14 May, 2009

 

Rant of the day: another scrape of the barrel

At the Newspeak blog, which I've not encountered before, there is a post pointing out that the photos in a BNP election leaflet are demonstrably generic stock images rather than representing actual BNP supporters. The item is replicated at Lancaster UAF and mentioned at Harry's Place.

Now let's be scrupulously fair here. The photos are placed next to "quotes" from supporters, supporters in the same categories as those illustrated alongside, saying why they have come to support the party. But then again, the quotes are unsigned and the text has an easily recognizable generic quality to it, suggesting to any vaguely intelligent reader that the quotes represent typical or summarized responses. And as for the photos, it really didn't need the tireless background research of the Newspeak blogger to tell me, or any one else with more than one functioning brain-cell, that they are generic stock images. I do not believe for a moment that they are intended as anything else.

Does anybody really believe that the happy, comfortable, healthy, grey-haired, woolly jumper-clad middle class couple who appear on every brochure which tries to flog you insurance for the over 50s, world cruises or equity-realization scams are genuine customers of the company concerned? Of course not. Does it matter? No.

Or that the beaming Black folk who adorn every flyer for museums and similar visitor attractions are actual customers? Or believe in the Balamory-esque diversity which adorns tourist brochures for parts of the country where the appearance of a Black or Brown person in the High Street would merit the front-page lead in the local newspaper and an outbreak of celebratory bunting? Or was I convinced by the internal corporate propaganda at my former employer, the generic illustrations of which would have you believe that the company was staffed entirely by young Chinese men, young Black women and a sprinkling of middle-aged female White managers?

The blogger at Newspeak doesn't seem to be particularly political and seems to have written the post as a slightly edgy curiosity. (In any case one has to make allowances for people who not only code in Python, but are brazen enough to openly publish a code sample! Shudder! Death to the Antisemicolonists! May they be condemned to spend eternity porting the Windows Vista kernel to INTERCAL!)


What is to the point is that serious political sites of the "anti-fascist" persuasion have actually bothered to pick this trivium up and run with it as if it were yet more conclusive proof of the evil, incompetent duplicity of the fash.

Yawn. Stop sniping at trivia, you wankers, and address the issues, in particular the numero uno issue of uncontrolled mass immigration turning my country into a foreign land, filling rapidly with strangers who I have no reason to believe are remotely interested in the long-term welfare of me or my tribe. If you're not prepared to do that, then just shut the fuck up.


Mind you, this isn't Lancaster Unity's real non-story of the week. You may want to sit down and take a deep breath before reading about the Anger in Bridgwater. And who is so angry in the fair town of Bridgwater that their anger is so newsworthy, you ask?
Trade unionists and anti-racists in Bridgwater, a town with a proud history of radicalism, are angered by the news a BNP candidate is standing for election in their town.
As Mandy Rice-Davies might have put it, well they would be, wouldn't they?

Only three weeks till the elections. I'm not sure I can take much more of this non-excitement.

Comments:
Excellent point.

I'm not a BNP supporter myself, but I am of the opinion that all the blame for their potential success lies with the mainstream parties.

They drove decent people into Nick Griffin's arms, and even now they can't see why - they're more interested in telling us what to think than listening to us.

The only good thing I can see about the 'rise' of the BNP is it means that game is nearing the end of its life.

Hopefully any BNP successes will drive the Tories back to their natural position - but I'm not holding my breath.

 
Labour have certainly helped the BNP through their incompetence over immigration issues. If the lid had been kept on immigration, the BNP wouldn't have a quarter of the support they get now.

It's funny to see Guardian types wet their knickers over a party with less councillors than the soppy Greens.

Otherwise, the Far Right haven't exactly had much success in limiting over the last 40 years.

Maybe to some extent they've made it harder to put forward arguments against mass immigration, tarnishing them by association with right-arm gymnastics and the usual wife-beater and knicker-thief types who always gravitate towards doctrines of racial superiority.

Ironically enough, the BNP like to remind people they're not a single-issue party. But they'd do better if they really, truly were.

 
The more they keep banging on and on about the BNP as if they were globalwarningaidsswineflumrsa all wrapped up into one single threat, the more they encourage voters to think 'Well, if it upsets you so much...'

The BNP don't need to spend money on publicity. Right now, their opponents are giving it away for them for free!

 
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