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and just to give credence to your fears - if it can happen in broxbourne...

A racist London cabbie? Surely not! What next---a Catholic Pope?

You will never guess who I had in the back of my cab?

Only that Hitler geezer. Hes a right leftie.

it's the context that concerns me.

there is absolutely nothing in the ward of rosedale, broxbourne to support the supposed motives of those who voted for the bnp. there are no asylum seekers in rosedale; there are no plans to introduce asylum seekers to rosedale; even the local crime rate is low. of course, those who seek to blame every social ill on foreigners, even where those maladies exist, should not be allowed to excuse their ignorance on that basis - but what bothers me is the sheer willingness of these people to buy into the bnp agenda.

48% fer chrissakes!!

the fact is, the bnp were the only party to do any door-to-door canvassing in the run-up to the election. they visited each household up to 5 times and carefully obscured their usual racist rhetoric behind social policies, such as preserving the national health service and looking after the interests of pensioners.

the bnp has placed an embargo on all it's members when it comes to acknowledging overt racism, anti-semitism, or other "unacceptable" predjudices. all of that is now successfully encoded in their policy on asylum seekers - i.e. kick the dirty bludgers out and cut crime, save your local hospital, have more money for pensioners, etc!

it's a brilliant strategy because they now have their equivalent of gordon brown's five tests - a shield behind which they can resolutely conceal their real thoughts from proper scrutiny.

of course, there are always glitches... a reporter visited the bnp/rosedale victor, in the wake of his triumph. unfortunately, the councillor forgot to clear his bookshelves of copious amounts of literature on the "truth" about the holocaust and other fetishistic accounts of german militarism.

when he returned, the journo asked him about his opinions on the 'jewish question' but he was not to be drawn - no such line of questioning appeared on the agreed agenda... peter mandelson would have been proud of him - spin lives!

The Nazis in their time were kings of spin. Given that Mein Kampf is required reading for the British right, and Hitler still their poster boy, it's only to be expected that they'd learn to hide their true political ideology behind some careful canvassing. As for the the percentage of the vote the candidate got, I'm sure quite a few people saw themselves protesting at the fact that they areoften ignored or taken for granted by the major political parties, and might have felt the BNP deserved some support for actually calling round and speaking to people. Deep down, though, I still believe there is a distrust of coloured people among a certain element, certain generations, certain groups of so called native Britons.

In the wake of 9/11 there were increased attacks on "foreigners," on Asian looking people, on mosques, even on Jewish cemeteries and synagogues. Even here in Scotland, where we don't have the same numbers of immigrants, or the feeling that areas have a high ethnic grouping. I'm afraid that racism might be as British as Yorkshire pudding, being hung up about sex, and talking about the weather.

So long as politicians continue to take the electorate for granted, the BNP and other extremist parties will be able to feed upon dissatisfaction from the voting public. Give them something visible to object to. It may start off as complaining about Iraqi refugees, or asylum seekers, but it'll become more widespread. It's all right to hate individuals if they give you cause, but it's ignorance of the worst kind to hate people for the colour of their skin, their religion, their culture or whatever.

Anyway, I hope for the sake of this country that people quickly see through the right wing white supremicists. Britain is and always has been made up of different races. The original natives vanished millennia ago: all that's left are immigrants and their descendants, and none of us should forget that.

I only hate one Kiwi...Richard Loe...dirtiest player to have pulled on the all black shirt IMO...fair dinkum I'd snot him without a thought

As to the rest of the Kiwis society they are OK
Some of Australias best actors,actresses & bands have come from New Zealand...Dragon,Split Enz,Russell Crowe,Crowded House

The jokes are light hearted but wearing a little bit thin

The sheep jokes are boring at best anfd the unemployment bludger ones are even more boring

I still don't know why New Zealanders can receive Australian unemployment benefits....bizarre...must be our giving nature

cheers
B....OZ

Just curious but if those are the worst who are the best?

cheers
B....OZ Positive Energy Please

Am I the only one who finds Tara Palmer Thompkinson attrative?

Why does Bernard Manning think he is important enough to slag everyone off? (Last nights program)

bernard manning,didnt know he was still alive?where have i been?

About 20+ years ago, Bushell wrote great reviews in Sounds (similar to NME) and they were always great reading. I often wondered if there were 2 Garry Bushell's as the one on TV is a total nosher compared to his excellent reads all those years ago.