I'm giving another plug to Louise and her excellent blog because she has had time to write a considered and cogent piece on why the Indy was wrong to give a double-page spread yesterday to the BNP GLA member Barnbrook. I only read the article late last night on the train and was appalled to see this appalling individual being given credence.It's avery dangerous precedent.......
Monday, 2 June 2008
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6 comments:
Thanks Susan, much appreciated.
I was appalled to see the interview in the Indie. Even though Barnbrook comes across as a sad loser the Indie is still giving respectability to his vile politics. Simple: no platform.
Yes, I loved the bit about how he was once pretty Bohemian as somehow that made it better.....almosy as if the journalist couldn't quite believe an arty lioberal could morph so appalingly. I'm sure he didn't mean it that way but it gave the piece a tinge of sympathy
I agree with you both on no platform but I think this goes beyond that. No other GLA member would be given a 2 page-spread. He has been given privileged treatment, presumably because the Independent want to be edgy, controversial, or want to make a point about free speech without really understanding what it means.
If I am wrong, I look forward to seeing 2-page spreads on all the GLA members.
The appropriate response: don't buy the Independent, and write to them saying that you're not going to buy their paper, and that this is a direct consequence of them publishing the Barnbrook piece.
It is beside the point that Independent readers are hardly going to respond favourably to Barnbrook. The BNP's current strategy is one of presenting a polite public face, and abiding by the norms of legitimate political party. In giving them column inches, the Indie has played along with this: hook, line and sinker.
A bit like New labour then
No, actually. Utterly opposed though I am to New Labour, there is widespread support for Labour Party members of all political shades support for no platforming fascists.
One of the big dangers at the moment is of people seeing the BNP as just another bad political movement in a crowded field of bad political movements. We need to resist this. Fascism is qualitatively different from event the most reactionary liberal-democratic politics.
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