BNP and democracy

Sir, The greatest danger of the BNP’s ascent to frontline European politics (reports, June 8) is not what it represents but, rather, what it fails to represent in the minds of those who matter among the established Westminster parties. Amid all the refined indignation and agitated condemnation of the “Nazis” in our midst, one question will remain conspicuous solely by its absence: why are white, working-class men and women in traditionally Labour strongholds so disenchanted, disillusioned and downright disappointed by the Westminster system that they would even consider voting BNP in the first instance?

Are all those who voted BNP “fascists”? Hardly. But such is the despair throughout the country that many ordinary voters will support anything that speaks their language on a local level. The BNP’s success is a timely reminder of the dangerous power of democracy. The Westminster elites cannot have such a democracy on “their” terms. If people are moved to look beyond the ideological sterility of the three-party system then their motives must be understood and addressed accordingly.

This is a political era characterised above all by ideological castration on the part of the established parties and the ruthless pursuit of mediocrity in the interests of 5 per cent of floating voters in Middle England. There is no one, for example, on the Labour front bench who would be conspicuously or ideologically out of place on the Tory front bench, and vice versa. Paradoxically, this is why modern politics is so bitter — in the absence of ideology everything becomes personal; if you cannot attack ideas (since there are not any) you can at least attack personalities.

Blanket condemation of the BNP and the undoubtedly noxious voodoo it represents only takes us so far. But until the established parties realise that there is a very angry world beyond the sterile confines of Westminster, we can only expect the problem to become worse and more urgent.

With all the logic of a monkey sawing through the branch on which it sits, the greatest danger to British democracy comes not from the reflex-action resentment represented by the BNP, but, rather, from the long-term failure of the Westminster system to connect with its own electorate.

Phillip Mcgough

Nottingham

PR is the danger

Sir, I am sure that the depressing news that the BNP has gained two seats in the European Parliament for the North of England says nothing about the great majority of people there. But it illustrates the danger of a proportional representation voting system, not only in creating political instability but in making it possible for extremists to gain power. The main parties and their continental counterparts should exert influence

in the European Parliament to reform its electoral process in favour of a first-past-the-post system across Europe, following the British model.

Miland Joshi

Explore Letters

• Feedback