Would I be unreasonable to deface this poster

[thursdaynamechange]

BNP poster attached to railings at intersection - it says:

"People like you vote BNP"

There is just enough room to scrub out 'you' and put Nazis.

I'm seriously considering it - I'm all for democracy and I wouldn't give a rats ass if someone defaced the Tory ones with 'duck pond'.

As far as I'm concerned the leader was/is a Holocaust denier (he says he was but he's come round now) so to scribble NAZI on it is accurate and not a slur.

Actually she doesn't Sakura, it would be criminal damage.

The scummy BNP only post their leaflets after dark round here. They don't have the balls to actually meet people in the day time.

Sakura, it's not legal or ethical to rip other people's posters down or deface them. No matter how awful you think they are. And doing so, or encouraging others to do so, just brings you down to the same level that you are accusing the BNP of being at.

YABU, I agree with a previous poster who said just make sure you make your vote count in May. I don't think you defacing a poster will make any voters change their mind so why sink to such a low?

Sakura I'm exagarating really. He spat in his sand pit when ds was playing. He was playing in the garden and I was in the kitchen watching him and goons came in the gate with leaflets they got have way up the path and I went to open the door. DS looked up and revealed his ethnicity. Goon didn't want to waste leaflet on a lost cause so he turned and left and I was thinking good, they've gone. They walked along the road and when they were level with ds one of them spat over the fence at ds and called him names. Ds is 16 months.

Then they ran away. Actual running like 8yo who have put a football through someones greenhouse.

Ivstillgotit might not think that this is racist but I would disagree. I don't think even Ivstillgotit could argue that it is acceptable behaviour for a Member of Parliment or his goons, due to the twatishness of it, but maybe he would, considering that he probable thinks its not acceptable behavior for my family to exist.

Ooh, it's against the law?!

Legally, you could apply the defence of crime prevention - you're committing criminal damage to prevent the greater crime of incitement to racial hatred.

Morally... how do you think mrbundle feels if he goes past a bnp poster on the way to work? And all the other people who aren't pure white Aryan British? And all the people who wouldn't be chucked out of the country by the BNP, but who still think they're racist wankers?

And how much would all of these be cheered up by the addition of a witty insult to said poster?
As opposed to the cost of pissing off a few BNP supporters.

Therefore, if we take the viewpoint of "the greatest good for the greatest number of people", it's morally and philosophically the right thing to do.

QED.

You're welcome

I would hope all those mentioned above could just ignore it, its a poster f goodness s.

And the suggested insult isn't even witty, if OP did decide to go and deface the poster, I would hope more thought would go into it, because I wouldn't find a smile seeing that.

I really don't get what good it does heathen.

mrbundle I don't know what to say. That's disgusting

Bumbleconfusus it isn't 'just a poster' it is the poster of a fascist party, which cannot be viewed like any other political party!

And I don't think the message that the op uggests writing on it is witty. It is true. If you vote bnp you risk a Nazi Britain.

If this is flyposting, it's illegal. Report the BNP posters to your local council. Then they can fine the buggers .

Quattrocento;

"Aren't all BNP voters- poor, white, uneducated trash"

Would you have said that about black people?

Would you have said "Aren't all BNP voters- poor, black, uneducated trash" ?

Of course you wouldn't...

Just so you know, The BNP have black and Asian voters, they have educated voters, they have rich voters..... your ill informed patronizing views are pathetic.

Poor, white, uneducated trash have the right to vote, just the same as you....or perhaps you'd like to take us back a 100 years ? y'know, to a time when only educated men could vote...

I suggest you read up on the 1918 representation of the people act......

you clearly haven't got a clue.

although i can see the point of criminal damage, i have to disagree that defacing it will go against democracy.

(if indeed the poster's legally placed in the first place: you have to have permission or pay to have posters put up)

this country has freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
that's a protected a protected right.
that means that if the OP wants to deface the poster, then she is in her right to do so.
she is exercising freedom of expression.

and they really are a party of nsty racists. there's no hiding that.

So, Ivestillgotit you've stepped out of the debate? I wonder why, when I try to engage BNP supporters in intelligent, objective debate around their specific policies, they usually give up. The sad fact is that most BNP supporters do NOT research thoroughly the changes that they suggest making to our country and they simply don't know what it would mean to us.

YOu must look past the spin which is getting slicker and slicker and make informed decisions. There is much talk about how educated and successful MNers are, don't we owe it to our wonderful country to make INFORMED decisions?

I wouldn't do it.It is not worth getting a criminal record over.Secondly by treating them differently to other political parties you are making them be the 'hard done by ones' and playing into their hands.
Much as I think they are dispicable, we live in a democracy which is a very precious thing.If one legal party is 'being bullied' then that undermines the democratic process which is a very dangerous precedent.

agree with heather

I'm interested in the issue of who exactly does vote for the BNP (after having been extremely rude about BNP-voters). Someone must be voting for them, and I've never met a BNP voter.

I couldn't find much data. My perception that it is poor/uneducated/white is widely shared. Terms like "knuckle-dragging scum? (Richard Littlejohn) or ?ignoramuses and bigots? (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown) abound.

Apparently though, the New Statesman have done some proper research that hasn't yet been published but has been trailed. They found that "the BNP is gaining new support principally from older, less educated, white working-class men ? voters from Labour?s historical base who feel they have benefited little from the past decade of Labour government".

It's a big idealogical leap from New Labour to the BNP, isn't it?

Bigoted Neanderthal Pigs

StGeorge... how can defacing a poster on the Union Flag be defacing the flag... surely they've done that already by printing a poster over it?

I sadly know of quite a few BNP voters. They are all friends of a girl I work with and would be unable to tell you any of the policies of any parties includidng their own. Their justification is immigration only.

Nick Griffin is my MEP... a fact which makes mme feel physically sick.

And I would find that poster REALLY offensive because people like ME do not vote BNP. I would definately stick a little "Not" in between do and vote to make the poster correct.

Quattro, there was some disscussion on the post election programme just after Nick Griffin got his MEP seat.

One of the commentators made the point about NEW Labour to BNP is a huge idealogical leap. The other (think it was a Dimbleby) said, "yes, but its not a leap in terms of social class, is it?"

Stunned silence and a quick change of subject followed

There is quite a strong history of defacing election posters. Loads of conservative ones have been done. The BNP should not need special protection from the traditional English sport of politician baiting.

We could take a scientific sample of those BNP voters who have posted on MN, quattrocento?

Although we can't view their race obviously, we could ask them (anyone non-white want to step forward and say they're voting BNP?).. and we can conclude the following from their posts:

• generally poor spelling and or/grammar (not saying this makes you a bad person in any way, but often correlates with low level of education)

• unable to recognise or formulate a coherent, logical argument (ditto comment above)

• usually not aware of all the BNP's policies (see ivestillgotit above)

• seem to take at face value the BNP's claim of 'we're not racist', without actually researching who these people are, where they are coming from, and what they've said in the past.

Having said all that, I think we shouldn't just leap on people who say they're voting for them; yes, their policies are bullshit, but it's well presented and convincingly put bullshit. And if you've largely been failed by our educational system (again, see ivestillgotit post above), it's not easy to look a bit closer and see how it all falls apart.

You must be joking. Don't do it.

It doesn't matter how uneducated BNP voters are, I'm extremely uneducated, first to admit I'm as thick as P/S most of the time. However, I have made an informed choice, and I support the BNP....me and all the other thickos are changing the face of British politics.....

Don't you think that's amazing..?