Peter Tatchell urges a big pink vote in the European elections, to help block the election of BNP leader, Nick Griffin.
London – 13 May 2009
The leader of the neo-Nazi British National Party (BNP), Nick Griffin, could be elected to the European Parliament if there is a low turnout in the elections on 4 June. He is standing in the North-West of England Euro-constituency, which includes Manchester.
Under the proportional representation voting system for the European elections, candidates from minor parties like the BNP can get elected.
Although Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem candidates are likely to win most of the region’s Euro seats, the battle for the last seat in the North-West will be between anti-gay Nick Griffin and pro-gay Peter Cranie, the Green Party candidate. A big vote for the Greens is the surest way to stop the BNP winning the seat. But if you don’t want to vote Green, then voting for any party other than the BNP will help reduce Griffin’s chance of being elected.
In other words, you can help stop the BNP winning its first European Parliament seat by using your vote in the 4 June elections. A high voter turn-out will scupper the BNP by reducing its share of the vote. If the BNP gets a low share of the vote, the Greens are likely to win the last seat and the BNP will walk away empty handed.
As we all know, the BNP is a racist and homophobic party. It refuses to allow non-white people to be members and wants to pressure black people to leave the UK. As well as supporting a policy of ‘ethnic cleansing,’ the BNP has fought previous general elections on a pledge to outlaw homosexuality. It has described Aids as “nature taking revenge” on gay men. It opposed the repeal of Section 28 and the equalisation of the age of consent.
BNP leader Nick Griffin has denounced homosexuality as a “behavioural deviancy” and attacked gay people for “flaunting their perversion.” He also ridiculed homosexuals as “repulsive.”
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters – and their straight friends – should quiz all the Euro-candidates on gay rights, and on other issues like the economy, and then vote for those candidates with the most progressive and homo-friendly policies. It is important that we elect more pro-gay politicians, to help us secure stronger policies to tackle homophobic bullying and hate crimes.
With one-in-ten voters being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, the queer vote could influence the election result in the North-West. Our votes could help stop Nasty Nick and the BNP being elected.
As well as the party’s long history of homophobia, BNP activists also stand accused racism, anti-Semitism, holocaust denial and Islamophobia. A disturbing number of past and present BNP members have criminal convictions for violence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_National_Party
Although the BNP has publicly ditched some of its most extreme and bigoted policies, many critics believe this make-over is just an astute public relations exercise designed to con people who were put off by its thuggish, macho neo-Nazi image. They say the BNP hasn’t changed at all; it has just got more professional and media savvy. Disguising its extremist views and donning sharp suits, its game-plan is to copy the tactics of successful European far right parties, such as the Front National in France, the Vlaams Blok in Belgium and the National Democratic Party in Germany.
Ex-BNP activist turned anti-fascist campaigner, Matthew Collins, is a Director of Searchlight’s Operation Wedge. He says the new-look BNP is all spin and PR. The party may have toned down its open racism, homophobia and street violence, but behind the smiling face of its leader Nick Griffin lurks the same old hateful bigotry. It hasn’t really changed its core values and aims.
A more true reflection of the BNP’s real agenda have been some its website postings. These have previously claimed such nonsense as: “Sexually-transmitted diseases are no joke. Thanks to them, the average life-expectancy of a gay man is now 40, compared to 71 for all men.”
http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/traditional_values.html
Suggesting that the “gay rights lobby target school children,” the BNP has condemned and ridiculed LGBT History Month and has warned that it might reintroduce Section 28.
http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/lgbt_month.htm
Soon after the neo-Nazi bombing of a gay bar in Soho, London, in 1999, which killed three people and maimed dozens more, BNP leader Nick Griffin seemed to excuse and endorse the homophobic hatred that inspired the terrorist atrocity. He attacked lesbian and gay people for “flaunting their perversion” and said this showed why “so many ordinary people find these creatures so repulsive”.
Source: Stranger things have happened, Nick Griffin, Spearhead (BNP magazine), June 1999.
Griffin has also denounced homosexuality as “form of behavioural deviancy” and “not a valid lifestyle choice”. He claims the BNP speaks for “the majority of the population” who, he says, believe “homosexuality is wrong” and that it “needs to be pushed humanely but firmly back into the closet”. Griffin warns that if gays continue to “press their aims further” there will be an “almighty backlash” which will result in the imprisonment of all homosexuals.
Source: Putting the record straight, Nick Griffin, Identity (BNP Magazine), December 2003.
Griffin is not alone. Mark Collett, former chairman of the Young BNP and possibly the party’s future leader, described homosexuals as “AIDS Monkeys”, “bum bandits” and “faggots” and said the idea of homosexuality was a “sickening thought.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_National_Party
For all these reasons, we need a big turnout against the BNP on 4 June. Our message must be: “hope, not hate.” Spread the word. With your help we can stop Nick Griffin and the BNP.