IT IS a great pity that a large pix in a London newspaper of the British National Party Fuehrer was captioned as having been taken the previous day in Wales, writes Clive Betts from the National Assembly press gallery.
But then leader Nick Griffin has an unfortunate connection with Wales in that he “farms” near Welshpool. And, according to the BBC, he has attracted to the same area not a few of the sort one wouldn’t like to meet on a dark night after throwing-out time.
While Mr Griffin may be capable of producing hundreds of gallons of milk a week (supposing that he really knows how to farm), his party is a true amateur when it comes to pulling in votes.
In the Euro-poll in Wales, he polled SEVENTH in terms of strength.
Which means that in most of Wales he was totally insignificant.
In only one type of constituency did he come anywhere. The only seats where the British National Party exceeded 1,000 votes were almost exclusively constituencies where Labour has been strong for decades.
In other words, the BNP’s strength (for what it is) exists only among the poor working class which have wasted decades by supporting the Peoples’ Party.
It has been said that such people vote for the BNP because of competition for their jobs from poor immigrants.
But Wales possesses very few immigrants, or coloured people either.
Look at the seats where more than 1,000 voted BNP – Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Islwyn, Alyn and Deeside, Neath, Newport (east and west), Pontypridd, Swansea East, Torfaen, Vale of Glamorgan, Wrexham and Clwyd South.
At the Assembly election in 2007, the BNP won only four per cent of the vote in Wales. In other words, they were not even among the also-rans, but among the dead-failures.
Clearly, they do not speak for the people of Wales.
This is certainly a long-term danger. Decades of inarticulate Labour hegemony have intellectually disarmed much of the electorate in the old industrial regions. It is not hard to imagine some areas going the same way as parts of the Midi.
And of course there’s that other BNP-Liebour heartland: the monoglot Home Office and its Mr Hyde counterpart, the UKBA. Sadly, they don’t even have to stand for election…
It’s a very short step from Liebour to the BNP. A no-brainer choice for no-brainers. The average Liebour voter in Wales would classify him/herself as British, is predominantly white, English-speaking, Sun-reading, Unionist and mind-numbingly thick. A very short step indeed.