09 June 2009
BB 'n' BNP
I've watched a couple of episodes of Big Brother since last week, and as predicted they're largely a bunch of weirdos. They all seem to be pretty much caricatures of certain stereotypes, with a mixed bag of oddballs thrown in to fill up the gaps.
There's a posh boy who claims to be an entrepreneur, i.e. he spends Daddy's money on 'business ventures' to amuse himself. There's a rather extreme version of a lesbian, and a fairly camp tight t-shirted gay boy (not entirely unattractive though). There's a couple of peroxided WAG-type girls. There's a 'ladies man' who fancies himself rather too much and does not appeal to me at all. And then there's a few others, including a dwarf girl, a scary Russian, a bizarre-looking 'stylist' with no style, and an American boy with his jeans around his kness. Oh yeah, and Wolverine from the X-Men.
As I said before, how are we meant to relate to any of these people? There are only a handful who I could actually imagine meeting in real life, and even fewer who I'd want to have a prolonged conversation with. Maybe they'll grow on me, I don't know. As it is though, I've largely lost interest already. I might just dip in and out of it until there aren't as many of them, that's what I usually do.
Also in the news, and rather sadly less noticeable than Big Brother, were the European and local elections. Labour got caned, which I found delightful, and it's left their party and morale pretty much in tatters. They don't control any local councils now, and they lost a fair few MEPs.
I was surprised to find though that the BNP had won two seats on the European Parliament. It's a fairly sad illustration of the effect of voter apathy and how pathetic the main parties are at the moment: although the BNP got fewer votes in total, turn-out was so low that it still resulted in them winning seats. And how does it make us look to the rest of Europe when we send over two far-right candidates with a rights-for-whites anti-Europe agenda? Lots of Britons seem thoroughly ashamed that we've elected them, but it's the people who didn't vote who are to blame.
It reminded me of when I was living in Geneva and the presidential elections were being held in France. The socialist candidate crashed out of the first round, coming third place behind the National Front, and so the second round had to be fought between the incumbent (conservative) Jacques Chirac and the leader of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen. And the French were aghast that they'd let it happen. Naturally they rallied round to stop themselves electing a far-right president, and even the left wingers turned out to vote for Chirac, because what choice did they have? But it was the failure of the main opposition that caused it.
Sadly for us, we don't get a second round at the European elections and now we're stuck with two BNP MEPs for several years. I just hope it teaches people a lesson for when we finally get a general election and that they come out and vote. Of course we'll have to wait for Labour to get the balls to call one before we can worry about that.
Oo get me, I'm all political today...
There's a posh boy who claims to be an entrepreneur, i.e. he spends Daddy's money on 'business ventures' to amuse himself. There's a rather extreme version of a lesbian, and a fairly camp tight t-shirted gay boy (not entirely unattractive though). There's a couple of peroxided WAG-type girls. There's a 'ladies man' who fancies himself rather too much and does not appeal to me at all. And then there's a few others, including a dwarf girl, a scary Russian, a bizarre-looking 'stylist' with no style, and an American boy with his jeans around his kness. Oh yeah, and Wolverine from the X-Men.
As I said before, how are we meant to relate to any of these people? There are only a handful who I could actually imagine meeting in real life, and even fewer who I'd want to have a prolonged conversation with. Maybe they'll grow on me, I don't know. As it is though, I've largely lost interest already. I might just dip in and out of it until there aren't as many of them, that's what I usually do.
Also in the news, and rather sadly less noticeable than Big Brother, were the European and local elections. Labour got caned, which I found delightful, and it's left their party and morale pretty much in tatters. They don't control any local councils now, and they lost a fair few MEPs.
I was surprised to find though that the BNP had won two seats on the European Parliament. It's a fairly sad illustration of the effect of voter apathy and how pathetic the main parties are at the moment: although the BNP got fewer votes in total, turn-out was so low that it still resulted in them winning seats. And how does it make us look to the rest of Europe when we send over two far-right candidates with a rights-for-whites anti-Europe agenda? Lots of Britons seem thoroughly ashamed that we've elected them, but it's the people who didn't vote who are to blame.
It reminded me of when I was living in Geneva and the presidential elections were being held in France. The socialist candidate crashed out of the first round, coming third place behind the National Front, and so the second round had to be fought between the incumbent (conservative) Jacques Chirac and the leader of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen. And the French were aghast that they'd let it happen. Naturally they rallied round to stop themselves electing a far-right president, and even the left wingers turned out to vote for Chirac, because what choice did they have? But it was the failure of the main opposition that caused it.
Sadly for us, we don't get a second round at the European elections and now we're stuck with two BNP MEPs for several years. I just hope it teaches people a lesson for when we finally get a general election and that they come out and vote. Of course we'll have to wait for Labour to get the balls to call one before we can worry about that.
Oo get me, I'm all political today...
2 comments:
I agree - the fact that the BNP have 2 MEPS should teach the electorate an abject lesson in getting what you wish for, and that a 'protest vote' against the other parties is still a vote for the BNP.
I'll be honest: I'm worried for this country. The racists have started to come out of the woodwork and I fear it'll get worse before it gets better.
Maybe, but I'd hope that the more racists come out of the woodwork, the more normal people will find a voice and start saying "shut up, you don't speak for the majority". It's getting the rational people heard over the noisy minorities that's the problem, people are too content to sit back and do nothing.
Post a Comment