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The BNP and an English Parliament

Tom Nairn, After Britain (2000):

Blair’s Project makes it likely that England will return on the street corner, rather than via a maternity room with appropriate care and facilities. Croaking tabloids, saloon-bar resentment and back-bench populism are likely to attend the birth and to have their say. Democracy is constitutional or nothing. Without a systematic form, its ugly cousins will be tempted to move in and demand their rights – their nation, the one always sat upon and then at last betrayed by an elite of faint hearts, half-breeds and alien interests.

I have, many many times in the past, echoed Tom’s warning that English nationalism could become a sinister force if England’s constitutional disadvantage was not addressed by the Government:

…in England we are seeing an identity gulf opening up between the white and non-white sections of society; the whites adopting Englishness, and the non-whites/ethnic minorities adopting Britishness. This is a dangerous development…The Government must start building an inclusive civic national identity for England or face a ticking racial timebomb that the BNP will be only too quick to capitalise on. It will happen, mark my words (CEP News)

See English Civic Nationalism for further discussion on this. As it turns out Tom’s words of warning (and mine and those of many others) have proved prophetic. Following is an extract from an article in support of an English Parliament from Identity: Magazine of the British National Party (Issue 73, Dec 2006):

…there is already a huge and growing groundswell of support for greater recognition of and rights for England and Englishness. Whether we approve of this or not will make no difference to this trend, but it will make a huge difference to our chance of coming to power. Any England-based readers who don’t understand the head of steam this still incoherent movement already has, should stop ten white teenagers at random in the streets of a local town and ask if they regard themselves as European, British, or English…we cannot stand against the tide, and are far better advised to use it to propel our own advance. Someone is going to harness the power of English nationalism, and a large majority at last month’s conference confirmed that we have the will to make it the BNP.

That the BNP seek to hijack English nationalism to further their own goals is hardly surprising, and neither is it a particularly new development:

Please prioritise bringing St. George and flags of the British Isles featuring crosses, such as the Flag of Saint Andrew. These flags should take priority over Union Flags at this demo.

What is new is the naked opportunism that they display in doing so. Quite clearly they have identified English nationalism as a growing force and brazenly seek to utilise it to achieve their ends. You can hardly blame them for doing so. If I were in their shoes I would do the same because the politics of English identity is a political void into which the three main political parties are afraid to tread. And now the fools rush in.

The full BNP article can be read here on the Witanagemot Club’s pages.

As many of you know, in addition to this blog, I also host the aforementioned Witanagemot Club – a news aggregator and blog ring for English nationalist bloggers. The Witan site makes it clear that it is a single-issue campaign and that membership is open to all, regardless of ethnicity and regardless of party affiliation. It would be true to say that the majority of the blogs that are members are of a Conservative centre-right bent but I am proud to say that we have left-wing, right-wing, green, liberal, libertarian and foreign bloggers among our number; we truly are a cross-party and pluralist group with one uniting belief – that England should have its own parliament.

Recently, especially within the last month, many BNP bloggers have started applying for membership of the Witanagemot Club – a phenomenon that I couldn’t understand until yesterday when I was emailed the BNP article on ‘The Need for an English Parliament’. Naturally these Johny-come-lately English nationalist bloggers have been rather peeved when I have refused their application for membership, and understandably so given that we are supposed to be a cross-party, non-partisan, community. But I have very good reasons for refusing them, some of which came as a surprise to the BNP bloggers themselves who did not realise that the party’s abhorrent views on an English parliament are completely and utterly in contradiction to the aims of the Witanagemot Club.

These are the views of Lee Barnes, Director of the BNP’s legal department, as expressed on the CEP News blog:

only the ethnic english would be allowed to register and vote

Everyone will have the right to vote in the British elections regardless of ethnicity – only indigenous Scots, English and Welsh will have the right to vote in their respective parliaments.

The welsh and scots parliament should also be ethno-specific parliaments to represent the indigenous peoples of those lands.

And from Lee Barnes column on the BNP website we have this:

The BNP manifesto states that we will set up an English Parliament for the indigenous Anglo-Saxon people. But this will be an English Parliament of the English People as opposed to an imaginary pseudo-English parliament composed of asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, Zulus, Kurds, Innuit, Iraqis, Tutsis, Somalis etc etc.

And in case you are in any doubt Lee Barnes would require you to undergo genetic tests in order to determine that you are eligible to vote in the indigenous parliaments of England, Scotland and Wales. It all makes New Labour’s biometric ID cards look rather tame by comparison.

The BNP’s vision for England is an anathema to everything that I believe that England stands for, and what I believe England stands for is summed up very well by fellow Witanagemot member An Englishman’s Castle:

…the England I believe in is a Taurean, placid, tolerant place – bucolic and green; but when tweaked capable of violence and rage. Not a nation founded on race but on a common culture, respects and language. Not constrained by geography, creed, breeding or birth – open to all who wish to belong. Feared and despised by many but a benefactor to most.

I’m sure that ‘open to all who wish to belong’ will be pounced upon by BNP members as literal rather than figurative; a function of my bourgeoisie, solipsistic, navel gazing, pseudo-English nationalism. But so be it. The comments are open.

So how should we pluralists respond to the BNP’s communialist racial and religious nationalism? Well, I don’t think that our rage should be directed at the BNP; why waste our breath? The people that we should be furious at are the Establishment politicians – Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem – whose English manifesto (or rather lack of) has allowed the BNP to jump on the populist bandwagon to try and appropriate English nationalism for their own. The BNP have not yet succeeded but who amongst the great and the good at Westminster will be willing to espouse a civic alternative to the BNP’s ethnic English nationalism? David Blunkett’s A New England: An English identity within Britain (pdf) was high on sentiment but devoid of political solutions, Gordon Brown’s Britishness simply enrages England (and the Scots), and the Tories’ English Votes on English Matters is a complete constitutional abortion.

All those politicians that are fannying about and prevaricating over Englishness should see this as a warning shot across their bows. Constitutionalists and political thinkers who toy with solutions that are anything less than national governance for the nation of England should also take heed. If they don’t take heed then they should not be surprised by the announcement of the returning officer for Barking and Dagenham.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 at 11:23 pm and is filed under politics, the english question. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

20 Responses to “The BNP and an English Parliament”

The Englishman Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 6:11 am
Well said, even a broad church needs rules on membership and the BNP’s views on an English Parliament are anethma to most of us.

(When I set up An Englishman’s Castle I used the name as a weak pun on Home Page – never realising it would firstly awaken me to the English question, for which I’m grateful and secondly identify me as a narrow minded flag waver for which I’m not…)
Tally Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 8:08 am
The BNP could point out ethnic indigenous parliaments in Wales Scotland Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as an example of what they propose for England . It has always been a sore point with me that the CRE has never picked them upon it. Certain nationlisms are beyond question it seems.
I’ve enjoyed reading the Englishman’s blog over the years,I think he and the England project were among the first in the blogosphere to stand up and Campaign for an English Parliament.
Harry Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:27 am
What is the point of an English parliament if English hating Muslims are part of it?
Tally Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:35 am
Harry, you could also ask what is the point of an English Parliament if English hating New Labour is part of it?
Toque Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:13 am
Or you may as well ask what is the point of freedom of speech and democracy if anti-English [fill-in-the-blank is part of it?
Cllr. Gavin Ayling Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:31 am
Harry rather clumsily addresses a far larger problem than is being discussed. What would happen, do you suspect, if we were to have an ethnically English (whatever that means) parliament?

Would there be civic peace or ill-feeling? Would an ideal goal of race relations (identifying ourselves and each other as “human”) be reached by taking that route or another?

The BNP would offer payments to encourage ‘repatriation’ which is a bizarre idea that has no basis in logic… A white-only English Parliament would bring no benefits to those in England who would like a Parliament because the sort of people that allow a peaceful society would boycott elections to that parliament.

But the issues the BNP fights upon are not in the realms of sensible debate because the basis for their arguments do not start from a point of even flawed logic.

If a large number of Muslims hate English culture (which is true at the moment) then the solution is obviously not to alienate them from the political process.
Patrick Harris Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Harry, My son-in-law is a first generation “English Arab” of Lybian descent, he is fanatical about the English football team, he loves his English wife and son and is loved by all of the English Harris family, he does not believe the Governments “open door” immigration policy is right in fact, he is a true “Englishman”, he has known no other home. I suspect that a large number of “non white” Englishmen are in the same cicumstances. Do you honestly believe that I and my kin would stand idly by and see him shipped out of England without a fight, please get real.
Masaryk Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Nice piece Toque and well said.

As far as I can see the only ones wrapping themselves in the Union Jack now are the CRE and the BNP and then there’s Labour, which is the CRE in Parliament and who betray their corporatist Big is Good view and blatantly want to hold on to power.

There’s no reason why we can’t create a civic Welsh, English and Scottish nationalism – in fact we are doing so, what ever the British nationalist (of whichever party) say.
Gav Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Well said Gareth!

When I have a minute I’ll try for a bit on the blog in support.
Harry Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:59 pm
So you don’t want to protect the hard done by indigenous English?
May as well vote for the Respect party as vote for you lot.You are no better than nu-Labour…or are you nu-labour in disguise?

Remember we never asked for mass immigration
or multi-culturism we had it forced down our throats by the likes of you.
Toque Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 7:04 pm
You seem to be labouring under the illusion that I am a political party Harry. Well I’m not, and I didn’t force anything on anyone.
Harry Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Well you certainly have a very Liberal mindset Toque. Would be interesting to know what party you actually do support
Toque Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:32 pm
It’s all relative Harry, you think I’m a liberal and others accuse me of being right-wing or even racist. I don’t really care to be perfectly honest, but for the record I don’t support any party http://www.toque.co.uk/blog/archives/2005/07/why.php

Is that interesting enough for you?
Snafu Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:55 pm
I find it somewhat ironic that the BNP is led by Welshman Nick Griffin!
Cllr. Gavin Ayling Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:13 pm
It is not liberal to think that immigration is not necessarily and evil. Would you really say to Vodafone “You cannot bring in whoever you like to run your operations in England because they’re not born here”?

Immigration and immigrants are not the problem that the BNP is zealous in trying to solve… The problem is so-called left-wingers imposing positive discrimination on those of all colours (for non-white people it is not only humiliating, it devalues your successes and makes you a target for angry BNP-supporters).

Rather than turning on those we have (whether you like it or not) welcomed to this country, we should be turning on those who would cause us to find differences where there are none. The black man who says “Are you looking at me cos I’m black” isn’t the problem, it’s the government that says “Because you’re black you can have free training and a greater chance of getting a job.” It is the party that says “Because you’re black you can be on our list of potential candidates and, if there are too few of you blacks you’re pretty much a shoe-in”.

Few people I know actually wants that to be the way things are done, and absolutely nobody that I know ‘of colour’ want that to be the way things are done.

Colour is as meaningless as nose-size and yet our racist government uses it as part of its social meddling policy. It is they who are the enemy, not the victims/beneficiaries.
Andrew Ian Dodge Says:
January 4th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
What makes it interesting is the people who are claiming its a matter of “free speech” because it really isn’t it. The group is a collection of people “a club” therefore it has the right to admit or not admit as it sees fit. And the other blogger did not agree with the majority opinion so he left nuff said.
Gav Says:
January 9th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Yes Andrew. And it’s Gareth’s fucking club.

And for what it’s worth I’m with Gareth!
Unity Says:
January 17th, 2007 at 2:29 am
I know I’m coming in late on this but as Lee Barnes appears to place such great store in gentic proof of ethnic origins, perhaps he’d like to put himself forward for a test to validate is own assumption of his origins.

After all, when they did Garry Bushell for a TV programme, last year, they trace his ancestry to sub-Saharan Africa.

I think that that’s fair – Lee takes the test and is he fails he get his repatriation grant from Nick and we canall happily put him on a plane and wave him off – or kick him off the end of Beachy Head, whichever’s easiest.
The English Dons Says:
November 24th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
We are a group based in the East Midlands dedicated to restoring English pride, we have strong views on many subjects including immigration and how we are being bled dry by foreign nationals who have never contributed a penny to our country, at last count we pay out over £154million per year to eastern Europeans alone (figures published by Migration Watch).
We want to stand out in public and face the people that are destroying our way of life, we are looking for new members across England to add their voice to ours so it will become so loud that people will have to listen.
contact us at englishdons@googlemail.com
b wheeler Says:
March 25th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
racism good word to use in england if your not white.why are there no white muslim communities in saudi arabia,iran,seria,eygpt your not even allowed to work in turkey unless your of turkish birth,zimbabwee kicked all its whites out who racist now

The BNP and an English Parliament

20 Responses to “The BNP and an English Parliament”

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