Tuesday 22 January 2008

BNP Wives

If there was ever a case of suspending no platform in favour of giving the BNP enough rope, this was it. I cannot think of one occasion where a BNP member has come across well in the media. It tends to reinforce the impression they're either easily-led, pompous, spiteful, bitter, or clueless. Or all of those things. Back when I was a bigoted young Tory teenager I have to thank such a programme for helping make sure I never went anywhere near the fash. Then fuhrer, the late and very much unlamented John Tyndall, gave an interview that was so hate filled and condescendingly arrogant that most watching who were predisposed toward casual racism would have been put off. Unfortunately, since that time the BNP have learned unreconstructed Nazism and race hate tends not to go down well with even the most ignorant and backward of Britons. Hence the suits, the emphasis on "alien" cultures (i.e. Islam), the posing as the champion of the white working class, etc. So when its activists go on the record and make complete numpties of themselves and their vile organisation, it should be welcomed.

Of the three women featured in Sky One's BNP Wives, it was hard to tell who was taking the most stupid pills, as all three had clearly been overdosing. If one of them was at all redeemable, it was Suzy Cass, the wife of Nick Cass, a former full timer who was unceremoniously dumped by Griffin's clique last Autumn. Cass is clearly not Mastermind (never mind master race) material. She spoke of how she started to think about race when a few items from her late father's body were stolen after he died in Jamaica. This, she said, sat in the back of her mind until she met Nick, who then converted her to, if you forgive the pun, the black and white benefits of a racialist world view. Cass spoke of how she insisted on having a white midwife present during the birth of one of her children ... on the instigation of her husband. And toward the end of the show, asked what it was like being a BNP wife, she quipped "BNP wife? More like BNP widow!" She knew the party was his first love: her lot was to to bring up his kids and play second fiddle. Her longing for him to tone down his activity was plain and was quite pleased when Nick was sacked: for the first time in years, the chance of a normal life presented itself.

Marlene Guest, the organiser for Rotherham BNP, certainly fell into the stupid and bitter category. It was very quickly established this was a woman full of rage and constantly dogged by feelings of abandonment, and had only joined the BNP after her marriage had collapsed. One of the most difficult moments of the programme was her poetry reading at last summer's Red, White, and Blue festival. Guest should be thankful her bitter words of betrayal and adultery rumbled over a near-deserted field, as she succeeded in making herself look like a complete fool. And this wasn't the only time. Prodded about Nazi mass murder, she declared "Don't tell me I don't believe in the Holocaust. I do. I'm just not sure about the numbers". And she was unclear whether Britain should have gone to war with Germany too.

But most unpleasant by far was Lynne Mozar, the Southeast regional secretary. We saw her in action with her fellow fash degenerates on a stall opposing the building of a mosque in Fareham. When one woman came up and began asking questions you'd expect anyone to ask about any kind of political stall (why are you here, why are you opposing this, etc.) Mozar moved away and muttered to herself how this woman "would benefit from having a burqa". When asked by the reporter why she didn't use it as an opportunity to explain her view and try and convince her, she replied she "couldn't be bothered" and "isn't really interested in converting people". Given such an attitude it's unsurprising their paper sales were so low, and off they moved their stall to the town centre. This afforded us a keen insight into the BNP mindset when, confronted with someone who accused them of lying (they were telling passersby that the navy only served up halal meat), Andy, another organiser, claimed all critics were "leftwing operatives". Yes, and we're also transdimensional lizards who telepathically guided the planes into the Twin Towers.

BNP Wives is now available to view online here. Perhaps the funniest thing about the documentary has been the BNP's reaction to it. They hail the women as "fine ambassadors for the BNP" and believed it "helped promote the BNP to the public". Incredibly, most of the fash believe it too! Like I said, give them enough rope ...

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is completely O/T, but have you seen what's happening in Gaza today?!

:)

brother_f said...

brilliant stuff.

they dug their own grave with that one.

Kirklees Unity said...

Hi
Enjoyed your summary of the BNP Wives programme.
Whilst I don't agree with you on "No Platform" I think you summed them up quite nicely.
However,don't feel too sorry for Suzy Cass.
They are local to me and she has stood as a BNP candidate in Kirklees and in Wakefield on a number of occasions,as has her dozy husband and other various members of the Cass Klan.
One interesting side note is that Nick Cass' favourite aunt Gillian who has also stood as a candidate numerous times moved lock stock and barrel to Muslim Turkey.
I kid you not

http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/2007/06/bnps-turkish-delight.html

Regards
Kirklees Unity

Anonymous said...

yeh the bnp are idiots to allow this documentary to be made. they could have at least chosen some women cadre who could present their ideas properly! they are an ill disciplined shower.

the far left have some 'characters' as well it should be noted. at least the far left would have selected some relatively normal cadre for a documentory though, that or just refuse!

there are the 'eccentric' or plain mad bnp, and then there are the neo-nazi thugs. so they have two sides.

as for no platform, i think where they have a mass local base of support you can't no platform them, because it's too late for that! the locals wont understand or be sympathetic to far lefts / radical student trots coming into their area and taking 'extreme' actions. in these areas you need a much more skillful responce, that is political and class based.

in most areas though you can 'no platform' the bnp and people will be sympathetic. you should still explain it carefully though and involve locals. so no platform remains valid as a method to disrupt the bnp organising and building their support.

ultimately of course you need a party to challenge the bnp and the capitalist system - if we are to destroy the neo-nazis once and forever.

communist greetings,


ks

Unknown said...

Yup. The fash are a weird bunch of idiots. No platform for nazis, bolshies, or islamofash.

- a syndicalist

My Job Hunt said...

Yep it tends to be the case that when you give these people a platform they are their own worst enemy. What a PR disaster! I'm sure they'd say they come out of these programs badly because of the hardline communist element in the media. I actually did a piece of work at uni depicting all the Nazis and Neo-Nazis who turned out to be very ashamedly gay, happens a lot more often than you think.

Phil said...

Daniel: The irony of calling for "no platform" for "Bolshies" on a blog written by members of an avowedly Trotskyist organisation ...

Kirklees, I think we need to be tactically astute when it comes to applying 'no platform'. Firstly, we have to ask ourselves how we go about it and the consequences our actions are likely to have. For example, in the case of Simone Clarke I remain unconvinced this was a sensible way of going about things. All it did was make the BNP and Clarke look like victims of anti-democratic hoodlums, and made it more difficult in some quarters to explain why the BNP should be no platformed.

Seán said...

Charlie Marks (rebellion sucks) reckons I should thank you for enablelling me to watch this. So thanks. I won't allow Murdoch products in the house for many long and obvious reasons.

Lynne Mozar was truly an awful specimen of humanity. And as for the Red, White, and Blue festival - what a cultural wasteland the far right inhabit. Shocking.

blackstone said...

What exactly is the BNP? Is this something peculiar to Europe?

Phil said...

Hi Blackstone, the BNP are a small fascist party active in Britain. They have no representatives save 30-odd councillors (numbers at the moment are unclear as some of them have split away to form a new far right organisation). There's an ok history of them on wikipedia and a lot of material is carried in Searchlight magazine (for some reason its website is down at the moment).

The BNP are almost unique in Europe because it is a lot smaller than other far right/neo-nazi outfits on the continent. France, Belgium, Turkey, Germany and many others are host to sizeable fascist parties.

AndyB said...

Daniel, with his no platform for Bolshies, is an odd one. Read his review of the film '300' - full of references to the 'masculine West' the 'heroic individualism'of 'Nordic culture', the aesthetics of 'land and kin' and 'pure' love, hate and violence. A thoroughly approving review, as well.

I suspect that Daniel is a little closer to 'the fash' than he might realise. Maybe the numpties of the BNP are a little to crude for him. Not fascist enough, going by his review of '300'.

http://strength-freedom.blogspot.com/2008/01/review-300-film.html

Anonymous said...

bnp wives did no favours for the party, they came across as rude, fat slobs, with big mouths, no need to be so rude about other nationaliies, we have got to many in this country now, but they are human beings like the rest of use. when the bnp get some decent candidates, perhaps a lot more people might listen to them, we have got enough yobs on this country, without voting for them to run the country.

Anonymous said...

It was the sheer paranoia of the people that fascinated me...theyre often portrayed as just nasty or lunatics, but you could see that they just lived in some alternate reality. The 'raping outside a mosque' quote was the most shocking. I thought the program was ok; it did show a human side to it, apart from some easy jabs it was worth watching. They should have confronted them a bit more on their views about immigration though.

Anonymous said...

Whilst I done condone the antics of the BNP, we have to remember that Britain is a democracy & we allow all manner of people the freedom to express their views, no matter how insane.

If we lose that, we lose the very fibre of our society.

Anonymous said...

Lynne mozar is a sorry disgrace of a woman - looks like someone set fire to her face and put of out with a shovel!! Hilarios the lack of political acumen throughout the party but this woman struck me in particular as havinga pea-sized intellect and zero capacity to communicate her 'opinions'.

Anonymous said...

I've only just seen the documentary which this piece refers to ..... we are all politically inclined, whether we care to admit it or otherwise, but I have to agree with most that Lynne Mozar was an absolutely awful specimen of the human race and deserves nothing from any of us but contempt. With a little bit of luck, they'll hang themselves with their own rope given time; they do seem to be doing a particularly good job of it without much outside assistance!