May 1991

Dear Tom Levitt,

Yours sincerely.

Call me cynical but as the BBC 6 music/Asian Network radio station closures have panned out this week I have a nagging feeling that I am being used. The leaking of the news that 6 music was to close on Friday  was the kick start to a massive campaign by a very vocal 6 music listening community. There are around 600,000 listeners per week to the digital station that has finally given a modern music appreciating audience a medium that they hold dear and will defend. You only have to see how much of a stink was kicked up when someone decided that Georg Lamb would be a good idea on the station. There is also a fair amount of presenters/guest presenters and bands that are being very criticising of the BBC for axing 6 music.

Now I’m not one for conspiracy theories and I’m not going to go all David Icke on you but hear me out. I’m Mark Thompson and I need to trim some of my output because of a reactionary right wing press witch hunt to destroy the socialist nightmare that is the BBC and a Tory Government is just around the corner. I want to close a radio station that serves a minority audience but it will be a little bit tricky to pull off without compromising the public broadcasting remit that the BBC has to answer to. What can I do? I’ll also announce the closure of another minority audience radio station one that has a similar number of listeners. Only this station has quite a passionate following and is used mainly by people of a certain age who would exploit all social networking tools and media to demand that their station remain open. There will be a massive backlash across all the news outlets and the BBC trust will have no option other than to reverse the decision. 6 Music will stay open and may even gain some more listeners who will tune in to hear what the fuss is about. In the mean time my original target will close and Asian network will be no more.

Just a prediction. Hope I’m wrong and they both manage to stay open. I don’t listen to Asian Network but I have no doubt that the people who do love it as much as we love 6 music. The BBC is meant to cater for minority audiences in a way that commercial television and radio doesn’t. If that means people who listen to bhangra or a John Peel Beta Band session from 1998 we aren’t going to find it on radio 1/2 or any of the commercial station sin between ‘go compare’ and ‘we buy any car’ adverts. Thats why we pay the TV licence.

In the oft misquoted words of Voltaire “I don’t agree with that Pap your watching on BBC3 but I’ll defend to the death your right to watch it”

We own the BBC.

I picked up a copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the weekend; I have been meaning to get it for years. We sat down to watch it last night probably the first time I’ve seen it since I was a teenager. I always knew I preferred it to the Life of Brian because it’s a little sillier and that suits me fine. What I didn’t realise is how much I’ve quoted the film over the years, I know students do it but I didn’t realise I did it. “Run away, run away”, “the Knights say Ni”, “it’s just a flesh wound”, the list goes on.

How can this film be so engrained in my memory that I have quoted it on a regular basis? Or is it just a Monty Python thing.

My favourite line is this – “Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”

EDIT: I watched in again today with D and he loved it. All 5 year olds should watch this film. Whats more funny is that L said it was stupid and she didn’t get it. We are now taking pleasure at shouting “NI” at her at every available opportunity. I’ll give it 24 hours before there is a major Teenage strop.

So how did we celebrate in Britain? By voting two of them into the European parliament! I am ashamed to be from the North of England this week as the unbelievable happened.

That was how I felt Yesterday morning as I did a quick check on the news before I left. How could this happen? Surely there weren’t enough people who would buy into this tripe and vote for Fascists?

When you look deeper into the voting however, the BNP didn’t actually have any increase in support, in fact in most areas their share of the vote was down. The problem has been that Labour voters stayed at home and didn’t vote, this meant that under the proportional representation of the European Parliament, the BNP got in (beating the Green Party by 0.3%). It is Labours fault and there is no denying it. They have alienated their supporters on the left with the war and privatisation and now they have alienated their Sun/Star reading supporters by not deporting enough Muslims. There has been a lot of debate about whether or not people should be accusing the BNP voters of being racist and that they are perhaps misguided and this is a protest vote. I would like to draw your attention to this Yougov poll, which is summarised here. Some of the more interesting statistics are that almost half of BNP supporters disagree with the statement “Non-white British citizens who were born in this country are just as ‘British’ as white citizens born in this country”. There is also 72% of BNP voters who think the government should encourage voluntary repatriation. I agree with the statement that 100% of BNP supporters are racist.

The fact that 87% of supporters believe that local councils let immigrant families jump council house queues needs to be challenged. This is where local councils are to blame for not challenging these claims loudly enough to make a point. It’s time to start debunking the myths, challenging the views and legally challenging the constitution of the BNP. Their membership criteria is discriminatory and should be challenged in court. It’s not enough anymore for the main campaign against the BNP to be “don’t vote for them, their bad”, people are voting for them and won’t be dissuaded by telling them it’s wrong to vote for a racist party, they want to vote for a racist party and no amount of trying to convice them is going to solve that.

Nick Griffin MEP for the North West

So a poll by the Guardian has showed that over a quarter of voters will reject the main parties and vote for a minority party in the forthcoming European elections, somehow I think the results are a bit skewed. Only 1% admitted to be voting BNP, that statistic just doesn’t make sense. Either they just polled 100 Guardian readers and in that case what is the BNP supporter doing reading the Guardian or, and I think this is more likely: The population surveyed are embarrassed about voting BNP and don’t want anybody to know. Its as if they think voting for the BNP will have them cast in a bad light and their not really bad people are they? Oh wait, yes they are. They’re a fascist party and you fucking well should be ashamed if your planning to vote for them and if I find out anyone I know has voted for them I shall fucking tell them that.

Also if being race hating fascists and general Nazi boot boys in suits doesn’t turn you against them. Visit their website and be sure to read the comments, look at their spelling and grammar, it’s fucking atrocious!