BNP Growing Popular Amongst Youth.

[Big Orange]

Metro

Younger voters 'to turn to the BNP'
Monday, June 22, 2009

More than one in 20 under-35s plan to vote BNP at the next general election, shocking figures show today.
Young people would cast more votes for the far-right group than for the Green Party, a Metro/Harris poll reveals.

They are the age group most likely to vote for the BNP, compared with just three per cent of those 35 or over. 'These are very worrying findings. Any rise in support for the BNP is worrying especially among young people,' said Unite Against Fascism.

'The underlying factors fuelling the BNP's growth – the rise in joblessness and the climate of racism against immigrants – are not going away in a hurry.'

Overall, more than one in five under-35s plan to vote for a minor party at the next election, our survey reveals.

The findings follow government figures released earlier this month showing nearly a third of those who became unemployed in the past three months were young people.

Nearly 900,000 under-25s were unemployed in the three months to April, up 71,000 since the last quarter.

One in five young people in Britain is now unemployed or inactive.

Anger about the issue, and over the scandal of MPs' expenses, led many to cast a protest vote in the European elections earlier this month.

Then, the BNP won two seats on the European Parliament. Its leader, Nick Griffin, became one of the anti-immigration party's new MEPs.

And, according to our survey, the party could continue its success at the polls, particularly with young people.

'In recent years the BNP has struggled to appeal to young people, who tend to be less likely to hold racist views and more at ease in a multicultural society than the general population,' a Unite Against Fascism spokesman added.

'But this poll shows there is no room for complacency when it comes to tackling the BNP.'

There was also wide regional variation, with seven per cent of voters in Wales planning to support Mr Griffin's party in the polling booth, the poll of nearly 2,000 people showed.

However, just one per cent of those in the east of England would vote BNP, the survey revealed. And only one per cent of urbanites said they would vote BNP, in a separate survey of 1,800 Metro readers.

But anti-fascist organisation Searchlight said the sample was too small to prove a trend. Spokeswoman Sonia Gable said: 'This was a very small sample of BNP voters and is therefore prone to a high margin of error.

A whole younger generation alienated by an unbalanced economic system catering to the old, few, and rich is bound to get more politically active and aggressive, but it is sad to see more young people get behind a sleazy political group that is built around attacking vulnurable minority groups just for being different and who are not really behind the current economic woes.

[Dartzap]

The economics of the times is indeed depressing for the so called 'youth' of today. However, I would question the idea they could get those people to go to a election booth.


And in other BNP related news.....

Beeb

BNP dismisses legal action threat

The British National Party has dismissed threats of legal action over its membership policies by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The commission said it had written to the party over possible breaches of the law in the BNP's constitution, membership rules and recruitment.

It asked the BNP to pledge to comply with the Race Relations Act by 20 July or face a potential legal injunction.

But BNP leader Nick Griffin said the party's rules were "entirely legal".

Mr Griffin - who was elected as an MEP for the North West on 4 June - said the BNP was an exempted organisation under Section 25 and Section 26 of the Race Relations Act.

He said this meant "ethnic groups who need special protection such as the English in their own country, who are now second class citizens" were "entitled to discriminate on that basis and not on the grounds of colour".

He added: "We are not discriminating on grounds of colour."

On 4 June, the BNP won their first two MEPs in the European Parliament elections.

'Deliberate omission'

In a statement, the commission said the BNP's constitution and membership criteria appeared to discriminate on the grounds of race and colour, in breach of the Race Relations Act.

The party's rules appeared to restrict membership to those within what the BNP regarded as particular "ethnic groups", the commission added.

It also said the party's website asked job applicants to supply a membership number, which appeared to be in breach of legislation banning the "refusal or deliberate omission to offer employment on the basis of non-membership of an organisation".

The statement added: "The commission is therefore concerned that the BNP may have acted, and be acting, illegally."

John Wadham, the commission's legal director, insisted it had a duty to take action against possible breaches of anti-discrimination laws.

He said: "The legal advice we have received indicates that the British National Party's constitution and membership criteria, employment practices and provision of services to constituents and the public may breach discrimination laws which all political parties are legally obliged to uphold."

The commission said it had received around 50 recent calls from members of the public about the membership policy of the BNP, although it is understood it was already investigating the party.

Teachers

The BNP's Deputy press officer John Walker said the party would not be making a formal response to the commission at this stage as it wanted to "wait until the Equalities Bill has gone through".

"We are not going to respond to threats like this. We will look at it, but it is an entirely politically-motivated attack," he told BBC News.

The Equalities Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, is expected to include a move to outlaw the BNP's membership policy, which is limited to various groups it defines as "indigenous Caucasian".

Mr Walker said the BNP would be prepared to change its membership rules "to remain within the law".

But he added: "I don't think we should be bullied by outside forces. They are asking us to change our whole political ideology."

On Monday, the Department for Children, Schools and Families said it was considering banning teachers in England from joining the BNP.

In its constitution, the BNP says it exists to represent the "collective National, Environmental, Political, Racial, Folkish, Social, Cultural, Religious and Economic interests of the indigenous Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Norse folk communities of Britain and those we regard as closely related and ethnically assimilated or assimilable aboriginal members of the European race also resident in Britain".

It says membership of the BNP is "strictly defined within the terms of, and our members also self define themselves within, the legal ambit of a defined 'racial group' this being 'Indigenous Caucasian' and defined 'ethnic groups' emanating from that Race".

[KlavoHunter]

Would these 'Youth' they refer to in the article mainly be chavs?

I can see where THEY would support a political party that was all for them attacking minorities in the streets.

[K. A. Pital]

Yeah, but people are not born chauvinistic. This culture rises during their lifetimes. The high popularity means more young people are becoming chauvinistic and racist, which is not a good trend.

[Pinjar]

Would these 'Youth' they refer to in the article mainly be chavs?

I can see where THEY would support a political party that was all for them attacking minorities in the streets.

chavs as in Council House And Violent?

Or to put it another way uneducated, poor and dispossessed.

[Rye]

That's not where the word comes from. That's a backronym and misjudges the chav problem as a class one.

But yeah, chavs are the likely the idiot Griffin-jugend. The only young BNP member I know is the extremely chavvy, nutso-racist brother of a friend of mine. The general racism amongst chavs against pakistanis is pretty high, though they tend not to hate black people as much.

[Big Orange]

He added: "We are not discriminating on grounds of colour."

Who do you think they're kidding, considering their highly vocal support the BNP gets on extremely racist Neo-Nazi forums like Stormfront.org.

And I agree that some of the more unpleasant chavs would vote BNP considering their abysmal ignorance, fervent homophobia, and irrational dislike of Southern Asians (which does seem more widespread than the dislike against Afro-Caribbeans).

[Raptor]

Actually the BNP discriminate against 'non-natives' or whatever. There was a story last year I think that a second generation Georgian I think wasn't allowed into the BNP as he wasn't 'British' enough. I think a lot of this 'youth' support is just anger directed at any one. It won't turn into anything as most of them probably don't vote. I mean in the EU and local elections, look how angry people have been with government yet only two were elected. It’s a bit sad yeah, but just two. When people are asked about what issues they are concerned about, immigration and muti-culturalism rate normally in the top ten if not five and so far we haven't had any kind of massive BNP support. This trend is worrying but this should finally force the main parties to fight the BNP on these issues. Just ignoring them or shouting fascist and racist doesn't do anything. Let the BNP speak in forums and discussions. They will hang themselves, without any help, once they start ranting. People have genuine concerns about what the BNP shout about and campaign on, and the parties should talk to the electorate about it. Even the government’s own Commission for Equalities that in certain areas working class white people are being ignored and left behind. Are these the people supporting the BNP? People supporting the BNP are doing it more out of sense of injustice of 'we get nothing but look at them (insert local immigrant community)they get dole, housing etc' especially if one that dresses, acts in a kind of segregation especially Muslim areas, backed up with bad press both right and wrong reporting on these issues. With sense of injustice a mix of real and imagined, whipped up by BNP, breeds this support. Labour, Tories and the Lib Dems needed to catch the BNP out by talking to them, and address mainly white working class areas in the old industrial estates and give proper help and listen and perhaps act on their fears and concerns on immigration and how far multi-culturalism is allowed to go.

[Big Orange]

Something must be going wrong in this country if more normal people are turning to more blunt extremists like the BNP, demonstrating how duplicitous New Labour have been in regards to the economy and immigration.