The BNP question (From Durham Times)

The BNP question

2:21pm Friday 5th February 2010

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MOST people in this county, perhaps a substantial majority, abhor everything the British National Party stands for. Despite the efforts it has made to appear a mainstream political movement, it remains on the fringe of democratic debate, peddling its bizarre mix of Toytown economic theory, Little Englander foreign policies and barely-disguised racial hatred.

But to dismiss the modest electoral success it has had in recent years is to ignore what has become something of a vacuum in British politics – a vacuum caused by the absence of any meaningful debate about immigration and multiculturalism.

Opinion is divided about how best to “deal with the BNP”.

Should mainstream political groups engage with it, take to the streets in dramatic political activity, or ignore it.

Given its political gains, it cannot be entirely ignored, even if that might be the most effective way of neutralising its impact. Durham Union Society’s decision to engage, via its invitation to a student debate, is to be applauded because it is only through debate that the full extent of the BNP’s muddled, illogical and vengeful solutions to society’s ills can be understood. Those who, with the best of intentions, seek to deny the BNP the opportunity to speak have no faith in people’s ability to make up their own minds. That is almost as disturbing as the BNP.

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