Friday 30 October 2009

The BNP is a Far Left Wing Party

No other party is as heavily defined by its immigration policy as the British National Party. Its sensationally populist and xenophobic beliefs in this area should not distract from the rest of its policies, which are most certainly left wing. According to its manifesto the party is committed to establishing external trade tariffs, raising taxes, creating nationalised manufacturing industries and workers' councils to run them, increasing funding for the NHS, increasing state pensions, improving worker protection and placing key industries under the ownership of the state. Furthermore, it calls for “the selective exclusion of foreign-made goods from British markets and the reduction of foreign imports,” and promises to “restore our economy and land to British ownership” and “to give workers a stake in the success and prosperity of the enterprises whose profits their labour creates by encouraging worker shareholder and co-operative schemes”.

Branding the BNP as a right wing party is undoubtedly an attempt by the Left to exploit the confusion between libertarian, right wing ideologies and fascism, a national socialist movement. Such a tactic is typical of the Left, which uses its perceived moral superiority to vilify the Right and guilt their own voters into remaining loyal.