The real Andrew Brons

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Thursday, 4 February 2010, 08:48

Durham University Debating Society has invited Andrew Brons, a BNP MEP for Yorkshire & Humber, to debate Multicultural Britain on Friday 12 February. The HOPE not hate campaign is opposing this move and we’ve launched a petition calling on the invitation to be withdrawn.

Some people believe that by debating with Brons we can defeat the BNP’s arguments. A few people have even emailed me overnight pointing to Griffin’s humiliation on Question Time.

I can understand some people’s unease about a policy of No Platform but I disagree. Andrew Brons is not a normal politician. He has a long history as a hardline Nazi with a conviction for his racist behaviour. He even once wrote a letter defending the bombing of Jewish synagogues.

For more on Brons go to: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/the-real-bnp/Andrew-Brons.php

I also totally disagree with the Question Time line. Many of us might have been delighted with Griffin’s appalling performance but this view was not shared by everyone. Many people, particularly in those areas where the BNP is strong, took a very different view. They attacked what they saw as the one-sided nature of the debate and identified with Griffin’s victim status.

However, there is a more important point here. By inviting Brons to ‘debate’ multiculturalism Durham University Debating Society is giving the fascist party legitimacy that it does not deserve and will only encourage it in its extremism. The BNP is a fascist party that wants to create an apartheid society, where one racial group is deemed superior to another. It says that some people who were born here can never be British and is linked with some of the most hardline Nazis and racists across the world. The BNP is not a normal political party and we should not treat it as such.