UNTIL June this year, Britain's electoral system - grossly unfair as it is - had one main advantage. It prevented extremists from being elected.But the combination of an electorate disillusioned with politicians and the whacky system of closed list proportional representation for choosing Euro MPs led to two members of the British National Party, including leader Nick Griffin, being elected to Brussels.
Graham Dines
UNTIL June this year, Britain's electoral system - grossly unfair as it is - had one main advantage. It prevented extremists from being elected.
But the combination of an electorate disillusioned with politicians and the whacky system of closed list proportional representation for choosing Euro MPs led to two members of the British National Party, including leader Nick Griffin, being elected to Brussels.
The liberal media elite hung its collective heads in shame, bemoaning that “two fascists” now represented the UK in the European Parliament.
Even if there had been a quota of 5% of the vote, as some countries insist, in operation in June, both BNP candidates would still have won their seats.
It's no use politicians and commentators getting uptight over the BNP - if a system is in place for electing MEPs, then you just have to live with the consequences.
In typical knee-jerk reaction, the Government has now decided that its �45million pound scheme to steer young Muslims away from extremism is to refocus its efforts more on threats from the far-right. Cohesion minister Shahid Malik said the strategy, code-named Prevent, would work in deprived “white areas” rather than concentrating exclusively on Muslim youths.
Mr Malik said: “We are already broadening our approach to involve all communities in developing shared values to strengthen cohesion.” This includes putting a renewed focus on resisting right-wing, racist extremism, based on strengthening communities to help keep everyone safe.
“It is not just about the Muslim, it is actually about everybody in our society having a role to play and we cannot dismiss or underestimate the threat from the far right.”
Perhaps the Government should reflect that after 12 years in power, there are still large chunks of white working class Britain where people are unemployed, whose diet is cholesterol-fuelled, living on handouts which are spent on fags, booze and betting, whose homes are substandard and damp, where crime and graffiti is rife, criminal gangs roam the streets at night terrorising the neighbourhood, and whose children are educated at the so-called sink schools.
These disaffected folk seethe at immigrants jumping the queue for housing and jobs while their own kids are lining up outside the dole office seeking minimum wage work.
No wonder they feel abandoned by all three main parties. As they look for salvation, they find the seductive message of the BNP matches their concerns and they give it their support.
There are whole areas of central Lancashire, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, the West Midlands and the outer eastern boroughs of London where the economic boom has passed by but which feel the effects of the recession the hardest.
To indicate that residents in these areas are a greater threat to the stability of the UK that Muslim extremists is to turn reality on its head. If we invested more on the estates of despair, we would neuter the need for the obnoxious BNP.
graham.dines@eadt.co.uk
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