I go to the Cherry Tree pub to wait for Griffin, who is giving a press conference. The drinkers come out to talk. They are all ex-Labour, now BNP. \”It\’s housing, schools, hospitals and jobs, not colour,\” says one man. \”I believed in Old Labour but not New Labour. They have failed in this borough.\”
Hmm, don\’t sound all that right wing to me.
A glance at the policies of the BNP will reveal them as LEFT wing.
Doesn’t matter, of course. You will now get scads of lefties appearing to deny this and claim that they are right wing because of one of their policies.
A glance at the policies of the BNP will reveal them as LEFT wing.
Agreed. Now, if someone would just like to point it out to the BBC….. 🙂
This is an interesting read
http://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2009/10/25/where-are-the-bnp-votes-coming-from/
In essence, the bulk of BNP voters are the kind of young, relatively poorly-educated C2DE men that would usually have been a shoe-in for the Labour party; however they’re more likely than not to have not voted last time – if they did, they’re most likely to have voted Labour.
Evil, evil, right-wing nasty people innit.
It’s a nice ,easy, lefty label to accuse the BNP of being right wing – and then if anyone Tory even hints that maybe they might think about one day possibly contemplating discussing immigration, out can come the shouts of “right wing racist”, “just like the BNP” etc etc.
But the politics of the left is at least as racist as anything the right has ever produced. Just remember that Hitler was a member of the National SOCIALIST Party and was a man of the left. His mate Stalin was also pretty keen on eliminating “minorities” and was also anything but a right winger.
The left should keep its collective mouth shut on this topic and allow a reasoned debate to occur.
It really just shows that the terms “left wing” and “right wing” don’t adequately represent political thought these days. Each “side” uses them to take a cheap swipe at the other.
The so-called left-wing-ness of socialism and the so-called right-wing-ness of racism are both collectivist in nature; they treat every person as no more than a representative of a group. Each is as offensive as the other.
Dichotomy: Freedom v Equality.
I think that politics is defined by the left seeing politics as the working class, poor, and the exploited versus the rich and oppressors.
While the modern right want to define politics as freedom v authoritarians.
I am centre left. I support the best of socialism, capitalism, peace, equality, freedom, and the working class, poor and middle class. I support education and luxury for all.
I think that it is wrong to define politics as freedom verus authoritarians. Because there is a massive difference between restrictions on freedom from a left wing motivation and a right wing motivation. For instance banning homosexuality, banning the right to protest, banning the the right to criticise government, and banning the right to organise trade unions is totally different to the left wing who want to tax and regulate the economy or ban hate speech. They are totally different motivations and policies. To define all government power and action as the same is wrong. Goverment regulation on the economy is not the same as government regulations on private life actions.
I know one right winger who tried to convince a gay person to vote Republican on the basis that the right supported personal freedom on taxes and regulations. His argument was that supporting personal freedom on taxes meant you supported freedom on sexuality. But that is nonsense. The right were at that time less keen on sexual freedom. So defining politics as freedom versus authoritarianism means you vote for a party that supported economic freedom and therefore no benefits, and no redisribution towards the poor. While at the same time supporting extreme authoritarianism on private lives. Yet this is complicated as the left often believe in introducing hate speech laws that some see as a restriction on freedom, but from a left v right perspective would be seen as a way of helping the poor and oppressed.
Looking at politics from a left wing perspective means trying to tax and regulate to bring in economic redustributuon, stop discrimination, stop hate speech. While at the same time allowing freedom in private life.
While the right wing thinkers want to defiine politics on the basis that politics is about freedom v authoritarianism. Even if the right are supporting restrictions on protest, sexuality, voting rights, trade unions, workers rights.
I think there is a place for both left and right wing perspectives in a free society. But i see myself as centre left, and a supporter of democracy and peace.
I see politics as right v left.
Some on the right define it is authoritarianism versus freedom.
I find this as dishonest as often it means supporting a party that support extreme capitalism with extreme authoritarianism.
But I also accept there have been many authoritarian left wing and right wing authoritarian governments.