Should the BNP be banned?

**Benjamin** · 28th May 2010 05:34 PM

Yes or No

Please give your reasons why you voted as such.

**Dangermouse** · 28th May 2010 06:03 PM

Nazi racist homophobes such as the BNP and the English Defence League should neither be encouraged or tolerated.

**frodly** · 28th May 2010 07:29 PM

The BNP is opposed to everything that makes western society good. That said, one of the most important things that makes western society good is freedom of speech and freedom of association. If we ban the BNP, we become like the BNP. We cannot abandon our principles to defeat a movement, even one as distasteful as the BNP. Especially since the BNP is a minor fringe party with no legitimate hope of ever coming to power.

**Rasselas** · 28th May 2010 09:10 PM

Banning political speech is generally a bad idea. Better that your most heinous and hideous groups parade themselves in the open (rather than at night, with masks, as we do in the US).

**Bowerbird** · 28th May 2010 09:18 PM

No, in the interest of freedom of speech they should not be banned

They SHOULD however be lampooned, ridiculed, raspberried, made fun of, caricatured, mocked, derided, parodied and generally treated with the contempt their anti-social views deserve

**jamesrage** · 28th May 2010 09:27 PM

I am against hate speech laws. Which is why I am glad the US actually values free speech. Because if you start declaring stuff hate speech and banning it by law then you open the for other things to be declared hate speech and banned. You basically give the government permission to ban any speech that speaks out against the government or military as hate speech. The best thing is not to give the government inch seeing how they will use that inch to try to take a mile.

**Agent Zero** · 28th May 2010 10:13 PM

Of course they shouldn't be banned. Unfortunately for them, their views ensure their irrelevancy.

**Leo** · 29th May 2010 12:14 AM

Absolutely not. We need to be able to see our fringe lunatics. Furthermore, they act as a good example of how a civilised and fair-minded people ought not to be. Let's hear more from them!

**sirius** · 29th May 2010 05:21 AM

Nah. What would be the point? They'd only go underground and get even more support.

**Amit** · 29th May 2010 08:01 AM

They're pretty irrelevant in any case. Not much but hype...

They're not all wrong, you know. They might have a few correct stands as well....

Banning them is exactly the catalyst they would need to grow into something relevant......

Given enough time and no importance, they will remain isolated and untouchable.......

If only they had a different approach to put forward their points, they would have been heard and taken seriously......

if only...