This is from a few days back...
The British National Party - the ultra-Right party with a pathological hatred of immigrants - has been forced by law to scrap its whites-only membership laws. Members voted to change the party's constitution so that black and Asian people can join - if you can imagine that they would want to.
The leader Nick Griffin - a Holocaust denier - said on Sunday anyone can join if they agree that the country should stay "fundamentally British"... thereby being suitably vague while ensuring that everyone knows exactly what he means.
A funny sequel to this is their extension of an offer of membership to none other than Australia's own Pauline Hanson, who after years of banshee-like wailing on the fringes of Australian politics has decided that, for all her oft-professed patriotism, she will say goodbye to Australia "forever" and emigrate to Britain.
Griffin said she would not be regarded as an ''immigrant sponger'' .
What charm.
Pauline Hanson is a sort of Australian Palin except without Palin's physical appeal and a voice that is actually more grating on the ear, if you can believe that. She opposed non-white immigration and generally had well-deserved pariah status among the major parties.
Goodbye Pauline. Good riddance and don't come crawling back when you discover the weather is not as nice as it is in Queensland.
I don't believe it. I had hoped that there wasn't an accent out there more annoying than that of a nasally Midwesterner but apparently I was wrong. Let someone else deal with that harridan from now on, I say.
ReplyDeleteHanson herself is a bumpkin idiot. She was puppeted, much like Palin is now, by people with an agenda.
ReplyDeleteThankfully those people had nowhere near the wealth and depth of resources that Palin's stringpullers have.
In the brief period that Hanson's (now defunct) party - One Nation - enjoyed any success, most of their support base was in our deep North, and especially among the elderly who could not reconcile themselves to the multicultural society that Australia has become in my lifetime. They especially targeted the "Asianisation" (their word) of Australia.
Needless to say, I would have detested One Nation for that alone.
At the same time we had the most conservative prime minister since the 1960s. A Thatcherite. And Bush's buddy.
9/11 then happened and he and his cronies fed the anxiety and the xenophobia to fuel an attempt to define Australia in a narrow cultural tableau. He kept alive a whole debate as to whether multiculturalism was a good thing.
Interestingly enough... when the conservatives were kicked out of government and One Nation was already defanged, all debate about this topic abruptly, and with no fanfare, left the public stage. It just died. The whole culture war ceased to be. Because it was a phony debate, existing nowhere but in a retrograde ideology, and fossilised idea of an Australia that (fortunately) no longer exists, and has not existed for a very long time.
One Nation was intellectually shallow to the point of being nearly bone dry. They took in elements of the far Right as well as the far Left and made something of it all that made absolutely no sense. They were not as dangerous as the BNP. But I'm glad they're gone.
I would love to say that I'm happy the U.S. isn't the only country with loons but I don't wish them on anyone else. Thanks for the education.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure when Palin finally falls on her face, which may come sooner than later judging by the CPAC poll, she and hubby will become active in that Alaska secessionist movement again.
Anyone can join if they agree that Britain should stay "fundamentally British."
ReplyDeleteI have spent a fair amount of time in Britain, including a stay as a research student at Cambridge. I really liked it there, and I too hope that Britain can retain its many unique qualities.
The problem with the BNP is that, throughout their history, they have not wanted Britain to stay fundamentally British; they have wanted it to be fundamentally German, if you get my drift.
I do get your drift, Green Eagle.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it those who say they stand to protect their culture so often represent nothing that is good in it?