Protest against the BBC - again

After the demo are you going home to watch your East Enders? Don't forget to pay your tv licence will you.

You are all just middle-class tits who love to sell your papers more than anything.

Looks like the SWP & co is protesting against a fellow misguided but perfectly legal party, these pointless protests just alienate you further from the public. Perhaps you should try speaking to voters who are turning to the BNP and directly address their concerns, rather that using senseless words against the BBC.

We all know the SWP eats babies, and if some anarcho type associates a given thing with the SWP it must be as bad as the holocaust.

Right.

I was under the impression that the BBC *has* to broadcast all the Party Political Broadcasts, isn't it one of the few things they legally have to do in return for the license fee?

By all means protest the BNP but what do you think this demo will achieve? It's not like the BBC can or will turn around and go 'oh right, sorry, hadn't noticed they were massive racists, we'll refrain from broadcasting their stuff from now on'

It is the neo-conservatives including New Labour who are the real threat, they have launched two disasterous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and launched a totally misguided war on terror which has seen tens of thousands of innocent muslims imprisoned without trial and many of them horrifically tortured. You can see their plans for a new world order here:  http://www.newamericancentury.org/

Why are the SWP and far left barking up the wrong tree all the time? While the BNP are a tiny party with no hope in hell of ever getting into power the neo conservatives are imposing an evil new world order on us here and now and waging brutal imperialist wars of aggression!

I don’t like the BNP, OK. But to deny anyone a chance to advocate a political idea is dangerous. If an idea is so obviously a bad one then we should trust the intelligence and integrity of the individual to correctly make a judgement for themselves. If an argument makes sense then we will follow but if not we will ignore.

A few weeks ago on the BBC show Question Time, our elected members were on the ropes, the audience was calling for blood, and what mechanism did the MP’s use to deflect this justified anger, the BNP. It’s a bit like criminals in prison needing someone lower than themselves to hate to make themselves appear in a better light. They skilfully used this to get the audience to listen to them as before they did this they could not even get a word in without boos from the crowd, once they used this, things got better for them.

I want a fair and just world, one that shares wealth and life’s comforts. This naturally leads me to a socialist viewpoint, but why have the left such strong totalitarian tendencies, this just leads to real fascism and scares the life out of me, after all the real Nazis called themselves national socialists. Personally I think the distinction between left and right is a construct designed to constrain debate and thought itself, pushing unthinking tribalism before common sense. The world is fucked and its people treated in despicable ways, real people being really killed and treated terribly, so why waste all your energy on something a majority would never vote for unless mislead by the elite in society as seen many times before, we are not in that situation, so wake up people and aim for something that can aid folks in real ways.

I don’t like the BNP, OK. But to deny anyone a chance to advocate a political idea is dangerous. If an idea is so obviously a bad one then we should trust the intelligence and integrity of the individual to correctly make a judgement for themselves. If an argument makes sense then we will follow but if not we will ignore.

A few weeks ago on the BBC show Question Time, our elected members were on the ropes, the audience was calling for blood, and what mechanism did the MP’s use to deflect this justified anger, the BNP. It’s a bit like criminals in prison needing someone lower than themselves to hate to make themselves appear in a better light. They skilfully used this to get the audience to listen to them as before they did this they could not even get a word in without boos from the crowd, once they used this, things got better for them.

I want a fair and just world, one that shares wealth and life’s comforts. This naturally leads me to a socialist viewpoint, but why have the left such strong totalitarian tendencies, this just leads to real fascism and scares the life out of me, after all the real Nazis called themselves national socialists. Personally I think the distinction between left and right is a construct designed to constrain debate and thought itself, pushing unthinking tribalism before common sense. The world is fucked and its people treated in despicable ways, real people being really killed and treated terribly, so why waste all your energy on something a majority would never vote for unless mislead by the elite in society as seen many times before, we are not in that situation, so wake up people and aim for something that can aid folks in real ways.

The BBC is a publically financed broadcaster. It doesn't have the right to pick and choose which election broadcasts to show and that's perfectly acceptable to me and most people except the usual motley band of intolerant anti-fascists who never stray far from the university area.

What's problem do the busybody anti-fascists have with BNP broadcasts anyway? Surely if the BNPs message is so terrible then the more publicity it gets the fewer people will be inclined to vote for them.

Of course we know what their problem is. Anti-fascists have such a low opinion of the rest of us that they feel we should not be allowed to hear the BNP's message in case it appeals to us. What a joke - as if the general population needed the protection of a bunch of kids at university, some of their unworldly teachers, journalists who refuse to grow up and all the rest of the middle class amateur revolutionaries/local government workers who comprise the bulk of loony groups like the SWP and other oddball outfits.

This is typical of the mindless activity of the SWP and their ilk (for it is clear that the SWP are the moving force behind these kinds of campaigns that consist of a cadre of SWP with various useful idiots in tow).

Who do they think should decide which parties can have an election broadcast and which can't? Probably by same system Lenin and co decided which parties would be tolerated in Soviet Russia. At the moment it is based on how many candidates a party is fielding in order to be impartial.

With the collapse of their Respect party and the unpopularity of the government, it seems the SWP are reverting to type and mounting a 'save Labour' campaign using the BNP as the bogeyman to frighten the Labour faithful.

I'm simply glad that with each passing year the SWP and their type are a little bit smaller and a bit less influential as they continue their long march to oblivion.

WTF is up with that? Im not SWP and have no intention to support them but what the fuck is going on with attacking the SWP from the sidelines? How about you get out there and make an effort, there are many ways to oppose the BNP and rather than shiting on them for trying, how about you get off your righteous ass and try something or atleast offer some constructive criticism.

Fucking wastes of oxygen..............

selling papers, peddling bullshit what else is new.

their stand blew over that the manchester mayday march was a right laugh, then the lovely police officers helped them pic up their flyers whilst the rest of us laughed

It's got nowt to do with the licence fee the BBC gets. The same law applies to commercial TV stations. As a condition of their licence to broadcast they must all give time to every party standing in an election for a "party election broadcast", according to a formula. I think it's 10 minutes for ever 2 million votes in the previous election or 5 minutes per 50 candidates for new parties. Summat like that, anyway.

There's absolutely nothing the BBC can do about it. It's not their choice. Same goes for the other terrestial broadcasters -they all have to screen it, too. The only basis on which a broadcaster has ever been able to reject a PEB is "taste and decency". An anti-abortion outfit put up enough candidates in 2001 to get a PEB in Wales. The tape they submitted showed graphic footage of abortion operations being carried with lots of blood. BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 all refused to broadcast it in that form and after lots of negotiation it became virtually a radio broadcast with a black screen saying "censored". The anti-abortionists sought judicial review of the broadcasters' decisions and lost all the way to the House of Lords.

 http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld200203/ldjudgmt/jd030515/bbc-1.htm

The BNP may be thick, but even they are smart enough not to get snagged on "taste and decency". As long as they avoid that one, they know their shit HAS TO BE broadcast and there's nothing at all the BBC or the commercial TV companies can do about it.

No, I'm not sticking up for the BBC,,just pointing out how things are.

For the reactionary morons who assumed this was an official SWP posting - I'm not in the SWP. Never have been. And I am deeply suspicious of them because I have seen how they have a habit of taking over other people's campaigns or groups and turning them into a branch of the party or milking them for their own recruitment purposes.
I happened to see this demo when I was on my way home from work on the bus and I hopped off and joined in. And I always carry a digital camera around with me, hence the three photographs.
I also joined in their leafletting session despite not supporting them as a party, because THE ANARCHISTS IN MANCHESTER AND LIVERPOOL ARE DOING NAFF ALL TO EFFECTIVELY OPPOSE THE BNP. Go on, own up - what is anybody doing exactly? The A's in Liverpool - a few of them - have been helping to hand out an anti-BNP newspaper which is funded by Mirror Group newspapers and distributed by a trade union led group, even though the aim of the campaign is to encourage people to go out and vote for any party other than the BNP. But since most anarchists don't believe in voting on principle, most of them won't even do this.
When the BNP parachuted into Liverpool city centre as part of their European election campaign last autumn, it is true the anarchists mobilised to physically confront them at short notice. But they were quickly surrounded by the police and shoved further up the street out of the way. They succeeded in letting the BNP know they aren't popular with left wing people, but with no strategy or plan all they achieved was to cramp the BNP's style.
It is frustrating to see the fash getting publicity without opposition, so I will join in with whatever anybody is doing to oppose them whether that's running them out of town, or persuading people not to vote for them, or poking fun at their more absurd or sinister policies, or getting them prosecuted for inciting racial hatred. You have to use all the tools in the box, and bugger political sectarianism.