Brutish National Party

I hate them with a deep and abiding passion.
I hate that they arrogate to themselves the word "British", which refers to a politically troubled archipelago off Northwestern Europe.
I hate that they arrogate to themselves the word "national" and purport to define it. [...]

I wish I knew what to do. When there are enough sad gits to vote in a BNP MEP, it feels as if liberal democracy has failed. Or rather, that it has finally delivered the inevitable outcome of tolerance.

More anon. Meanwhile, let's just remind ourselves of the sort of people they are. Ordinary, ignorant.

[Edited to make me seem a nicer person than I am.]

Update
Andrew Brons, the new MEP for Yorkshire and Humberside, is a former Chairman of the National Front. He has a conviction for using insulting words and behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace (directed at a black police officer). He was ambivalent about the value of firebombing synagogues, which might do the cause more harm than good. He led the chant: if they're black, send them back. And so on. None of this is a great secret.

In a facebook discussion last night I was foolish enough to refer to him as "a sh**" and to complain of the "ignorance, prejudice, hostility, self-righteousness of the BNP voters". I got flamed for my "mass generalisations and angry tone." Apparently some of them are "little old ladies" who are terrified by smooth-talking canvassers into believing that they will be murdered in their beds by illegal immigrants, and we should be reaching out and educating the poor dears.

Quite how a "little old lady" (and isn't that term demeaning!) could live so long and remain so ignorant escapes me. Surely it's simple racism of the sort that so often runs like a sewer under a veneer of decency? There was a time when racism was open and unashamed of itself, busy controlling jobs and tenancies, promotions and awards, and generally inscribing itself on the culture. And some people seem to regret its passing.

I refuse to make excuses for BNP voters. They may be disaffected, they may have much to feel disaffected about, but there are plenty of other parties to vote for who aren't racist. All the BNP offers that other parties don't is a particularly noxious line on race. And possibly - and possibly we aren't paying enough attention to this - the BNP knocks on doors and talks to people. Few mainstream parties have had the courage to do that this time, now the whole of British politics is being played out as a TV reality show. The voter wants to feel important too. The voter wants someone to care what he thinks. It doesn't seem to matter to some voters who that someone is.