Labour candidate Ross Hatfull pulled out of hustings for the Wanstead by-election, organised by Wanstead's Counties Residents Association (CRA), thereby preventing the event from going ahead.
He said: "The party line of the Labour group is not to share a platform with the BNP, but also there are a lot of people concerned there could be trouble if it went ahead."
The candidates from the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green and UKIP parties had planned to participate, so Labour was in a minority with its no-platform position.
BNP arguments are not hard to take apart, so why not take them on head-to-head at hustings? In the light of allegations of racism against one BNP campaigner, if there had been trouble from the BNP supporters it could only reflect badly on them.
Responding to the cancellation, Ian Lannigan of Wanstead said: "Fascists must be faced head on. Disengagement doesn't work (see what's happened in Dagenham) and only allows their lies to gain traction. We have to engage and defeat these racist buffoons in debate. The BNP has been handed a a PR victory by the inept Labour machine. The other candidates are denied a chance to present their policies and engage an intelligent and informed electorate.
"To withdraw on the day is cowardly, shameful, counter productive and will infuriate the CRA and Wanstead Historical Society who have worked hard to arrange a fair hustings. The voters will punish Ross Hatful and the BNP will reap the reward."
While being in the presence of a member from a racist party may put a bitter taste in many people's mouths, the BNP will not be defeated by silencing them but by hitting them head on with their hypocrisy, lies and hate-mongering. Labour's unilateral decision to destroy the debate has merely helped to divide rather than unite opposition to the BNP and provided fuel to their propaganda.
Defeating fascism will not be achieved by suppressing debate and attempting to ban fascists from freedom of speech. Democracy is strong enough to resist the BNP's subversive, divisive and nefarious politics.
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6 comments:
Why not take on the BNP
You might find them proven liars cheats and embezzlers
or you might not find them fascists racists or bigots, just ordinary working class people trying their utmost to save their country from traitors
I believe the BNP is a fascist party that has little to offer the working-class or anyone else. I don't use "fascist" as a perjorative, it is a correct description of a group that is founded on fascist beliefs and continues to advance them. But seeking to silence it or marginalise it from debate will only be counter-productive and undermines our democratic traditions. The BNP has a right to contest elections, but equally we have a right to criticise its platform. Removing that right in any way is a step towards the authoritarian and totalitarian ideology anti-fascists are supposed to oppose. The BNP can operate quite happily without hustings as it never has to defend itself from its opponents in front of the people. I note that Nick Griffin has yet to respond to the Liberal Democrats' Lembit Opik's challenge to a public debate, which just goes to show how the BNP isn't keen to be challenged.
The BNP is the only party that can stop fascism, the only people that will stop their one world government new order controlling a dumped down micro chipped population
"stop their one world government new order"
Is that the "Zionist Occupation Government" you people bang on about, or David Icke's conspiracy of shape-shifting lizard aliens? It's difficult to keep up with the BNP's latest bizarre conspiracy theories.
I agree with this article. We can and will beat the fascist BNP by showing the people how worthless they are.
Don't be fooled by the BNP, they will only send illegal ethnics and criminal ethnics home. They are ethnic loving zionists.
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