U.K. Whites-Only BNP Leader Calls Obama ‘Bigot’

[pampango]

Source: Bloomberg

British National Party leader Nick Griffin called Barack Obama a “bigot” and said the furor over his first nationally televised interview has given his whites- only party unprecedented recognition.

In an interview with the Times newspaper published today, Griffin attacked the U.S. president as an “Afrocentric racist bigot” and called for American blacks to be resettled in Africa “because the two peoples living side by side would cause problems forever.”

Griffin, whose party opposes immigration and wants to withdraw from the European Union and cut foreign aid, mocked critics of his BBC booking. The party’s constitution bars all except “Indigenous Caucasian” people as members.

Since the 1990s, far-right parties have gained ground in several European countries including Austria, Denmark, France and the Netherlands, their success attributed to public concerns over immigration and the trend toward European integration.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=alwNADeugDwY

---

Not too surprising since Obama is not white enough for the BNP (which opposes miscegenation ,too) and his father was an immigrant.

Griffin's language of repatriation of African Americans and that "the two peoples living side by side would cause problems forever" is so reminiscent of our segregationists of the past that it is like listening from a time machine to a speech from the 1950's or the 19th century.

Also sounds like the several far-right wing parties of Europe have been able to take some advantage of public concerns over progressive changes in immigration and European integration. On immigration that sounds like our repub party which makes hay whenever immigration comes up on the national radar. There's no continental integration here for the far-right to get worked up about, though Dobbs & Co. can still get worked up about the mythical North American Union.

[MonteLukast]

1. Griffin is a concern troll.

Griffin attacked the U.S. president as an “Afrocentric racist bigot” and called for American blacks to be resettled in Africa “because the two peoples living side by side would cause problems forever.”

Hmmm... kinda reminds me of somebody in Louisiana, ya think?

Bardwell said that neither black nor white society accepts the offspring of an interracial couple, and the children suffer as a result. He also stated that interracial families are unstable, and the children of these families often end up in the care of grandparents.

:eyes:

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. He's far more than a 'concern troll'; he's the British equivalent of David Duke

with whom he has sometimes appeared. He hates minorities. Pretty much any minority he can think of.

10 things you should know about the BNP

20 questions for the BNP

[dipsydoodle]

8. Notwithstanding that

It was watched by eight million people which is 4 times the normal viewing figure for that program. Overall the BNP will have benefited IMHO particularly because of the way in which Straw tried to avoid answering the immigration question of how come a projected 50,000 figure became 750.000 over the period concerned.

Perish the thought but the BNP could well pick up more than one parliamentary seat next year.

[geckosfeet]

3. Why did the BBC give this bigoted rabble rouser a platform to spew from?

Did they think that the exposure would backfire on him? That if people knew of his racist beliefs that they would confront his party (and make more news in the process)?

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. It's been controversial; he was elected as an MEP in June

The BNP got over 6% of the vote, nationally, and in a couple of regions, it was high enough to get 2 of them elected to the European Parliament. So the BBC has pointed out that a party that has achieved national representation like that has never been excluded before. They have also been allowed to broadcast Party Election Broadcasts, and parliament never tried to make a law to stop that either. I agree with the BBC that it's up to parliament to make laws saying people are banned from TV, not up to the BBC to do it unilaterally.

Actually, many people do feel he looked a nasty prat on TV, and was the big loser on the night. He's now whining that everyone was paying too much attention to him, and making him answer too many questions about his racism, anti-semitism, Islamophobia and homophobia.

[KamaAina]

29. He's an MEP?! But I thought they wanted out of the EU?

Kind of like Kansas state Sen. Kay O'Connor, who wants to take away women's suffrage. Or the Bloc Quebecois in Canada's Parliament. :eyes:

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. It's the easiest way for their party to get someone elected

because the European elections use a form of proportional representation - the country is divided into 12 regions, and each region elects a number of MEPs on a closed-list PR system - which means that getting perhaps 8% of the vote can be enough to get one representative for the region. They got 9.8% in the Yorkshire/Humberside region; 8.0% in North West England; and each was enough to get one MEP.

It doesn't matter to Griffin that he has practically no allies in the European Parliament, or that all he really wants to do with it is leave it; he wanted a title, and of course a significant salary (and big expenses allowances for the party). And to say he's been elected in a large election, and so that he ought to be able to go on things like 'Question Time'.

[dipsydoodle]

10. Mainly because

the BBC is public corporation and they are not there to judge.

[geckosfeet]

32. But they must have standards. I see now that it all the 'major' parties were represented.

[hobbit709]

4. Let's take his (il)logic to the extreme

Put all 6+ billion people back in Africa-after all that's where we ALL came from.

[truthisfreedom]

5. Wow.

[denem]

6. Griffin- David Duke "a leader of ... always a totally non-violent (Klu Klux Klan)"

from the BBC Question Time:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6887091.ece

Headline: "BBC celebrates record ratings for Nick Griffin on Question Time"

Nothing to celebrate IMO. Enough said.

[MonteLukast]

7. That's some friggin' spin job.

"Non-violent" KKK?

Way to show your willful ignorance of history, Mr. Griffin. I mean, seriously... you don't think lynching is violent?

[denem]

12. Yeah. "Nick Griffin to complain to the BBC ... saying he had faced a "lynch mob"."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8322322.stm

I'm sure the BBC can wait.

[T_i_B]

14. Given that BNP supporters tend also to be Holocaust deniers

what do you expect?

[Tsar_Bomba]

11. Griffin's party is mirrors what mainstream conservatism in the US is today

When I get email from my right wing family members and their friends the opinions they express are the same as the BNP. Right wing conservatism needs to be exposed for what it is, straight up authoritarianism and fascism.

[MonteLukast]

13. I once saw this great documentary about hate rock on YouTube

Unfortunately, it's been taken down (though you still get a lot of links by typing "BNP songs" in the search bar). It mentioned such British bands as Nemesis and Whitelaw.

Martin Page is a BNP treasurer and his wife Kim is a senior fundraiser for the party. Both have been photographed alongside Benny Bullman, the lead singer of Whitelaw, the white supremacist band whose songs include Fetch the Noose, We're Coming for You and For White Pride.
--From "Exposed: ugly face of BNP's leaders", The Guardian

The odd thing about the video was, it painted Nick Griffin as a lot less offensive than the previous leader of BNP. Griffin was more of a natural politician than John Tyndall, going so far as attempting to distance the BNP from obvious white-supremacist bands, so as to ingratiate the BNP more with a thinking public.

What he said today shows he's either hardening around the edges, or he's embracing his inner racist more fully...

[denem]

15. Griffin has moved the BNP's public position away from anti-semitism

to concentrate on 'anti-islam'. He was a cheerleader for the Gaza invasion.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

36. They've done a u-turn on anti-Semitism, openly spreading anti-Semitic stories again

They switched from a pro-war position to an anti-war one as the middle class is now more sceptical of the Afghan War. They're openly calling them "wars for the benefit of Zion."

They've recently been on record to say that "Jewish Bolsheviks" were responsible for the Holocaust http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=191x28263

[jonnyblitz]

17. delete

i found the video but after further perusal i determined it was on a racist site and the video was incomplete anyway so i chose to delete the link.

[fascisthunter]

16. lol.... looks like all bigots use the same tactic

projection

[Blue_Tires]

18. i love the irony, since the word "bigot" comes from English Theologian Nathaniel Bigot

Who according to legend was so extreme in his views he saw his fellow Puritans as touchy-feely bleeding heart liberal pansies...

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. That's an internet myth

Actual derivation, courtesy of teh Oxford English Dictionary:

< Middle French bigot (French bigot) (noun) person who shows excessive religious zeal, a religious hypocrite, (adjective) showing excessive religious zeal (15th cent.), of uncertain origin, perhaps ultimately < either English by God at BY prep. 2b or an equivalent expression in another Germanic language (although there is apparently no evidential basis for this supposition: see further e.g. Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch at bî got). With sense A. 2a compare earlier BIGOTED adj. 1.
It is uncertain whether the Middle French word shows a direct connection with Old French bigot, attested in the 12th cent. as an offensive name given to the Normans (and also attested in both England and France as a byname, earliest in the 11th cent.). If not directly connected, it is likely that both words show the same or a similar ultimate etymology.
Compare (< French) Italian bigotto (a1698), German Bigott (18th cent.), etc. Yiddish bagotish bigotted has been suggested as an etymon of the French word, but there seems no reason for seeing this as other than a modern borrowing from another Germanic language, ultimately reflecting the French word.

First reference in written English:

1598 T. SPEGHT Wks. G. Chaucer sig. Aaaa.ii, Bigin, bigot, superstitious hypocrite <1602 adds or hypocriticall woman>.

[Blue_Tires]

26. hmmm.....thanks for that....

[Bette Noir]

19. "Back to Africa"?

How is that even possible, when I've never been? Considering that a minority of my ancestors came from Africa, at least in the last five or six centuries, shouldn't I be going back to Ireland or Spain, instead?

Griffin has no standing. It's a shame anyone is willing to give him a mic. He's just a teabagger by another name.

[leanderj]

20. Griffin is actually dangerous

There have been several deadly incidents in the last few years where dark-skinned residents were attacked and killed.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FVZA_Colonel]

23. I wonder if Glenn Beck is going to have anything to say about this?

[ej510]

24. This guy is using PROJECTION!!!!! The same thing the repuke party uses to describe

anyone who won't agree with them. You blame them for what your doing.

[pampango]

28. My guess is that he (and Limbaugh/Dobbs) want to maintain plausible deniability of their own racism

(they're just anti-immigration - I mean anti-illegal immigration - don't you know?) so they won't touch this guy with a 10-foot-pole.

[mgc1961]

25. Boundless bigotry.

It's not just an American phenomenon.

[chatnoir]

27. How is this schmuck a Cambridge graduate??

"I felt sorry for the guy really," said Bill, 64, an out-of-work electrician, who said he had never voted for the BNP.

"The trouble with this country is they don't like the truth. If you don't join the club and say what you think is right you are a bad influence."

Perhaps not aware that Mr Griffin is a graduate of Cambridge university, he went on: "They were just after slaughtering him. He was just maybe not educated enough to take on that many people. He did show Jack Straw up a bit though."

Asked if he thought the BBC had been right to invite Mr Griffin on to the programme, he said: "Why should he not have his freedom of speech? He got elected by people."

More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8322626.stm

Bonnie Greer, who was seated next to him on the panel, had this to say :

"I spent the entire night with my back turned to him. At one point, I had to restrain myself from slapping him. But it was worth it," she insists, "because he was totally trounced. I had thought we'd face a formidable orator, somebody who knew his facts and had his ducks in a row but the guy was a mess!

"From the moment the audience began shooting questions, it was a case of the Emperor's new clothes. He was completely exposed as an evasive liar who couldn't even stand up his own quotes and looked like a buffoon."

The other panellists - Justice Secretary Jack Straw, shadow minister for community cohesion Sayeda Warsi, and Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne - came down on him like a ton of bricks, she says.

"They were formidably prepared with quotes and statistics, and David Dimbleby was excellent at holding him to account. I don't know if the cameras picked this up but Griffin was trembling and shaking like a leaf.

"There was a pivotal moment in the show when Dimbleby pressed him on whether he was still a Holocaust denier and he just looked totally bereft. For a couple of seconds there was a deafening silence. It was an amazing moment. You could see the panel thinking, 'He's done for'.

"He had climbed in the ring with some heavyweights and in all honesty, he got slapped around. The audience and the panel took him down time after time. It was a blood sport. He looked totally out of his depth. I was shocked by how ill-prepared he was. He didn't seem to have credible answers to anything."

More at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23760044-when-bonnie-greer-met-nick-griffin.do

[mogster]

31. The growth of the European right is a result of the Bush/Blair years

"Since the 1990s, far-right parties have gained ground in several European countries including Austria, Denmark, France and the Netherlands, their success attributed to public concerns over immigration and the trend toward European integration."

Not to mention Fogh Rasmussen in Denmark, Le Pen, Haider, the Progress party and other right wing parties in Norway and the rest of the wolf pack in the world. Howard, Berlusconi, the list over people that has run the world shop into the roadside for the last decade is long.

The Progress party in Norway jumped from 14% in 2001 to 21% in the election of 2005. They achieved brief polls in the mid-thrities as a result of the Muhammed publishing in 2006, before confirming the result from the 2005 election in this years election, even incrementing the result by 1%. They're not on the level with BNP, but you never know with the rightwing parties of this type exactly where they stand politically, as their foremost character trait is opportunism. The only thing that keeps the undercurrent racist/xenophobic drive in check is their need to adapt to a democratic society with free media (even those well known 'free' media we're blessed with), because they must balance that maniac drive with seriousness, to sell themselves to business and conservative voters. They've surely built their power over the years on bigotry and xenophobia, just as Nick Griffin.
As a whole, Europe has suffered a conservative wave as a result of the new conditions, and the media, which is not one bit as they were before ca. 2004. These are not racists and has limited their xenophobia somewhat, the main drive in their politics are (big) business. It's interesting to note that this happens in the wake of the serial collapse of big business that has been going on since the same year as the WOT started, 2001. Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat, Ahold - I bet not one country has managed to avoid the collapses, which came as a result of widespread fraud. Billions upon billions lost. Still the conservative gains on it, that has to be at least partly because they own also the big media.

It could have been interesting to see a full oversight, to check to which level the right wing extremism has changed for the last decade.

[Odin2005]

33. IMO Europe is a lot more racist than the US, they just hide it better.

[Sultana]

34. What a bunch of losers!

Eat Shit, Griffin

[mstinamotorcity]

35. President Obama a Bigot Please!!!!!!

If you don't get these silly people a little measuring cup so they can nyquil that sickness every time i turn around some more nuts fall off a f--king tree. Where in the hell do they grow these stupid ass chump charlies. Please don't plant any more of these trees the wicked forest is big enough.Those people are strange,I'm glad i belong to the left because the right is on a voyage with captain kirk !!!!!!! Me Earthling, Them Stupid Aliens