Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has said ‘hope always wins out’ after news that the Electoral Commission has removed the British National Party (BNP) from its register of political parties.
The decent and fair minded British public have stood up against the BNP and all they stand for – intolerance, hatred and an organisation that worked to stoke fear wherever they could. Britain is a little better off today because of this news, but we should always be mindful that the just because the BNP have fallen off the register, they could come back. We also still have organisations like Britain First working to fan the flames of intolerance.
Today is a victory for the thousands of people and organisations like Hope Not Hate who worked to make the case for an inclusive, welcoming and outward looking nation.
* Chris White is a member of the Liberal Democrat Voice Editorial Team, a Liberal Democrat Councillor from St Albans and Deputy Leader of the LGA Liberal Democrat Group.
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6 Comments
thank god for fptp?
Excellent news indeed there should be no place for such extremism in the UK. Although there will always be people with extreme views. On both left and right. As well as the clear and present danger of religious extremism corrupting the Islamic community in particular. As the article quotes Britain First as well as the English Defence League and similar organisations.
Well, yes….but actually they are a bunch of incompetent prats who couldn’t get it together to send the Electoral Commission £25. And as was pointed out on Political Betting yesterday, there is a clear correlation between the decline of BNP support and the increase in votes for UKIP (and to forestall our UKIP readers I am not suggesting that UKIP is a racist party).
Not very liberal, Ronald. In a true democracy we have to accept that there are people whose views run counter to the mainstream, both on the left and the right. It is surely better that they are in the open to be exposed for what they truly are.
PR can keep such organisations out, if we adopt the German 5% ‘Sperrklausel’, which means that a party has to poll at least 5% of the popular vote to get representation in parliament. On the other hand, if they do overcome this hurdle, surely the liberal view would be that they are entitled to the seats, assuming they are clever enough to register as a political party!
As well as Hope Not Hate, Tim Montgomerie’s ‘There’s nothing British about the BNP’, also deserves praise.
Many of the die-hards have indeed migrated to other parties, but the important lesson to be learned is that the leader whatever he was called, helped bring about its downfall not only by incompetence but by appearing on Question Time.
tonyhill: UKIP pretty much *are* racist in pinstripe, though.