEPs. The difference is less people voted in the elections this time around, so the BNP gained a higher proportion of the vote. They won because the electoral system worked on what proportion of the vote each party got, not on how many votes they got.

This was not the breakthrough that the BNP are claiming, but a failure of mainstream politics, and the major parties especially, to promote positive politics. Just imagine you're the kind of person who thinks it's a good idea to vote, but not worried if you don't remember or aren't available to. You watch the party political broadcasts and see the main parties attacking each other. They tell you why not to vote for the other lot, and what you end up deciding is that they're all as bad as each other, and not voting at all.

It is those people, who haven't thought about the BNP, who would never consider voting for the BNP, who have become dissolutioned with mainstream politics; those are the people that we need to convince to vote again. Negative politics will only drive away more people from voting. We need positive politics to push up turnout.

Unfortunately, today Nick Griffin was attacked by a group of members from Unite Against Facism when he attempted to hold a press conference on college green, outside the Houses of Parliment. I really do understand what the protesters were trying to do. I am a proponent of no platform for the BNP and other racist groups; however they thrive on publicity, and the press conference would've had a ten second stint on the evening news, if that.

What was guaranteed by the demonstration was a wall to wall coverage all afternoon on the news channels, with live interviews for Griffin on the BBC and Sky. Griffin himself summed it up by saying it was a massive own goal. It made it look like Griffin and the BNP were the victims, and was a huge negative for the anti-racist campaign.

As I mentioned above, the BNP's vote actually decreased in these elections, we're not going to get anyone else to stop voting for them by continuing with negative politics. All the parties need to tell the electorate why they should vote for them, and show why their policies are right, and in a positive way. Until we do that, the BNP will continue winning seats when they stand in elections.

Lets be positive to beat the BNP.

JR