There is much discussion as to exactly what kind of people have voted for the BNP at the European elections. Much of the discussion surrounding this has been either naïve or disingenuous; many people who voted for the BNP are indeed racist and there are still plenty more rascists besides who voted for other parties or did not bother going to the ballot box at all. Racism is still common in this country and unless this is accepted the wrong conclusions from the BNP’s assent will be drawn.

So what are we to do about the BNP? Well, firstly ignoring them hasn’t worked; in fact quite the opposite. Ian Dale is spot on in tackling them head-on and Nick Griffin showed himself to a fool when quizzed by Adam Boulton on Sky. This is a good start but it is not enough.

We also need to see the depoliticization of European politics in favour of free trade and strong diplomatic relations. The European polity is a shambles and it is little surprise that the fascists have been voted into its realm by a number of European countries. As rotten as our national politics is, at least these BNP voters will mostly be voting Labour at the next general election; in 2005 the BNP received 192,746 votes, a lot, but nothing like the 943,598 votes they just got in the European elections. After all, even racists have priorities.