Party Political Broadcasts. I like
them, they're great. Emerging before election time on televisions and
radios to beam their individual message into the front-rooms and
offices across the country, reaching people who may have somehow
managed to avoid a recent newspaper or those who suddenly fall blind
whenever they walk past a billboard.
Virtually everybody watches a
television so naturally, the most obvious way of generating debate
and engaging political discussion with the viewing public is to
advertise. Unlike the majority of adverts however, they are not banal
or monotonous, they are normally always interesting. Sometimes they
attempt humour, like Labour have done with their
“Un-Credible man” dig at Nick Clegg, but most are serious, a
hugely effective way of the lesser-known parties to grab airtime and
pop their head out into the parapet of mainstream political
discourse.
On Monday evening
it was the English Democrats who attempted to do just that while
on Tuesday, which is the main reason why have felt the need to pass
judgement here, was the British National Party. Inevitably, they have
caused controversy with a video that has failed to pass OFCOM
broadcasting rules, instead settling for a passage that seems to use
such censorship as a positive, a tool to fit the narrative that the
UK's media has a degree of control to fit the status-quo of current
Westminster incumbents. That notion is also explored by
this BNP Youth video that is also doing the rounds.
Yes, the BNP really do have a youth
contingent, all young and enthusiastic about bigotry, right-wing
paranoia and stuff. What is really worrying is that all of them spoke
eloquently, they seem to be intelligent, just easily coaxed into
believing that immigrants are to blame for pretty much everything,
most saliently of all the maligning of indigenous Brits. Back to the
party's main broadcast and you can access the full, unabridged
version on the party's website if you wish, if divisive rhetoric
really is your thing. (I won't post a link here).
There, it becomes clear why the BNP
have seen
such a steep decline in popularity since 2006. They focus on
UKIP, the right-leaning flavours of the month, from the start,
conscious that it's those voters they have to target if
they are to make any sort of impact on May 22nd.
Any prospect of that is unlikely given
the mess the BNP is in, leader
Nick Griffin was declared bankrupt as recently as January, yet
for some reason they take themselves quite seriously in a video that
becomes very irritating, very quickly. Against a refrain of “all
things bright and beautiful” that forces you to stare longingly at
the whisky bottle, it explores Muslim grooming gangs, the spread of
Shariah law and mass-immigration that apparently exacerbates all the
other problems.
Then Griffin appears, the very solution
to those problems, a
man with previous convictions for racially aggravated violation of
the public order act. He introduces a number of his supporters, a
miracle in itself that he even has a few of them. The party has
endured setback after setback since it saw the success of Griffin and
colleague Andrew Brons became MEPs and the party had more than 50
councillors in the late 00s. Brons
has now defected, there are just 2 councillors and Griffin,
constantly usurped by the ubiquitous Nigel Farage and the slightly
less extreme UKIP, is set for defeat later this month, with
polls between 0% and 1%.
Still, he deserves credit, yes he does,
for his incredible longevity. Somehow, he survives, having endured 2
decades of xenophobia and derision, numerous legal battles, 4
bankruptcies and a
diabolical performance on question time to still be the face of a
party that still has a thriving youth element and still beats a
heart-line on the political defibrillator.
Griffin may not receive any votes in
May despite a video that plays the controversy-sells chord to
perfection, but he'll stay on as the boil that blights the backside
of British politics. So, when the next round of Party Political
Broadcasts come round, expect another from the BNP, more aggravating
and hostile than its last. They are the party that never seems to go
away.
