The Telegraph reports the C4/YouGov survey but forgets to mention the bit about most BNP supporters being right-wing Tory supporters. How convenient!
It is this sort of dishonesty coupled with the immigration bullshit of the tabloids that feeds BNP votes.
Errr...Neil? How can they be Tory supporters if they are BNP supporters?
ReplyDeletehttp://theantipolitician.wordpress.com/
I am a Labour supporter in that I would prefer a Labour government to a Tory one, but I have voted Green.
ReplyDeleteMost BNP voters would prefer the Tories to Labour in government, hence they are Tory supporters.
This is more than usually silly, Neil.
ReplyDeleteThe question specifically asks, "if you had to choose". By your rationale, a Lib Dem who would, if pressed, prefer to see a Labour government than the Tories is "a Labour supporter". That's just daft.
If I had to choose, I'd rather sleep with Margaret Beckett than John Prescott. That doesn't mean I want to sleep with Margaret Beckett.
Instead of reflexively bashing the Tories, you might ask yourself why the BNP's successes are coming almost exclusively in neglected working-class Labour strongholds rather than, say, Henley. A clue might be found in the Channel 4 poll itself. According to the head of YouGov:
perhaps the most startling finding came when we tested anecdotal reports that many BNP voters were old Labour sympathisers who felt that the party no longer speaks up for them.
It turns out to be true. As many as 59 per cent of BNP voters think that Labour "used to care about the concerns of people like me but doesn’t nowadays".
If you keep on blaming someone else, you'll keep on losing votes to them.
mr e, there aren't that many working class tories in henley. The point is, these people define themselves as rightwing, they prefer the tories, this is an anti-left vote not dissafected socialists. My dad used to claim my paternal grandfather was a labourite but turns out he voted Tory. There is so much myth surrounding our backgrounds. People like to associate as working class even they are not. The tories have put around this myth that people vote BNP for socialism - this is such nonsense.
ReplyDeleteEugenides, according to the head of YouGov, as presented in that same link, 63% of the British population used to be old Labour sympathisers too - so, BNP voters are slightly less likely to be "old Labour sympathisers" than voters in general are. This means one of two things:
ReplyDelete(1) Thatcher and Major were only able to win elections through massive and appalling levels of voter fraud; they and all of their party colleagues should be prosecuted immediately, all government legislation of the past thirty years should be declared null, and Tony Benn should be appointed PM forthwith.
(2) Peter Kelner is speaking out of his own arse by interpreting agreement with the statement "Labour used to care about the concerns of people like me but doesn’t nowadays" as indicating that someone used to support or sympathise with old Labour.