Thursday, 8 February 2007
Funding the BNP
Lots of people north of the border are getting their bloomers in a twist over this:
Politicians and anti-racism campaigners reacted with outrage last night when it emerged that the far-right British National Party was to get its own election broadcast during this year's Holyrood campaign as well as hundreds of thousands of pounds in free election publicity from the taxpayer.
As well as gaining a nationwide television platform, the party will also be able to claim postal costs from the government for each candidate to send a leaflet to every voter in their region or constituency. This is another rule established to help candidates get their message out, but the BNP will use it to send out 2.6 million leaflets, one to every household in Scotland. The cost of second-class postage on these will be £594,000. The three to four-minute party election broadcast, at prime time on BBC1 Scotland, BBC2 and the Scottish parts of the ITV network, is the equivalent of about £75,000 of advertising time - giving the BNP almost £670,000 in free publicity.
Christine May, for Labour, said she was outraged that the BNP was using the system just to get itself a party election broadcast. She said: "This is a clear misuse of the electoral system. They are doing it because there is no other way of getting publicity for their obnoxious policies. They are treating the electorate with the same sort of contempt they usually reserve for ethnic minorities."
For an emissary of Scottish Labour to accuse others of contempt for the electorate betrays a staggering lack of irony, but that's not really the point.
If you have 'state' funding of political parties, then that means all parties (subject to certain base assumptions regarding the size of the party concerned and the legality of its activities) get 'state' [sic] money - code, of course, for our money.
Labour (and the Tories) are in favour of extending 'state' funding further and further. The corollary of their policy is that the 'state' is going to be giving more and more money to nasty outfits like the BNP.
So, remember, Christine May and all the rest of you: It's not the BNP's fault you're giving them my money. It's yours.
Labels: Burning our money, Idiotarians, Scotland
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The phrase 'one-party state' is a conventional term of abuse for countries we disapprove of. The British establishment is intent on creating a 'three-party state' in which no-one else will ever get a look-in. See the latest NuLab proposals for Lords' reform - party list elections will ossify the existing party structure and anyone who things 'outside the triangle' can just get stuffed.
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