Tory Bear reports that CF chairman Michael Rock has decided to withold the organisation’s support for an anti-BNP campaign at the LSE. According to Deputy Chairman Christian May, this is because the student’s union rejected their demand that the BNP be reclassified an extreme left party, rather than using the traditional label of “extreme right”.
This is absurd. Witholding support for a good cause out of a desire that the underlying ideology be 100% “sound” is silly. It is the sort of petty behaviour usually associated with Trots. The crux of the matter is not where on an outdated scale the BNP happen to fall, but the fact that they are a racist party whose rise must be resisted. To refuse to do so out of a desire that dexter be proclaimed sinister is pointless.
What happened to the noble Tory tradition of pragmatism? What would Churchill, who built an alliance with some deeply unpleasant communists to defeat the Nazis, say?
Issuing a load of leaflets describing the BNP as “extreme left” isn’t viable in the short term anyway. It would be unnecessarily divisive and confusing. For better or worse, “extreme right” is the political shorthand that exists, and it’s not going to be dropped for a while.
Yes, the term “extreme right” is misleading. But we already knew that. The left-right dichotomy is inadequate. Applying it to political extremists is always going to be unsatisfactory because they reject much of the dialogue between mainstream political grouping.
Such a discussion can, however, be had at any time. It can wait. But we cannot wait to halt the BNP. They aren’t going to observe an electoral ceasfire while their opponents bicker among ourselves about the philosophical roots of a fundamentally un-intellectual party. They will take advantage of the paralysis.
The BNP should not be the subject of party political point-scoring. The national executive should reconsider their position.
Follow on Facebook
