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| "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy" |
A GUEST ARTICLE BY LAURA DE S’ORDA
You don’t have to read Griffin’s proposals for constitutional change to already know that there’ll be some catch, something seemingly decent and agreeable which will actually turn out to be easily twisted to his agenda and used to stifle real democracy within the party.
But Griffin’s devious tricks start before you even get into the meat of his constitutional reforms. The document he has drafted is titled ‘Democracy – The British Way’. This seemingly innocuous title is the first of many barbed phrases and sneaky tricks hidden within.
To title a set of proposals that should be read with a fair and impartial mind, ‘Democracy – The British Way’, is to suggest to the reader that disagreeing with the message within would be somehow ‘anti-British’. This essentially sets the document up as a loaded argument.
To the armchair patriot the tone is set; here is the ‘British’ way to do things. To disagree would be ‘anti-British’, which would then put anyone reading the document inherently at odds with the very organisation of which they are a member. Displaying ‘anti-British’ traits would mean you weren’t a very good BNP member! Griffin’s message from the outset is clear: a good member will agree with his proposals.
This is classic Griffin. A man who usually suggests that anyone disagreeing with him is either a ‘fool or a knave’ and is subtlety doing the same again. If you don’t agree with his idea on ‘democracy’ you are ‘anti-British’ and thus not a ‘good’ member of the BNP.
Griffin then does one of the things he does best – re-write history. Last December Voting Members voted on constitutional reforms. These reforms, put forward by Arthur Kemp, were very different to these found in Griffin’s document. Yet Griffin blatantly lies and states:
‘As such the proposals follow what was discussed and agreed by an overwhelming majority at the British National Party conference, December 2010.’
By ‘follow’ Griffin must mean ‘follow; to come or go after’.
He certainly can’t mean ‘follow; to go in the direction of’ or ‘follow; to adhere to’.
To be very blunt, these proposals do not go in the direction of or adhere to anything voted on at that conference. His proposals do come after (in terms of timescales) the proposals voted on at the conference, so full marks to Griffin for clever use of ambiguous language!
Now here’s where the real fun and games begin. Griffin tries to paint himself as a leader that welcomes a challenger and wants to embrace democracy. In fact, Griffin is so democratic he wants a system modelled on the existing parliamentary system and also one that allows everyone that takes part in a challenge an equal say. What a guy!
Well the proposals may sound good – to a ‘fool or a knave’! Make no mistake, Griffin has crafted a document intended to stitch up any contender and most shockingly hand himself a mandate for a FIVE YEAR rule over the BNP.
Firstly, let’s deal with his rules on campaigning. Griffin is going to allow any challenger 500 words on the website, 150 words with the ballot paper, access to regional hustings meetings (which we will address later) and a short video clip on the website. He also states that anyone doing anything else outside of those narrow means to promote themselves will be committing a disciplinary offence. So much for free speech!
Griffin’s rules will mean that something as small as asking another person to vote for a candidate could lead to disciplinary action. Not only is speaking to other people banned but so is sending letters, writing e-mails, using social networking sites etc. This could be used very conveniently by the Griffin camp to suspend or expel anyone doing so – including potential challengers.
The ‘fool or the knave’ will be quick to claim that those rules are only fair as Griffin won’t be using Facebook or private blogs to promote himself. Indeed he won’t, he has far more powerful ways to promote himself. They include Voice of Freedom, British Nationalist (the members’ bulletin), articles on the official website and of course the party’s official Facebook account which will all be busy telling members he’s the best thing since sliced bread!
So whilst any contender will be carefully watched by Griffin’s stooges to ensure he or she doesn’t break the rules, Griffin will act within his remit as incumbent leader to use all party publications and media as his own personal promotional tools.
Then we move onto the hustings meetings. What a wonderful idea these are – or so the ‘fool or the knave’ will tell you. Eleven meetings in fourteen days is great for someone who hasn’t got a job or can conveniently spend that amount of time on the road because they’re Nick Griffin. Not to mention the expense of travel and board over these events could mean spending around £2,000 – £3,000 on petrol, food and hotels. Not much inconvenience for a man who likes to ‘stick it on the party credit card’. It is considerably more expensive for challenger who funds it himself and isn’t allowed to raise funds because of the ban on campaigning outside of Griffin’s narrow rules.
When this very skewed contest comes to a conclusion it grants the winner FOUR OR FIVE YEARS as leader. That’s a long time. Every other party in Britain allows for a challenge whenever one is needed – and for good reason. What if a leader goes mad? What if a leader is charged with an awful criminal act? What if a leader’s performance causes ever diminishing electoral results?
In Griffin’s BNP none of the above matters. If he gets his way he’ll be leader until at least a year after the next general election in 2016! He will have almost complete power and be unchallengeable. Even if Griffin and the BNP saw total annihilation at the next European Election and then the General Election, the party would still be saddled with him – or should I say the party will still be milked by him.
But that’s ‘Democracy – The Griffin Way’.
Slightly more worrying though, for his internal opponent, he recently ‘Tweeted’ about his wish to hang David Cameron. How the public will receive this is clear – but I suspect that no one in their right mind will vote for a party that states if they get to power they are going to start hanging their opponents.
But more importantly it allows a small window into Griffin’s warped psyche and gives an indication of what life will be like under a FIVE YEAR Griffin rule in the BNP. Good luck to the challenger, but don’t expect him to live on much after the result if it doesn’t go the way they hoped! Griffin might not be able to literally hang a challenger, but he is very able to smear and destroy them in the world of nationalist politics. What’s more, via his constitution, he’s setting up a charter with which he will be able to justify the abuse and vitriol he will inevitably dish out.
COMMENTS
Anonymous said...
Quite simply, Laura de S'orda is suffering from extreme paranoia. I suggest she gets in touch with Dr "The Nurse" Andrew Emerson. I am sure they will get on very well together.
18 June 2011 13:40
Posts
The malignant freak Griffin has expelled three out of the six members (other than himself) who have ever sought nomination as national chairman of the British National Party. He has expelled one out of the two members who have been his rivals in an election to decide the issue.
ReplyDeleteHe easily identifies which members represent the most serious threat to the continuation of his incumbency and largely reserves the ultimate penalty of expulsion for such members.
He is not a democrat. He does not believe in democracy. He is, however, a dissembler and understands the need to cloak his dastardly oppression with 'democracy lite' camouflage.