A Far-Right Political Party?

The European political noise is about socialist losses in the continent-wide elections. A political party that is new to me showed up on the scene: The British National Party. Thanks to the universal scandal involving the main UK parties, the BNP managed to win some seats for the European parliament. Any news article mentioning the BNP is obliged to identify them as "far-right", while my political instincts tell me that Europe hasn't had a far-right since the 18th century. Thus, I decided to check their web site and find out what they believed.

As expected, they basically were a blue-collar mindset party emphasizing worker councils, free health care from a national system, reversing privatization, and anti-free trade. They are advocating a strong defense, but taking an attitude that it is none of their business if Nation A obliterates Nation B, as long as they are neither A nor B. Although this is rhetorically distinct from most leftists, it is really indistinguishable in practice from most Euro-policy, given the number of European soldiers actively being risked to bring about peace. Regarding Enviro policy, they seem to be a blend of business bashers and those who yearn for an earlier era of thatched roofs and quaint villages. Looking at those issues alone, we in the US would classify them as a typical leftist workers party.

The "far-right" label seems to rely solely on the fact that they would like to encourage a lot of the non-Anglo-Saxon residents of the UK to go home. They also have some difficulty with politically correct notions that civil rights only apply to criminals and that people have a right to live on the dole, when they are healthy enough to get a job. By the race criteria, the world would be considered full of "far-right" political parties ranging from Japan to most Arab nations who want their Palestinian-Arab residents to leave also.

The Wiki article on the BNP includes a few more bits of information, such as a history of holocaust denial, but that seems to be something from the past. I don't have any sympathy for holocaust deniers, but then again, do parties that advocate abortion genocide have any right to criticize holocaust deniers? The BNP also seems to be actively in opposition to Islam. My main gripe with this position is that it isn't a position. An alternative must be offered, and it is here that the BNP completely fails. The BNP wants to return to a England of history and tradition, but can't utter the word "Christ", while it can utter the word "Islam". The last thing that caught my eye was that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York said it would be a tragedy if people abstained for voted BNP. I would put that in an advertisement! If some leaders from a spineless politically correct church oppose you, then you must be doing something right!

The end result is pretty much consistent with what I expect: The Europeans define "far-right" to mean anti-multicultural, but otherwise economically far-left. This is a political phenomenon that doesn't seem to have any counterpart in the US.