Clicking up a storm......
When I found out recently that the most visited political website is currently that of the BNP, I have to confess to feeling a general sense of foreboding.
I guess the BNP have always been there in some form or other, but I’ve never taken them that seriously personally. I remember first noticing them when I happened to see a documentary on television when I was a remarkably non-spotty kid of about fifteen, circa 1989. The footage was of them chanting "rights for whites". Even though I thought luminous green socks fashionable around that time, I wasn’t daft enough to think that these guys were talking sense.
However, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It seemed such an alien concept to me, someone who had never given race much thought, that anyone could get steamed up over skin colour. I was never taught tolerance as such, I just learnt it through osmosis from parents who were pretty tolerant too.
Colour prejudice is still something that I can’t get my head around. I’m not trying to make out that I am a perfect person, without any human failings or one of those annoying people that like absolutely everyone. It isn’t possible to get on with everyone, people are people and there are those who are nice and those who are not nice. I also try to believe that the majority of people out there fall into the nice category.
So why are people pointing their browsers at the BNP ? Some probably visit our of idle curiosity or to see if their spelling is as appalling as their views. Sadly some will be finding out how they sign up. Whether or not this is down to them being out and out racists or whether it is just last ditch alley for those who feel abandoned by the current administration, it is hard to say but it should be of grave concern. It is certainly something that concerns me.
Talk of the BNP having any kind of popularity gives me that kind of uneasy feeling that either means the milk was off this morning or that something bad is about to happen. I would never vote for them, however, the Government needs to take seriously the fact that there are those who will.
As published in the13th March 2008 edition of The Kemptown Rag.
I guess the BNP have always been there in some form or other, but I’ve never taken them that seriously personally. I remember first noticing them when I happened to see a documentary on television when I was a remarkably non-spotty kid of about fifteen, circa 1989. The footage was of them chanting "rights for whites". Even though I thought luminous green socks fashionable around that time, I wasn’t daft enough to think that these guys were talking sense.
However, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It seemed such an alien concept to me, someone who had never given race much thought, that anyone could get steamed up over skin colour. I was never taught tolerance as such, I just learnt it through osmosis from parents who were pretty tolerant too.
Colour prejudice is still something that I can’t get my head around. I’m not trying to make out that I am a perfect person, without any human failings or one of those annoying people that like absolutely everyone. It isn’t possible to get on with everyone, people are people and there are those who are nice and those who are not nice. I also try to believe that the majority of people out there fall into the nice category.
So why are people pointing their browsers at the BNP ? Some probably visit our of idle curiosity or to see if their spelling is as appalling as their views. Sadly some will be finding out how they sign up. Whether or not this is down to them being out and out racists or whether it is just last ditch alley for those who feel abandoned by the current administration, it is hard to say but it should be of grave concern. It is certainly something that concerns me.
Talk of the BNP having any kind of popularity gives me that kind of uneasy feeling that either means the milk was off this morning or that something bad is about to happen. I would never vote for them, however, the Government needs to take seriously the fact that there are those who will.
As published in the13th March 2008 edition of The Kemptown Rag.
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