There was some discussion earlier in the week about whether it would have been better for the London Mayoral candidates to not meet together to condemn the BNP, the argument being that to ignore them would have been better. I think there is some truth in this - Margaret Hodge's warning in an earlier election about the risk of large number of BNP candidates being elected in Dagenham certainly elevated the discussion onto Front Pages and main news bulletins and possibly resulted in more votes for them.
Up until today I think I would have said ignore them (and I certainly don't intend to say much more), but flicking through this week's County Border News which dropped onto the doormat earlier today I found an advert entitled 'People Like You Voting BNP' illustrated by a family picture. My immediate feeling was one of absolute revulsion and to start with I began to question the editorial judgement in allowing it to be included.
However, in my opinion, it is far too dangerous in a liberal democracy to start saying which political parties should or should not be allowed to campaign (for there are others like the ironically named Respect, other far left parties and some militant 'Islamic' organisations who are just as bad). But given this I do think it is right to go on record to condemn their policies.
I am not standing for re-election this year, and in any event the advert was misdirected, aimed at voters in London for the Assembly elections not at Tandridge, but if I were I would plea with voters to vote for any other party on the ballot, or none at all rather than BNP.
