Petition against the BNP

[northernrefugee39]

This is a Not in my Name petition to be handed into the European Parliament on the day Griffin and Brons take their seats

action.hopenothate.org.uk/notinmyname

but they clearly represent the people in the areas where they were voted in.

Is it really enough to say that it's because of voter apathy? Because those who didn't vote clearly didn't care enough to stop it from happening.

it's an odd situation this petition.
because the obvious criticism would be that they have been elected by a democratic process so it is obvious they are there in someones name. i mean will the people signing it also be doing so for every other MEP who got in who they did not vote for?so in a way it smacks of hypocrisy.i mean who are you to say that the citizens of your country who voted for them where wrong?
but on the other hand i can of course understand peoples anger, and even as a non-brit i was hoping they'd get nowhere.
in the last few weeks i saw a lot of people on this board calling for a PRSTV system, has this euro election put them off such an idea. becuase the bnp would get nowhere on a FPTP system but would obviously have some clout if these results where mirrored under a domestic PRSTV election.

Well said Unicorn

thing is , there aren;t other MEPs with violent, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic policies , backgrounds and view points. the BNP are dangerous. green party is not going to reduce women rights, gay rights etc.. or try to get none whites out of the UK

but wannabe, i am in the northwest, and i am ashamed, disgusted and horrified that nick griffin is our representative.

I understand why people are bothered by this, but they got in because they were voted in. That's how it works. If enough people had thought there was some advantage to voting tory/labour then they wouldn't have been elected. So this is the collective wish of the British people.

I didn't use to like it that people voted for the Tories, but I didn't complain that it shouldn't be allowed.

Do your petition by all means if it makes you feel better, but it means nothing to say that some didn't vote for them since that's true of every elected official.

and i fully accept that unicornvomit. i'm just looking at it from a purely objective view as being odd that in a free and democratic system an election is held. the results are totted up, and then people protest because they don't like the results. just seems like a protest against free democracy.

as i said in my post i can understand the anger and disgust at ignorant racist homophobes being elected. just that it's an odd situation because they were exactly that,elected.

i'm not trying to defend them etc. just commenting that it's an odd situation for a country to be in where by citizens are protesting against their own electorates freely taken decision.

They got in imo because of voter apathy mayorquimby
And we are allowed to register our disgust by signing a petition.
It won't change a democratic process, but if there are enough signatures, it says that people care enough to state their position about it.

"we are allowed to register our disgust by signing a petition"

Of course you are. I just hope no one starts a petition saying "just so you know the petition isn't speaking for us"

Why?
I've just heard Nick Griffin has had to abandon a news conference out the Houses of Parliament because he was pelted with eggs.
There's a lot of very angry people out there.

onagar- I reckon that there won't be a petition to say people support the BNP because they vote anonymously, and I wouldn't have thought many of them would publicly announce their attitudes.

i know you are allowed to register such disgust. it just seems odd to me.
as have a lot of the comments since the BNP have gotten in along the lines of "people didn't know what they were voting for" etc which seems a bit patronising.
i agree with the sentiment of the petition as i'd hate to have them representing me (luckily libertas didn't get in over here,they're fairly similar) but it just appears like people saying "these people voted the wrong way" or that somehow your democracy got it wrong.
that was my only point, that it's an odd state of affairs to be in, not that you're wrong in registering disgust at the BNP.

just wondering if anyone here would still prefer a prstv system in light of these results as i asked above?

the irony is that a huge chunk of the people that are signing this petition probably didn't vote in the first place - and if they had there would be no need for the petition.

And the other point is that they got in by default- the number of people voting for them hasn't really changed, it's only because people didn't vote for other partys because of disillusionment with them.

I don't think it's odd.

If there was compulsory voting, things might have been different.
It's a terrible terrible result of apathy and anger with mainstream parties.

Nancy- I voted.

Kerry- if more people had voted, they probably wouldn't have got in.
They only got in by the skin of their teeth anyway.

This sums it up for me:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.

Good luck to you but I dont really see the point.
We've already had our say, we voted in far greater numbers for other parties and therefore the numbers of seats for the BNP reflect that yes some fools will vote for them but most will not.
Would hate to see compulsory voting, in some ways I think it's safer to let some people abstain - going on my own, entirely scientific, personal experience those who have no interest in voting are more often working class, right-leaning, reactionary? - fodder for Griffin.

I also voted. Always do.

I didn't do a photo. I guess that is aimed more at the 'youngster' rather than at dinosaurs like me.

They are undemocratic and shouldn't be allowed to participate in the democratic process imo. I know many disagree, but I feel very strongly about this.

I hate the fact that the BNP won two seats but I am another that won't be signing the petition.
They are a legal party that won their seats fair and square. They're scum yes - but they were elected.

what KM said

Perhaps if you are disgusted that they got in because of the population's apathy, you should focus your energies on challenging that apathy?

Don't get me wrong, there was a 30% decline in turnout for my area compared with 2005. That is shocking.

But get rid of the BNP, and there will be another party by another name with the same politics to take its place.

As long as they don't break any laws, they are entitled to stand for election. They did, and they were.