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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited May 18, 2009, 19:05
Re: Fuel for extremists?
May 18, 2009, 18:33
Merrick wrote:
head-first wrote:
I was considering whether to bother using my vote in the upcoming elections, but this chap on the TUC website might have a point:

"Refusing to vote will not stop a single councillor or MEP getting elected. Instead it will simply make it much more likely that extremists - particularly those peddling race hate and intolerance - will be elected. This is a particular danger in the Euro-elections where the proportional system allows people to get elected on a relatively small share of the vote."


This is an absolutely vital point.

Turnout at European elections is always low anyway. This time the mainstreamers will stay at home, and the share of protest votes will go up. A lot will go to the BNP. If they score over 8%, they get seats. And they also get hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money.

It's fucking vital we turn out and vote for anyone but the BNP.



Too late. They have been building a base for years. They are nailed on for a decent performance in a handul of districts where they have worked hard at grass roots and now have the added advantage of a very low turn out.

Fortunately (and with no small degree irony) extremism itself is widely seen as Un-English. Something alien and foreign. Worse still it is seen as specifically European. No, people who bother to vote are going to be looking for dull competence first and foremost and will expect to see it coupled with that mythic, eye-of-the-beholder concept of English Common Sense. I am not sure the far right or far left scores well on either count.

I don't know about Scotland, Wales or NI but voters here are going to want the reassurance of Government that does what it says on the tin so first major party to purge en masse, offer a giant mea culpa and field a batch of candidates who look and talk like pre-war bank managers (or failing that regional tv news readers) will do well. John Major, man out of time. Ronseal John.

May all play out well nationally for UKIP (who brand themselves as specifically non racist) but less so for the BNP. Though of course UKIP seem to have their own problems. Will be interesting to see how Libertas do in that context. They might put down a marker for the future.
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