I Am Ashamed

Tonight the UK sends two nazis to the European Parliament. Tonight I am ashamed of my country.

Practical Steps For Countering the BNP

As many will know, I'm a member of the Liberal Democrat Party. As a party activist, last week was rather hectic for me. On Monday, I had three rounds of leaflet deliveries to do, and on Tuesday I had four rounds of hand-delivered letters to drop off. On Wednesday night, there were another 4 rounds of leaflets (this time targetted at non-voting households, asking them to vote for anyone but the BNP), and on Thursday morning I was up at 5:30 to deliver more leaflets to party supporters, encouraging them to get out and vote. This was followed by breakfast, voting, "knocking-up" our own voters, as well as voters for a couple of other parties (partially in the hope of picking up protest votes, partially in the hope of countering the BNP vote), two hours of election-telling, more knocking up, a nap, another hour of election-telling, one final round of knocking up, and then to the pub with the other party activists and local counsellors for a celebratory drink after the polls closed. On Friday I spent the day at the count, working as an oversser, and thus knew the results in Cambridge hours before most people did. Zoe and Sylvia helped with much of this, for which I am very grateful.

Anyway, that was a busy week, but not all party activists do the "work flat out in election week" thing. Some just deliver leaflets a few times a year, and maybe help with the occasional bit of canvassing, and perhaps envelope stuffing.

And that brings me to the BNP. snakey asked me, in chat, what one can do personally to help counter the BNP. Beyond making sure one votes, and always votes, in every election, for anyone other than the BNP, there is another practical step that most people can take.

So if you want to help counter fascism in British politics, and are able to get out and deliver a few leaflets, or stuff envelopes, or hand-write addresses, or canvass people, or tell at an election, or whatever, then get in touch with the local branch of the Liberal Democrats, or the Labour Party, or the Conservatives, or the Green Party, and tell them you want to help. Quite apart from headlines about expenses, at local level most activity is done by volunteers who receive no pay at all for their work. It can be good exercise though, getting one out of the house, and you can meet some interesting people (and have your photo taken hugging a Westminster front-bencher, if that's your thing) and get to know bits of your local area you never knew about. Furthermore, you can make a definite, positive contribution to local democracy, and you can help fight the tide of racism and fascism infecting British politics.