EU Elections

WELL......It's all over but for the "shouting".....With another low voting turnout which was due to aA volatile mix of apathy, anger and economic uncertainty translated into gains for extreme-right parties in European parliamentary elections, including the first seats won by the all-white British National Party. This is the party, which does not accept nonwhite members and calls for the "voluntary repatriation" of immigrants, won two of Britain's 72 seats in the European Parliament, gaining ground in economically battered areas that once were strongholds of the left-wing Labour Party.

As voters deserted left-wing parties in droves, center-right parties were the biggest winners in the scamble for the 736-seats in the EU legislature and conservative nationalist parties made gains, as well.

Right-leaning governments came out ahead in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties won in Britain, Spain and Bulgaria. The parties praised the results as a continent-wide vote against governments' stimulus spending and corporate bailouts.

The British National Party's seats ....... its first at a national or international level ....... are a breakthrough for the party and its Cambridge University-educated leader Nick Griffin, who once called the Holocaust a hoax.

"There is a huge amount of racism in this country," Griffin said Monday. "Overwhelmingly it is directed against the indigenous British majority, which is one reason we have done so well in these elections."

Under the present leadership, the BNP has changed its image. Members have replaced Doc Marten boots and skinhead haircuts with business suits in an attempt to lose the party's thuggish image, and the party has played down its traditional hostility toward Jews. Still, it openly opposes immigration and what it calls the "Islamification" of Britain.

The BNP took about 6.2 percent of the vote, up from 5 percent in 2004, but its biggest gains were in traditional strongholds of the governing Labour Party of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Labour saw its share of the vote collapse to less than 16 percent, its worst national electoral performance in almost a century.......but........Let's not forget....... That no matter how the British press and mainstream politicians hate the BNP...... the two new MEP's were elected by a democratic process and someone must have voted for a party which is not illegal in Britain where democratic values are suppose to flourish.......YEH RIGHT.....You have the freedom to vote as long as you don't vote for something we don't like......SOUNDS FAMILIER????????