Why ‘no platform’ is a failing policy

The BNP’s latest celebrity, Andrew Brons, has declared that he doesn’t believe that Kelly Holmes is fully British.  

I find the BNP’s beliefs revolting.  Their stated policy of barring non-whites from membership, their denial of the Holocaust, their support for ‘repatriation’ (whatever that means; if you’re British, you’re British as far as I’m concerned) and, to take them at their word, their socialist policies on state-ownership and trade barriers are absolute no-nos.

But you wouldn’t know much about their policies other than rumour and innuendo – because all the main political parties have a policy of not sharing a platform with the BNP.  

Yet people voted for the BNP. There are two democratically elected national representatives.  Of course the argument can be made that the BNP’s vote in numbers didn’t go up; it was other voters staying at home which increased their share of the vote… etc etc etc. You can make all the excuses you want. But the fact remains that Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons are now democratically elected representatives of Britons.  The reasons people vote for the BNP are, I’m sure, many and varied, just as they are for all other parties.  

I believe a key reason, however, is that some people feel abandoned and excluded by the main parties.  They feel that the world is against them.  The BNP uses that feeling of exclusion to win votes. And the way the main parties have dealt with the BNP up until now has played into their hands – ‘The main parties don’t listen to you, they don’t want us to tell you the truth’ etc.  

I want to be very clear.  I do not support the BNP.  They are prejudiced and they are wrong.  But given that these two bigots have been democratically elected, I believe we should let them speak freely; we should debate with them and argue our case against theirs. As Andrew Brons has already shown, they are unable to stop their true nature coming through, and they will quickly show themselves for what they are.

Related posts:

1. Platform 10 backs Obama for President
2. Where Platform 10 leads…