Fantastic - Nick Griffin has been pelted with eggs outside parliament

[LaurieFairyCake]

Yes, I know I should be bothered about freedom of speech but fuck it, the fucker deserved it.

[Kutner]

How is denying the holocaust a difference of opinion?

I'd hardly call egg throwing a violent tactic.

[LaurieFairyCake]

I am left wing, tolerant and non-violent.

Which is why I would not condone him being beaten beaten or killed but throwing eggs is a long established tradition against those so intolerable/corrupt.

It was about humiliation and embarassment and revulsion - not about violence imo.

[Northernlurker]

Lemon - nobody has put him in prison, refused to show him on television or arrested his nearest and dearest! Yes, today he was denied a platform. He'll get over it and he could hold a 'private' press conference any where he likes. Nobody is refusing him the right to be on a ballot - but we don't have to tolerate him flouncing around wailing about democracy when his own party's policies are so limited and unpleasant. All too often the BNP behave like thugs. For me it's a classic case of live by the sword, die by the sword....or egg.

[OrmIrian]

Quite laurie. Rotten tomatoes would have been better - less potentially painful and just as humiliating. Or Custard pies. Or bags of flour.

[Hassled]

This has warmed the cockles of my heart . Just when you are despairing of people in general, they show themselves to be not so bad after all.

[2shoes]

By Kutner on Tue 09-Jun-09 16:47:36
How is denying the holocaust a difference of opinion? hmm

I'd hardly call egg throwing a violent tactic.
not very up on all this, can you tell me more please

[scarletlilybug]

I'm no fan of Nick Griffin or his sad, wicked party.

All the same, I don't think the "answer" to people of his sort is to pelt them with rotten egss, tomatoes or whatever.

The sad fact is that people have voted in their thousands for the BNP. I think it's time the mainstream political parties looked at - and addressed - the reasons why so many people did so. I don't think all BNP supporters think of themselves as racist thugs (although there is undoubtedly a large element of that sort within the party). Yet for some reason, these voters believe that the BNP represents their interests better than any other party.

I find it all quite worrying. Sadly, I think egg throwing gestures will play right into the hands of the BNP and their claims of being "victimised".

[lemonmuffin]

I hear what you're saying but for me it still boils down to the fact that here was a group of people who had taken it upon themselves to decide that someone who was democratically elected should not be allowed to speak. Never mind that whether we like it or not there may have been people there who wanted to hear what he had to say and whose vote is just as valid as yours and mine and that of the protestors.

Yes peaceful protest is fine but violent protest is not and yes I would call egg throwing a violent act, I'd hate to have one smashed in my face.

[OlympedeGouges]

always in times of recession peple blame immigrants - Hitler capitalized on the depression in Germany to build his Nazi campaign. People are vulnerable at the moment to extreme idelogies that seem to promise quick fixes. But it isn't that simple.

[OlympedeGouges]

I mean blame the fucking bankers not the immigrants.

[pollypentapeptide]

Loving the way that his minders were referred to as 'thickset' on that BBC report!

[LaurieFairyCake]

I hear you, but Hitler was elected democratically and I would still have liked to throw eggs at him.

I hope that now they have an elected platform all the recently quieter anti-Nazi brigade will come out and expose him for what he is - and I think today was the start of that.

[cocolepew]

Oh it's just like the '80's.
He's such a smug twat.

[pollypentapeptide]

Scarlett Lily, I hear what you say but in the meantime this vile, evil man should be prevented from having a voice (as far as possible)and while I wouldn't normally condone egg-throwing, I would actually like to see a lot more of it in his case.

Most of those protesters were not the typical thuggish/football hooligan types that you normally see jumping on any opportunity to start a fight (no wait - that would be because most of them probably are BNP protesters)they looked like a nice egg throwing bunch actually

[Kutner]

2shoes - this excerpt from the Politics Show interview with Nick Griffins gives some of his quotes re; the 'holohaux' before his spectacular pre-election turnaround on the matter.

[Stretch]

Should have been hard-boiled...

[mayorquimby]

sorry to go off thread, but just on the holocaust denial thing, a lot of people don't deny it happened but disagree with the amount of jewish people who were killed.
there was a historian addressing the argument of holocaust denial or revisionism on newstalk (irish radiostation) a while back and he was said that the accepted "6 million jews killed" statistic was a misnomer and should be open to correction. he asserted that while there was close to 6 million people killed during the holocaust large amount of them would not have been jews they would have been killed for being dissenters,homosexuals,intelectuals disabled or for many other reasons.
so while yes the jews were targetted they did not make up the complete death toll and the banning of holocaust denial in places like germany went against promoting the true figures etc and also merely stopped certain racists from publicly outting their stupidity.

does anyone know if he's right or is he merely a more elequent and subtle than the bnp?

[scarletlilybug]

I don't wnat to come across as a BNP supporter, becuase nothing could be further from the truth.

Nevertheless, Nick Griffin (and his mate) have been democratically elected as the "voice" of those who voted for him. And, distasteful as the fact may be, it is a legal party. I think it's a dangerous path to go down once we decide who should be "allowed" to express their views, and who shouldn't. Because that is neither freedom of speech nor democracy.

If people are scared of or hostle to immigrants (for example), surely it is better to address their concerns head-on with rational argument. Not by hurling missiles at those who purport to stand up for their concerns.

[scarletlilybug]

As for the holocaust figures... I don't think anyone knows for sure the exact number of Jews who were murdered. But 6 million seems to be a generally accepted figure.

[wahwah]

I do agree with you, Scarlet, but the thought of Nick Griffin's smug little face when the first egg hit...well, I wish I'd been there.

[mayorquimby]

fair enough. his argument was that this was not an accurate representation as while they made up the majority of the 6M there was a significant minority of non-jews. and by not challenging this inaccuracy it was actually lending support for the anti-semetics who were involved in holocaust denial. because they could point to a provable truth that was being covered up or silenced (not 6M jews killed) and then use that as jumping off point to spin lies and half truths but also to give them a sense of a conspiracy suppressing the truth,especially in places like germany were it was illegal.
but seeing as i gave up history at the junior cert level i was hoping someone better informed could tell me if his assertations were correct or even close to being true.

[TheCrackFox]

If I had been there I would have thrown the eggs in the fuckers face myself.

[edam]

Scarlett - yes, we should indeed rebut Griffin's claims but there's nowt wrong with throwing a few eggs. There's a very long tradition of people throwing eggs at politicians - most recently Prezza but stretches back centuries, I suspect.

Back when politics used to matter - when people really argued for different philosophies, rather than merely tinkered around with slight differences about how you'd manage the economy - there were all sorts of tactics used. Long ago, when my Dad was a student in Wales, he and his friends used to disrupt meetings of the Conservative students - being Tories, they HAD to stand up when anyone sang the (Welsh) national anthem. Am sure the Tory students got their own back, somehow. All part of the cut and thrust of political debate.

[ScummyMummy]

Superb news. I was very very happy to hear this and indeed was saying just now to partner that I wished I'd been there to participate.