Sunday 26 July 2009

Does anyone have Elvis Costello's phone number?

What follows is Nick Griffin's first contribution to a debate in the European Parliament as an MEP, in Strasbourg on 15th July. Obviously we all knew he was bad, but I didn't realise he was quite this mad too.

Nick Griffin (NI ). - Mr President, last year I served as a monitor at commemorations for the 1956 revolution in Budapest. I can confirm that Dr Morvai is right to criticise those who fret about Iran while ignoring human rights abuses here in Europe.

I trust that no ECR Group members here will be hypocritical enough to condemn Iran for the use of violence in elections when David Cameron is among the sponsors of Unite Against Fascism, an organisation of far-left criminals which routinely deploys intimidation and violence against nationalist dissidents in Britain. The same is true of five current Labour, Lib Dem and Tory MEPs, marked with the shame of supporting the use of British taxpayers’ money to support their own militia, which breaks up opposition meetings and attacks their opponents with bricks, darts and claw hammers.

But my main point is this: however well meaning, and even justified, criticisms of Iran made here may be, they will be exploited as war propaganda by the powerful vested interests that stand to gain from a military attack on that country. Neocons, oil companies, construction corporations and the Wahabi mullahs of Saudi Arabia all want to see the sovereign state of Iran destroyed by an aggressive war. Not even European liberals are naive enough to fall for lies about weapons of mass destruction again, so human rights are being drafted in as a new casus belli .

Do not add the voice of this place to the warmongers’ chorus for a third illegal and counterproductive attack by the West on the Muslim world. Or, if you must, do not leave the war – which hypocritical rhetoric will help to justify and unleash – to the usual brave British cannon fodder: 18-year-old boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne. Instead, send your own sons to come home in boxes or without their legs, their arms and their sanity – or mind your own business.

9 comments:

Working Class Tory said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
myob said...

I agree 100% WCT.

As i've said to Kerry on twitter -

"not often i'll agree with him but he is right on the money. Dismiss legitimate views at your parties peril. Don't lecture, LISTEN!"

Working Class Tory said...

I don't see what the objection is to Nick Griffin outlining why we shouldn't enter into a war with Iran.

Firstly, the UAF comments could be considered justified, given their actions - such as throwing eggs as Griffin. Not only that but that interview on Newsnight showed exactly what kind of person is a member of UAF - someone who would willingly deny democracy to someone who votes BNP.

Guess what, there were nearly a million BNP voters at the Euros, nearly exclusively ex-Labour voters - and that is what hurts the most to Labour - that they failed to get it right on immigration, so their core vote defected to a racist, fascist party.

Secondly, what he says about Iran is fair comment - there are many vested interests in the invasion of Iran. Not only that, but there are many voters, up and down the country who see the Iraq war and now Afghanistan, as the super-rich playing wargames. It's the lads from the estates who get killed, and the poor in Asia. Why do you think socialist parties are all anti-war? It's the same core voter.

Kerry said...

Myob - I didn't get that on Twitter. And aren't you doing exactly what you accuse me of, i.e. dismissing my legitimate views? (i.e. that I think Griffin is mad, bad and dangerous to vote for).

Dick the Prick said...

You do have to wonder what the hell we are doing over there.We should get out of the EU, Iraq, Afghanistan and leave them all to follow themselves - we have no business anywhere and absolutely no 'moral' authority. Or perhaps not if we listen to the Kaufmeister:

Remarks by Gerald Kaufman during a debate on Gaza in the House of Commons today:


"My parents came to Britain as refugees from Poland. Most of their families were subsequently murdered by the Nazis in the holocaust. My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszow. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed.

My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The current Israeli Government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians. The implication is that Jewish lives are precious, but the lives of Palestinians do not count.

On Sky News a few days ago, the spokeswoman for the Israeli army, Major Leibovich, was asked about the Israeli killing of, at that time, 800 Palestinians—the total is now 1,000. She replied instantly that “500 of them were militants.”

That was the reply of a Nazi. I suppose that the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants.

The Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni asserts that her Government will have no dealings with Hamas, because they are terrorists. Tzipi Livni’s father was Eitan Livni, chief operations officer of the terrorist Irgun Zvai Leumi, who organised the blowing-up of the King David hotel in Jerusalem, in which 91 victims were killed, including four Jews.

Israel was born out of Jewish terrorism. Jewish terrorists hanged two British sergeants and booby-trapped their corpses. Irgun, together with the terrorist Stern gang, massacred 254 Palestinians in 1948 in the village of Deir Yassin. Today, the current Israeli Government indicate that they would be willing, in circumstances acceptable to them, to negotiate with the Palestinian President Abbas of Fatah. It is too late for that. They could have negotiated with Fatah’s previous leader, Yasser Arafat, who was a friend of mine. Instead, they besieged him in a bunker in Ramallah, where I visited him. Because of the failings of Fatah since Arafat’s death, Hamas won the Palestinian election in 2006. Hamas is a deeply nasty organisation, but it was democratically elected, and it is the only game in town. The boycotting of Hamas, including by our Government, has been a culpable error, from which dreadful consequences have followed.

The great Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, with whom I campaigned for peace on many platforms, said: “You make peace by talking to your enemies.”

However many Palestinians the Israelis murder in Gaza, they cannot solve this existential problem by military means. Whenever and however the fighting ends, there will still be 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza and 2.5 million more on the west bank. They are treated like dirt by the Israelis, with hundreds of road blocks and with the ghastly denizens of the illegal Jewish settlements harassing them as well. The time will come, not so long from now, when they will outnumber the Jewish population in Israel.

It is time for our Government to make clear to the Israeli Government that their conduct and policies are unacceptable, and to impose a total arms ban on Israel. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is the Israelis’ real goal but which it is impossible for them to achieve. They are not simply war criminals; they are fools."

myob said...

You may have a point there Kerry. Yes, of course you are entitled to your views but its different as -

1). You have a platform which means some might actually listen to you. A random comment on someone elses blog often goes overlooked and ignored.

2). You are representing your electorate, not all of them believe our stance on Iran is fair, moral or right.


My firm view (and that of many others) is that we cannot in good conscience lecture countries seeking to create the same defence capabilities we have. If we decomission our Nuclear weapons then we might have some credibility, until then we are no more than hypocrites.



But those aren't the real problem for me at this point as this discussion has been going nowhere for the last few years!

As an aside, i abhor racism but the comments made by Nick Griffin here are pretty reasonable imho.

It's genuinely positive to see officials now on the net interacting with people but we've been ignored for years. I think you were wrong to delete the first comment in here, it was merely a differing opinion from yours (is this a genuine position or a party line?)

Surely the whole purpose of a democracy is that the electorate have an opportunity to discuss, argue, debate with their elected representatives?

Come on, be bold, allow comments you firmly disagree with. You'll find a mix of people who agree and disagree but thats got to be healthy?

Not sure why you didn't see my twitter comment, i'll look into that!

Kerry said...

I didn't delete the first comment, the person who posted it - Working Class Tory - did. In fact I RT'd it on Twitter, which was what led him to delete it! He's welcome to repost it if he wants.

Working Class Tory said...

I lengthened my original post, since you left me liable to be accused of cosying up to the BNP, which I sure don't do.

Kerry said...

I didn't leave you liable to anything - it was your comment!