Fabians: Don't hype BNP

Thursday, 3 June 2004 12:00 AM

The left leaning Fabian Society has warned mainstream politicians not to give the BNP "credibility and thunder that it doesn't deserve".

In a report published on Thursday, the society argues that the hey-day of European right wing parties has passed, and the BNP in particular poses little electoral threat.

The report's author, Catherine Fieschi, said: "This is not a call for complacency. Far from it. But there is too often a sense that history is about to repeat itself in Europe.

"This is not 1933 and panicking about the far right can detract from addressing the real social problems - of unemployment, housing and alienation from politics and politicians - of which the far right is a mere symptom.

"Though issues like asylum must be addressed, politicians need to be careful not to take the bait and appear to be doing the BNP's dirty work for it".

In recent weeks candidates from all of the main political parties have urged the electorate, particularly in London and the North, to turn out to vote against the BNP.

The Muslim Council of Britain penned an open letter to UK Muslims urging them to turn out to vote.

This comes after analysts predicted that the BNP needed to only win five per cent of the vote in London to gain a place on the London Assembly.

However, Ms Fieschi argues that this attempt to mobilise support is flawed. There were no accurate membership figures for the BNP, but its leadership claimed a membership of just 3000. This was lower than the attendance at many non-league football clubs and paled into insignificance when compared with the French Front National's 60,000 members, she said.

Further, once in office BNP support tended to disappear, she said. "Whenever parties of the far right gain access to power - be it local or national - they can be relied upon to reveal the extent of their ineptitude in less than a year.

"Panic and publicity generate credibility - they are the oxygen of the far right. Talking tough about immigration, or worse still, adopting the far right's vocabulary will only play into their hands".

The general secretary of the Fabian Society commented: "The BNP do significantly damage race relations in the towns where they organise but they have far too little support to be a serious national threat to our democracy".

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