Labour Is Out of Cornwall. Beaten By Cornish Nationalists. Stupid Nazi Nick Griffin May Win in NW

[TheBigotBasher]

That will be the saddest result of the night if that news is confirmed. Stupid Nazis (and stupid closed list PR system).

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. BNP gets a seat in Yorkshire and Humberside

Fuck. Fuck.

Fuck.

[non sociopath skin]

4. Seconded.

A bad, bad result for British democracy.

A pledge please, democrats. The pissing around stops now. These bastards must be stopped.

The Skin

[TheBigotBasher]

5. First Past The Post

stops them getting anywhere near Parliament. I most certainly do not trust Labour playing with the Lords and voting system at this stage of Parliament, a closed Partly list system will let them in.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Thirded

We need to stop the fucking fascists before they start.

[TheBigotBasher]

7. They will use their expenses as they are allowed to,

to push more Nazi rubbish. Great Nazi propaganda paid for by taxpayers.

[TheBigotBasher]

2. An absolutely stupid PR system

Designed to protect the incumbent lead party during bad times by boosting the stupid parties.

UKIP if you want to this lad is not for kipping.

[TheBigotBasher]

3. This is how much of a con this system is

The Greens have a much higher national share of the vote than the British Nazi Party, but no seats. So much for PR. Vote fiddling Government.

[mwooldri]

12. Greens actually have same # of seats as BNP.

But yes, they do have a higher share of the vote. It's proportional representation but quite regional; not national. Example would be where the Liberal Democrats actually lost overall share of the vote yet gained a seat.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

8. the collapse of the Labour vote

the BNP got a similar amount of votes in Yorks and Humber last time but no seat. With Labour voters staying at home, the BNP's rather static vote number increases in percentage and ergo an MEP.

[fedsron2us]

11. Glad at least one person on this board gets it.

The BNP did not got in because of a huge surge in their vote, (they garnered less than 2% extra in protest votes nationally) but because traditional Labour supporters stayed at home. Indeed, the collapse in the Labour vote was most spectacular in areas with the smallest numbers of immigrants, the North East and Wales. The Labour party needs to ask itself why its core white working class vote no longer bothers to turn out to support it. They should not have to go far to find the answers (the recent educational performance statistics might give them a clue). Hysteria about the voting system is not the answer, particularly as the BNP also gained seats in the local council elections which use a first past the post election system which definitely does not favour them.

The hard truth is that fascists prosper when the established parties of left and right screw up the economy and are indifferent to the problems of the masses. Indeed, I will go far as to say that if the BNP ever do get near power it is partly because the Labour Party since the day Tony Blair became PM, have been unwittingly doing a lot of the ground work for them. If the Labour movement thinks it is going to dig itself out of this hole simply by cranking up the anti BNP rhetoric they are deluded.

Personally I think the significance of the Euro election is way overestimated as the results are rarely reflected in the national polls. Although Euro money will doubtless be very useful to Griffin and his Nazi chums I doubt it is the springboard to wider power some claim, otherwise UKIP would now be a major force in domestic politics. I suspect the elected BNP candidates will toddle off to Brussels to hob nob with their fellow fascists and fiddle their expenses just like the other parties but will be little heard in British politics.

Far more important is the local council election results which often are good indicators of what is to come in a General Election. These carried awful news for the Labour party since their grass roots representation has almost disappeared in the English counties. They lost 291 councilors on Thursday night which means they only have 178 people left representing them in the shires ( by contrast the Lib Dems still have 484 despite a poor showing at the polls) This was almost annihilation. I know some Labour party members are rather dismissive of county elections, regarding them as natural Tory territory but there are still working class voters in these areas that need representation. If the Labour party is not careful its local infrastructure will be eroded to the point where it will be difficult to recover. Without the underpinning of activists and councilors who have a feeling for a constituency it is very difficult to get MPs elected. This is where the BNP have real long term opportunity since there is potentially going to be a substantial number of disenfranchised and unrepresented potential voters in these areas going forward. When after the General election the next Tory government starts to shag them over, as seems likely , it is by no means certain they are going to return to the Labour party for representation.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

9. I couldn't believe it when I saw it

That's why I advocated voting for one of the big three instead of the fringe parties (some with silly sounding names) so BNP wouldn't get into the EU.

Who the fuck votes for BNP??

[T_i_B]

10. I've been thinking about the collapse of Labour in the South-West

Now as I understand it, Labour is a poor thirrd in many parts of the South West and where Labour's a poor third round here they don't make any effort, concentrating instead on defending the areas where there vote is still competitive and chasing after an ever dwindling number of "floating" voters picked from a database.

If that's been the case in the South West then I suppose it's only logical that their vote has collapsed.

PS, I notice that Katie Hopkins (ghastly snobbish woman from The Apprentice) stood as an independent in the South West. Full results here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/elections/euro/09/html/ukregion_36.stm

[Name removed]

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