I've become more and more interested in anti-fascism over the last few months, as the rise on the BNP has increasingly horrified me. I try to have a positive opinion of the general public but then things like BNP councillors getting elected keep happening, which really tests my resolve.
Anyway, a charming young chap by the name of Joshua Wren contacted me on Facebook earlier today. I've never met him and never heard of him, and I presume his unsolicited message was the result of my membership of the Expose the BNP group. Anyway, I looked beyond his basic grasp of the English language and argued the toss.
Here it is, in full, with my typo's intact to boot...
Joshua Wren 23 February at 17:16
As a reporter you should also know that the BNP are a democratic party. If it wasnt then it wouldnt be allowed to stand. Start reporting the truth for a change and not bullshit like you always do. VOTE BNP
Jim Ranger 23 February at 17:20
Interesting view. Have you actually read any of my work?
The next time I write about the BNP and their democratic process - which I've never denied - I'll make sure I also mention the fact that the party is a thinly-disguised group of racists and white supremacists.
How's that for reporting the truth?
Joshua Wren 23 February at 17:22
yes i have and its crap maybe you should report that i am an openly gay member and would gladly be interviewed for your filth. Also you can report how barking will become a bnp mp in may also. that would be some truth for a change.
Jim Ranger 23 February at 17:42
It's crap? Of course it is. Could you do any better? Please try, I'd love to see how you get on.
It's shame you don't live in my area as I'd also really like to interview you. What would happen then is that, after you spout some racist nonsense, the 99% of people in the borough who have a brain would then realise that the kind of person the BNP attracts shouldn't be trusted with a can opener, let alone a seat in the House of Commons.
I'm pretty confident that there are enough people in Barking who are so horrified by the idea of Nick Griffin possibly becoming their MP that they will vote for a legitimate party, any party, instead of your mob.
In a way, it's not entirely your fault. For whatever reason you feel disenfranchised by mainstream politics. All the other political parties have their flaws, there's a lot wrong with them, and the expenses scandal is only the tip of the iceberg. But they don't hate people because they have different colour skin, or talk a bit funny, or come from a different country.
Joshua Wren 23 February at 17:44
the last stament is correct and for your information i dont talk any racism actually. I have friends who are white,black,and asian. Why dont you people report on the evil islamic extremists that run riot in our country??? or why the facists (lol UAF) dont come out to protest about that??? very ironic indeed
Joshua Wren 23 February at 17:46
for the lat time also the BNP ARE A LEGIT party
Jim Ranger 23 February at 17:54
So you're a hypocrite then? Black and asian friends, yet you belong to a party which - whatever it's leading figures may say - is founded on the politics of hate.
Perhaps Nick Griffin and the other BNP figures who speak to the media present the image that the party is just out to look after the interests of 'indigenous' British people, but most people simply don't buy it.
Everyone else realises that the great majority of the party's membership consists of racists, and the it plays on the fears of the people in the UK who simply can't deal with immigration and ethnic diversity.
Extremism in all its forms is dangerous - racist nationalist extremism, like the kind you promote, is just as harmful and divisive as the kind "evil Islamic" extremism to which you refer.
And I wouldn't mind betting that there are more people in the UK who think like you, than people who think that we should impose Sharia law and that it's ok to blow people up in the name of Allah.
Joshua Wren 23 February at 17:58
Well you think what ya like which is why your articles are are bollox. You dont know me or know what i am like. I am no hypocrite i am a realist. What you fail to report also is the fact that griffins best mate is a sikh and that he was the main witness in dismissing griffins race hate trial.
Jim Ranger 23 February at 19:01
So one Sikh man falls under the illusion of the BNP and that legitimises the whole operation and its supporters. Well thanks for clearing that up. It's about on the same level as your 'I'm not a racist, I've got loads of black friends' argument earlier on, which was a real gem.
While we're on the subject of your illustrious leader's credentials, I also recall he studied at Cambridge. However, that doesn't mean the man isn't an inept bigot.
The BNP has also just voted in favour of admitting black and asian memembers. That doesn't mean it isn't a racist political organisation.
Thinking of it now, I don't think I've ever written an article on the BNP, it's certainly never been much of a theme in our paper. Perhaps you think the articles I write on residential planning disputes, nightclub licensing hearings and charity fundraisers are all bollocks.
Thankfully I write about an area which has managed to resist the creeping influence of your particular band of hate-mongers, and I hope it stays that way. There's only one BNP councillor in Redbridge Council, and he never actually does anything except sit in meetings looking bored, and the word is he'll lose his seat in due course.
Rather than a triumphant moment for the BNP, I have every confidence that the next election will mark the moment that the sensible majority in this country take to the ballot box and exercise their democratic right to show the BNP that their particular brand of neo-fascism has no place in 21st Britain.
Thanks for messaging me. I've never knowingly spoken to a BNP supporter, so this has given me an insight into the kind of distorted a worldview people like you have.
I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do with our exchange, although I'll certainly be sharing with the other members of the Expose the BNP group and anyone else who shares my position.
One final thought - as a gay man, have you ever been called homophobic names? Spat at? Physically abused? Had defamatory leaflets distributed around your neighbourhood?
I ask because supporters of the BNP have done those things because other people were born in a different country or don't have white skin. They are the proponents of hatred and I know that if I was a member of a group which had suffered at the hands of bigots - and still does in some corners of the world - I could never bring myself to associate with a group of hate-mongers.
However, as you've made clear, you don't see the BNP as that. As far as you are concerned it's legitimate and the only party which cares for the British people.
I, for one, hope that the great majority of the UK completely disagrees.
Joshua Wren 23 February at 19:20
No i have not and there have never been any leaflets like that posted ever. If there was then we would of been arrested and havnt so they werent offensive then were they??? as for 'your encounter' i havnt given you any reason to attack me havnt made any comments that you may find offensive or given you an excuss to call me 'nazi' racist' etc so maybe you can now see that we are desent people just concerned about not been listend to by the so called goverment. i will no longer reply now as i dont trust filthy reporters one bit as it wouldnt suprise me to find you have alterd my words to suit you. I will however drop you a message when we have mps in parliment. To rub that in to your filth written bullshit
Jim Ranger 23 February at 22:56
Not once have I attacked you, whereas you have sworn at me and attacked me professionally. We clearly have a very different idea of what 'offensive' means'. You've called my work bullshit and bollocks - and I doubt you've any idea what you're talking about.
Perhaps no BNP operative has ever done those things while on official party business, but I would not be surprised to learn about members engaging in that kind of thing on their own time.
I used the term neo-Nazi to characterise the kind of fascism which drives organisations like the BNP, which is perfectly legitimate.
And, believe me, I would have no need to alter your words one bit in order to suit my own anti-fascist agenda - not even by correcting the terrible spelling, punctuation and grammar (particularly seeing as mine hasn't exactly been perfect).
I don't expect you to be convinced by my arguments as you're obviously completely entrenched in your blinkered far-right extremist views, and I hope you would do me the same courtesy and understand that your angry, poorly-argued datribes will do nothing to change my views.
I'm serious about an interview, if you'd like to give me one. So how about it - the day the BNP get an MP in Westminster, we'll sit down and thrash it out.
You might have a chance if you just learned to think for yourself rather than simply doing what is easy: being scared of and angry at immigrants, blaming them for the all the problems up and down the country, scapegoating them because society can't accept collect responsibility for the current economic and social mire we're in.
So in May, when you get your MP or - God forbid - MPs, drop me a line and we'll talk.
So, anyone thinking of voting British National Party in a few months time?
