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22 March 2009

British National Party

I write with trepidation knowing the theory that all publicity is good publicity, and the BNP appears to be getting quite a lot of it.

There has been much correspondence in my local press about the increasing presence of this Party in the area and it's intention to field candidates all over the UK. It has been heartening to see so many people speaking out against this deeply unpleasant bunch of racist retards, but also very worrying that some people are still being taken in by them. 

BNP policy on the Economy is the selective exclusion of foreign-made goods and reduction of foreign imports. This cannot work because we are all internationally inter-dependent upon each other for goods, services and materials. If protectionism is a defensible policy then the logical conclusion is that this country could not trade with any other country because they too would be locking out our goods: self-defeating.

BNP policy on Education includes restoring the knowledge of, and pride in, our history, cultures and heritage of the native peoples of Britain. Knowledge of it is good, pride in it not always necessarily so. Religious intolerance, torture, subjugation and exploitation of other nations, and slavery, are all part of our history. We might of course allow ourselves some pride in the defeat of a German regime 1939-1945 that was based on a philosophy of giving preference to specific racial groupings. (Sound familiar?)

BNP policy on the NHS says there should be no money going to foreign aid so long as we are short of beds. Foreign aid is not only a reflection of our humanitarian values but has the added advantage of developing communities who are more likely to, and more able to, trade with us.

BNP policy on Defence includes the complete withdrawal from NATO and the closure of all foreign military bases on UK soil. (Has anyone told Barak Obama about this?!) If anyone believes that we can single-handedly defend ourselves without being in alliance with others who share our values and interests they must be a couple of bullets short of a full magazine. 

These are just some – though not all – of my reasons not to vote for the BNP. (They do have an excellent Website, but I suspect that if the Internet had been around in the 1930s the NAZIS would have had one too, and Dr Goebbels would have been the Webmaster!)

09 March 2009

Afghanistan - Words of Wisdom from Imram Khan

The following is part of the transcript from the interview between Andrew Marr of the BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning 8th March and Imran Khan (famous cricketer and Chairman of the Pakistan PTO Party). To my mind he speaks a lot of sense regarding the way we are handling Afghanistan and the Pakistan border areas:

IMRAN KHAN:

I do not think Pakistan will become a failed state because it's a very resilient state. You know the people are very strong. They're used to crises. All it needs is a bit of stability for the country to start bubbling again. The problem we face right now is, in a way what he said is right - that the responsibility in a parliamentary democracy, which is based on the Westminster model, lies with the Prime Minister. But here the authority lies with the President, so he has usurped all the powers of Musharraf, who was a dictator, army chief. So he's got all the powers of Musharraf, but the responsibility is with the Prime Minister. No system can work where you divide authority and responsibility, so no wonder the government is paralysed.

ANDREW MARR:

And in the meantime dozens of people continue to die all the time. There was a report this week - another group of police killed by a car bomb up in the North West provinces. At least the impression of complete lawlessness up there, isn't there?

IMRAN KHAN:

Well you know we entered into a war which was not Pakistan's war, and we were taken in by a military dictator. Then we started doing exactly what the Americans were doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, using aerial bombardment to fight the war, killing lots of civilians, and slowly but surely the whole area rose up against us. So now where there were no Taleban before, the entire area has a new phenomena which is called Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan.

ANDREW MARR:

So what would be your message, for instance, to President Obama who clearly intends to pursue the war in Afghanistan and the border area even more vigorously?

IMRAN KHAN:

My message to President Obama is do not follow the tried and failed policies of George Bush. Learn something what happened to the Russians in Afghanistan. They killed 1.5 million Afghans. Still lost the war! This way of fighting a war by aerial bombardment, the whole area is getting radicalised. This country, this is going to go down the drain if this war continues. Forget about everything else, we can cope, but this war is draining this country. We should tell Obama save yourself, start negotiation, talk to the Taleban. Taleban were never your enemy; Taleban don't have the capacity to hit any Western targets. And help us get out of this mess, which was not of our making. We got stuck in someone else's war.

ANDREW MARR:

So are you saying that it would be better for Pakistan, for the British and the Americans in Afghanistan simply to leave and go home?

IMRAN KHAN:

You know what surprises me is the British have an understanding of Afghanistan. They've got a history. They know what Afghanistan is all about. They have an eighty year history of the tribal area. What surprises me is that why are they not advising the Americans that this is a disaster for all of us? I mean particularly this country, but also for the Americans, because this is just going to drain them. This war will go on and on and on. No-one can tell me right now what will happen for them to win the war. What are the objectives of this war? What are they trying to bring to Afghanistan? If it was Al-Qaeda then surely the sensible thing is isolate Al-Qaeda, not push all the people towards Al-Qaeda.