I wish to disagree with the title of James' nice Platform piece this morning, though not, as it happens, what he says inside the article (that we should undermine the BNP mainly by addressing the legitimate concerns of the people that vote for them), with which I agree very much and which I argued myself here.
Where I disagree with James is his statement: "Nick Griffin must not have the opportunity to turn the BNP into a popular, nationalist party". Griffin must have precisely that opportunity. We might seek to deny him success in his opportunity by shooting his fox in the way James proposes (and I have myself proposed), but we should hope that the BNP can indeed convert itself into a legitimate element - albeit presumably always an extreme and (in my view) deeply misguided element - of British political debate.
I do not favour controls on immigration from the European Union. The BNP does. I think it's got that wrong. I do not favour ceasing to work with the Gurkhas. The BNP does. I think it's got that wrong. I don't believe in protectionist trade policies, or much of the other damaging leftist economic ideology of the BNP. I don't believe in withdrawal from Afghanistan, or from the EU. So I'm not likely to be persuaded by even the most sanitised version of the BNP imaginable. But if it could, indeed, reinvent itself as a "a party that is principally an anti-immigration coalition with patriotic, Anglo-centric bells and whistles including opposition to the war, secession from the EU and lots of flag-waving", as James puts it, then that would surely be progress.
Why not a party a bit like the BNP, only without the racism and the improper conduct (such as the menacing of voters or the organising of riots) often alleged? I presume they wouldn't get many votes if other parties did what is right and (as James rightly recommends) addressed the needs of those that might be tempted to vote for such a party. But, regardless of what the BNP has been in the past, we should be prepared to embrace it into mainstream political life if it is itself prepared to change.
