European Politics

I'm studying some recent European politics for once and I'm just curious about some stuff as seen from people from the actual countries:

1. For the British people: BNP, fascist party or not? Are they even well-known?
2. For the EU people: do you vote in EU elections and how important are they to you?
 
I did, but that's because the EU parliament elections were held along with our general elections. I wouldn't say it matters much to me personally.
 
Night Prowler said:
1. For the British people: BNP, fascist party or not? Are they even well-known?
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Besides being racist I don't recall them having any other notable policies. So, to answer your first question, I don't know. And, not any more. Do they even still exist?
Night Prowler said:
2. For the EU people: do you vote in EU elections and how important are they to you?
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Like Ariana, sometimes if the vote is with other voting.
 
1. The BNP are or were well known, mostly for notoriety and attention-seeking stuff, but have never held many seats in political office at any level or been taken very seriously on the whole. I think they had fascist traits about them, mainly their style of political campaigning with rallies and marches, appealing to patriotism, and calls to action.

Their policies on matters outside of immigration, EU relations and racial integration, were moderately reactionary from what I remember, but not a million miles from UKIP and backbench Conservatives. I don't think their policy was very coherent. Some would argue that's actually a common feature of fascism! They had a surprising amount of stuff on the environment/nature conservation, I remember, written from a nationalist perspective. They did talk a bit about Christianity being pushed out of secular life, but I don't remember anything else religious from them.

Their leadership usually claimed they weren't racist. (Eg, Muslims and immigrants aren't a race so we can criticise and stereotype them all we want). They usually claimed to be patriotic above all. I'm sure they had Sikh or black members, actually, just not Muslims. One of their oddest moments was a trippy General Election party political broadcast - which not surprisingly was 'banned' (ie failed to meet the criteria for a free party political broadcast slot) by the BBC for depicting Muslims crowding into the country, blowing people up, and breeding like crazy. It was a musical cartoon featuring lots of penguins. Possibly the silliest piece of fascist-style propaganda ever made. Do look it up on Youtube!

As Cried says, they've been very quiet for a couple of years. They might even have gone bust financially. They got hated on by proper paramilitary right-wing thugs for being too mainstream and not sufficiently antisemitic. Britain First and the EDL are the better known far-right movements now, while Brexit has probably pulled another bit of carpet from under their feet.
 
Nice, thanks for the feedback guys :)

Out of all British parties that are mentioned in this course, UKIP and BNP had the biggest paragraphs, so I was just curious because I never heard of BNP before. The book is outdated though, it's only up to 2014 so it doesn't mention Brexit.
 
Night Prowler said:
1. For the British people: BNP, fascist party or not? Are they even well-known?
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They were quite well known a few years ago, at least well enough to have an MEP in the North of England and for their former leader to appear on Question Time. However, as UKIP have risen the BNP faded away as their voters shifted towards the slightly more credible party. I think the BNP went bankrupt at some point in the last couple of years and didn't pay the small fee required to remain as a political party. The last I heard from them was that their flagship policy for a recent election was to ban the burkha. They might be facists, but I don't know enough about facism to give an authoritative answer to that question.
2. For the EU people: do you vote in EU elections and how important are they to you?
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I usually always vote if there's an election, whether a general election, a referendum, local or European elections. Do I care much about them? No, I don't. Nobody knows who their MEPs are or what they do. For me, the European Parliament has always been an extra level of government on top of what we already have - this is particularly the case for Scottish and Welsh people. Turnout was only ever about 33% for EU elections so when UKIP got the largest share of the vote at about 33% only 1/9 of the electorate actually voted for them.
 
Black Wizard said:
I usually always vote if there's an election, whether a general election, a referendum, local or European elections.
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Nice! IMO elections should be mandatory everywhere, so that people who don't vote can't complain about the government. Belgrade has elections soon-ish and while I don't like any of the options, I'll have to choose someone.

Black Wizard said:
Do I care much about them? No, I don't. Nobody knows who their MEPs are or what they do.
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That is interesting. I read that France is the least educated EU country when it comes to EU politics. I've also read that people in France and GB see the EU elections as a way to protest against the parties in charge, hence the victories of UKIP and FN.
 
No way! It was there, like, always. And I remember very well when it went down, it wasn't that long ago.
EDIT: Checks calendar, shuts up.
 
One of my earliest childhood memories is passing the border checkpoint driving out of West Berlin and passing the transit highway to the west. It was normal to us at the time that you would have seen places all over the world, but would have no idea of what it looks like just outside your home town.

Let's never have this again.
 
Night Prowler said:
I'm studying some recent European politics for once and I'm just curious about some stuff as seen from people from the actual countries:

1. For the British people: BNP, fascist party or not? Are they even well-known?
Click to expand...

Yes, they are fascists and also well-known, but hardly relevant at any point in their history. They have always being a minor party and nowadays pretty obscure.

Night Prowler said:
2. For the EU people: do you vote in EU elections and how important are they to you?
Click to expand...

I have always done as I value my right to vote and having a say on who is my MEP. Sadly they do not lead to any relevant changes, so they are not really that important...
 
Perun said:
One of my earliest childhood memories is passing the border checkpoint driving out of West Berlin and passing the transit highway to the west. It was normal to us at the time that you would have seen places all over the world, but would have no idea of what it looks like just outside your home town.

Let's never have this again.
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I watched some recent documentary. It was very informative about how the wall got larger and more sophisticated etc. But stupid Hoff fucked up as presenter, he had a relaxed, mocking tone, he tried to be witty all the time and it didn't mesh quite well with the subject in question.

Was fascinated with the story of some gents who just took their ultralight aircraft and flew over the shit. Late 1980s
 
Black Wizard said:
election
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