Just as David Cameron is re-aligning the Tories to sweep up Lib Dem voters, so Biased BBC's David Vance is re-aligning himself with the anti-Nazi League. Perhaps.
I note that former British Conservative leader Michael Howard has accused all the mainstream parties of failing to do enough to challenge the British National Party.
Excellent. Hope Not Hate!
Well, I partly agree.
Even better. Partly.
The BNP's arguments should be addressed
Real progress, David. May I call you David?
but that is something ALL the major parties run a mile from doing.
Are you sure? They gave Griffin a good run for his money on Question Time.
Unfettered immigration and our disturbing loss of national sovereignty are the twin issues that the BNP make hay from
So they say. Though mainly it's the Islamophobia.
but the REASON they can do so is that the Lib/Lab/Cons have run away from dealing with these crunch topics.
In what way, precisely?
It's no use complaining about the BNP when you refuse to engage on the very areas of policy where the Lib/Lab/Cons have spectacularly failed to make any progress.
The economy? Not the BNP's strong point.
Labour and the Libs want us to be a multiculti amorphous sub-branch of EU central
Oh, er, yes. Or rather, no.
and we have had David Cameron today claiming that he had much in common with Liberal values!
Liberal is not yet the insult in the UK that it is in redneck America... or in your own household, David.
Can they not see how this alienates the people from their elitism?
Advanced Vance™: Elitism = People or policies I disagree with.
The BNP will continue to grow UNTIL one of the three major Parties comes out in clear unambiguous terms about the menace of unfettered immigration...
It's not unfettered. Nor is it intrinsically a menace.
…about the scandal of the EU's absorption of British sovereignty and it seems to me that this will not be anytime soon...
So your strategy for dealing with the BNP is… to sound just like them. Excellent move, um, David.
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Worth noting that BNP member Allan@Aberdeen, who haunts both Biased BBC and A Tangled Web, throws his thoughts into Vance's little debate.
ReplyDeleteApparently, the main political parties have been trying to render the population of this country indistinguishable from that of every other country in Europe which suffers the same kind of mass immigration of lesser peoples.
Lesser peoples... Don't you just love their refusal to live up to the Nazi stereotype?
The more I read Biased BBC, the more I realise that Vance and co are doing something rather simple; they are looking at the culture wars from the 90s onwards in the US, and borrowing tactics/phrases from the nastiest aspects of the Republican right wing agenda. Valuing emotion over logic. An obsession with a supposed threat to Christian values. A belief that anything other than unfettered capitalism is wrong. Prominence of social issues, such as abortion, will be the next step.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the right wing politics at Biased BBC that is the problem (they are right about some issues, and even if they are aren't, it's their right to an opinion). The problem is that they are peddling myths, lies, and the usual moronic simplisitic accepted wisdom of the american right. They fail to see, for example, that Britain cannot be a socialist paradise - if it were, the banks wouldn't have collapsed as they would have been regulated in the first place.... Little facts like that escape them. Likewise, they miss the point on Islamic extremism entirely. It is a challenge of our times yes, but it's not een remotely comparable to the threat from the Nazi's - a comparison often made.
The odd thing is why Vance and co like this rather nasty brand of American claptrap. It's been discredited by most sensible right wingers in the US - they see it as contributing to Bush's arrogance, Republican over-reach, and the Democratic surge into power in 2008. But that doesn't seem to appeal to Vance. He's leading the charge for a British culture war - which unfortunately benefits no one. It makes politics even more stupid than it is now. Championing the likes of Sarah Palin gives us an indication that Vance's knowledge of US politics is really fag packet stuff.
What worries me is the lunatics like him are starting to get taken seriously in this country. Just when America is finally moving away from these nutcases, Britain is becoming facinated by them. Serious papers/TV channels treat moronic bloggers with respect they are not worthy of.
Vance's culture war rubbish usually only succeeds in preaching to the converted. That may yet be the result (I hope) but the UK is on the brink of finally voting out Labour, and if the Conservatives are anything other than far right, the bloggers will fill that vacuum and try to push the Tories rightwards. The problem is that is serious people, intelligent people, start listening to morons like Vance.
It's always fascinated me as to why the BBC is the main culprit in Vance's culture war. Part of it is that the BBC is seen as elitist, part of The Big State. Part of it is that the BBC values presenting both sides of issues - and culture war types don't like that. Some of their claims of bias are beyond extreme. I used to laugh at what they call bias, now I'm beyond that. Some of it is surely a sign of mental illness.
The BNP thing is odd there - there is not outright support for the BNP on Biased BBC , yet they stand up for their rights for reasons other than to uphold free speech. They defend some of what the BNP believe because they too believe in it. I don't think these hardcore blogger types actually support any party, or really any aspect of the political process. They prefer to be on the outside, pissing in. They like grumbling, complaining, telling people what is fucked up. They don't actually want to fix things, or can't be arsed to do so. It's a peculiar mentality. The world isn't quite the way they want it to be, so their response is twofold - look for people to blame (the BBC, Muslims etc) and complain about everything. Ironically, this culture war approach is worsening things in our politial discourse - it widens divides and entrenches paranoia and distrust.
Lecture over.
There's a lot in what you say FFPS, though I think one of the key issues in Vance world is something more local: The transfer of the tribal hatreds which sustained Ulster bigots for decades, transferred to a wider stage. You identify with your tribe, assume it has a monopoly on virtue... and you demonise all those outside the camp. Today's enemies are largely imported from American culture wars, undoubtedly, but The BBC is part of the Orange inheritance. The Beeb were often seen as enemies by hardline Unionists because they gave airtime to the Nationalist side and in particular its complaints about human rights abuses, and got in the way of the business of demonising the Nationalist upstarts.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering is it simply a way of getting attention for Vance. If your views are extreme then they stand out against everyone elses. This is why he is invited on to the air waves in Ulster. But there does appear to be merit in what you both say.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit of both I think. Vance does play to his extremist view points to get attention; but at the same time, I think he is quite sincere in those views. He clearly moderates himself on the tele (on that dreadful BBC which keeps inviting him on...) from the raw and uncut version we get treated to online. That's smart I suppose - he is the 'differing opinion' guest they have on. Very ironic, as those people often annoy him on News 24 when it concerns a topic he gets angry about.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, the theory about Vance and the traditional tribal hatreds holds up too. I've never got a decent answer out of him about why the peace process is a bad thing. I get the 'terrorists are evil and we must never give in' bit, I don't disagree with that. I just don't get the whole 'I'd rather have war than the sort of peace I dislike' thing he hints at. The monopoly on virtue comment was spot on really; which connects back to the self-righteousness agenda of the right wingers during the culture wars. That's not what true conservatism is about - something these guys don't get. They claim to be very pro-small government and libertarian one minute, but they want everyone to live a certain way of life the next.
I did mention to Vance a long time ago that his grudge against the BBC basically came about following his failed political career. He campaigned on an anti-peace process ticket at a time when all sides were crying out for peace (hardly surprising after the decades of hell they went through) and felt his 'peace is shit' slogan didn't get fair treatment by the beeb. Obviously, he never got elected, and thus decided to blame the BBC. It couldn't be that he massively misjudged the public mood. Nor that he was simply too stubborn to consider compromise for the greater good. It was, clearly, purely the fault of the evil BBC.
From there on, he goes looking for bias in every news report. And what we look for hard enough, we shall find.
is this Vance character still spouting his nonsense?
ReplyDelete