Geoffrey Collier

Bob FM: May I remind you, that you are on record of advising long-serving UKIP members to leave the party and JOIN the BNP. Why are you acting as a recruiting sergeant for them?

Unionist

I would be very surprised if there proved to be any evidence at all of local co-operation between UKIP and the BNP in this or other areas, even if some individuals in UKIP were to favour it. It would be a non-starter. (And I do mean evidence, not unattributed hearsay.)

I also know that the policies of the two parties are very different in certain areas, especially on economic policy. But who looks at the policy statements? There is part of the problem. UKIP and other parties get to be associated with a small number of headline issues - perhaps two or three at the most.

For UKIP, I would suggest those issues are Europe and immigration, with perhaps crime as a distant third:

- UKIP is perceived as being 'anti-European' in the public/media mindset (rather than 'anti-EU') and hence nationalistic, xenophobic or whatever other terms you care to come up with.

- UKIP is perceived as being (and is) strongly antagonistic to immigration. In fact, the immigration issue is one of its main arguments against the EU, so immigration could in fact be its number one issue. (My own view is the opposite: the free movement of labour within the EU is one of its positives.)

- UKIP is seen as having an old-fashioned 'tough on crime' approach (see today's Law and Order conference for details).

Put these three key issues together - nationalism, an anti-immigration stance and a 'tough' approach to law & order - and to the average voter it may not seem that different to the BNP.

Most voters are not clued up about the finer points of policy. They are unlikely to appreciate that the BNP's anti-immigration stance is based upon a certain view of 'race' and ethnicity, whereas UKIP's anti-immigration stance is based upon... well, what exactly? Some notion of population control? The problems of multiculturalism? I doubt that the reasons figure very clearly in the public mind.

Some of the characterisation of UKIP is unfair but UKIP has itself played up its anti-immigration credentials. The main UKIP poster circulated in my area at the last general election said (IIRC) 'Say NO to immigration'. Posters might not be the best medium for subtle explanations but UKIP did not have to concentrate on that issue or express it in such absolute terms. That says to the voter that UKIP is an anti-immigration party.

By the same token, the candidate literature at one of last year's parliamentary by-elections said that immigration was the main issue facing the country. What are voters meant to make of that other than to think that UKIP is just another anti-immigration party like the BNP?

It is of course also the case that UKIP strengthened its immigration policy last year and there seems to be no diminution in UKIP's efforts to put immigration at the centre of its argument.

I doubt that UKIP's "anti-racist and anti-BNP credentials", to quote Douglas Denny, really get through clearly to the electorate. UKIP can try to push these things but it has to work through the filter of a media that is not interested in such details.

So is it unfair to associate UKIP with the BNP? Probably, yes. However, a lot of this is self-inflicted. If UKIP positions itself as largely an anti-immigration party it is going to be bracketed with the BNP. It is unfortunate but surely not unexpected.

I for one would be put off voting for UKIP because of its strong anti-immigration rhetoric and yet I know the differences between UKIP and the BNP. How much more difficult is it going to be for people who do not study these things in great detail?

Vortex

You sure about your facts there? Granted that there are many defections from UKIP to the BNP.

mkpdavies

Any party that has bet big on the immigaration issue, has lost big.

That is the facts.

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Hartlepool

The bnp always try to tag UKIP with the same racist filth that they themselves peddle.

bnp are the only party who say this every chance they get.

bnp are practically bankrupt and long serving members are leaving them by the dozen.

Anyone looking to join a political party should avoid the bnp at all costs,why waste money on joining a party that wants everyone to be white clones?

The bnp tag will dog everyone who dons it for the rest of their lives,why take that chance,may as well get bnp tattooed on their foreheads because from day one they will become outcasts,everywhere they go.

Bob FM

GC, please grow up.

Geoffrey Collier

BobFM: You are the one who needs to mature. It is not exactly being an adult to respond to informed opinon with comments such as yours. The rules and language of civilised debate appear quite foreign and difficult for you to comprehend.

Like The Roman

This is indeed very worrying, as by trying to conflate the two parties in peoples minds it could split the anti-immigrant vote. I think the BNP have more to lose here than UKIP, too - in the recent London elections the latter were beaten in many constituencies by the National Front.

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"Have you ever wondered, perhaps, why opinions which the majority of people quite naturally hold are, if anyone dares express them publicly, denounced as 'controversial, 'extremist', 'explosive', 'disgraceful', and overwhelmed with a violence and venom quite unknown to debate on mere political issues? It is because the whole power of the aggressor depends upon preventing people from seeing what is happening and from saying what they see. "

Enoch Powell

YI MEMBER

UNIONIST: You are absolutely right, this is a big problem facing this party; those members who do not do enough to distance us from the BNP, and worse, those who blithely make contentious statements largely associated with the BNP wrongly thinking that the public will discriminate between the two.

For_England

No, you want everyone to be coffee-coloured clones. The BNP wishes to preserve human diversity via nationhood.