24 March, 2006

Hurrah

Excellent news locally. The BNP has been rejected from Keighley, diminishing their number of seats on Bradford City Council to three. Hopefully the whole of Yorkshire will soon be freed from these people and stop voting them in! They drag the reputation of this beautiful county through the mud.

For the Americans who read this the BNP (British National Party) are a particularly unpleasant extremist party from the UK they are are racist and fascist scaremongers. I would provide a link so that you can see for yourselves but I don't want it on my site.

The church for one opposes them and Stephanie Rybak, executive secretary to the West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council (WYEC) has said:

'We feel the BNP is a deeply worrying movement and its policies are racist and fascist.' She added: 'Were concerned at the level of voter apathy, which means people wont vote. If they don't, there's a real danger that extremist parties might get elected.'

But why aren't the other councillors in these BNP prone areas working together with the church to get rid of them through a massive campaign to get people voting? Surely with a common problem such as this they should be working together.

Local PR firms should get involved, I would do it pro bono, to lobby against this kind of extremism and to build stronger local links and links to local authorities to give the public hope that their vote will make a difference and will not have any adverse consequences. Surely some corporate social responsibility from local businesses would help. There are also loads of anti BNP groups on the internet - although some of them are just as extreme.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting isn't it... the Church, which is facing ever-declining congregations and less and less social interest is actually a major moral force in the fight against racism.

Two points:
1. Why doesn't the church use this angle in its PR campaigns?
2. Why will the CoE in particular stand-up against racism but then open itself right up to allegations of homophobia?

Any thoughts?

Alex Pullin said...

This posting got me thinking on so many levels. Perhaps the church can see parallels between their lowering congregations and the lowering voting rates, or perhaps they see anti-fascism as an easy band wagon, or what.

I wonder if anyone from either groups wishes to answer Simon's questions. I know I can't!

Anonymous said...

guaranteed payday loans much receive a repayment of the month, and according to a Wednesday, February 20th, vote for cinque months per year with some progress hands-on metre. You are oneof those depending aloft whether you are pickings advantage. http://paydayloans909.co.uk The instalment guaranteed payday loans are programmed for its Wittiness, but merely for one month.