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[xgx]

....it's a good idea to first take a look at what they have to say and are about[/url].

Done that.... I can now see why they call themselves FAF ... 'We are anti BNP' just wouldn't have the same ring to it....

Religion and politics.... God knows how we're going to explain that to people....................... zzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Howard Jones]

The Right is just as entitled to use music to support its cause as the Left is.  If BNP supporters wish to use songs to put over their point of view, there's nothing to stop them - whether they'd find a sympathetic audience amongst most folkies is another matter.

What FaF is objecting to is the attempts by BNP to associate all English traditional music and customs iwith its cause.  The Nazis succeeded in doing this with German folksong, which to this day remains tainted by the association.  I'm all for celebrating St George's Day - but in the right way and in a spirit of inclusiveness for everyone who considers themselves to be English, whatever their origins.

The other thing FaF objects to is that the BNP is marketing folk performers' albums through its website, implying that they support its aims - in most cases nothing could be further from the truth.  Unless the performers have retained the rights, they cannot take legal action to prevent this.  What they can do, through FaF, is to disassociate themselves, and one of the initiatives is the creation of a logo for artists to display on future albums.

[xgx]

(...) celebrating St George's Day - but in the right way and in a spirit of inclusiveness for everyone who considers themselves to be English, whatever their origins.

Very nicely put... even the BNP could live with that


I wonder if FAF and the BNP use the same formula :Hay + Male Bovine = 

[Ebor_fiddler]

B******t? You cynic!

[Keithypete.]

Time, me thinks, to nail ones colours to the mast. In the 1980s I was a peace campaigner at Faslane, a founder of the Aquarian peace camp at the base U.S. submarine base at Holy Loch and the Occupation site at Upper Heyford. I am 100% opposed to fascism and folk music being hijacked by such tossers. I fell out with others back then because they were Anti everything. I wasn't opposed to fox hunting - or any other form of hunting - then and I'm still not. The BNP, NF, Combat 84, et al are particularly odious and deserve no mandate whatsoever in any department. My father and his generation fought a war against the Nazis/fascists to win the freedom of speech we enjoy, and freedom generally. Sadly it is being eroded at both ends. On the right by the Fascists, and at the other extreme by Nutters who are anti everything and possess no common sense at all. This cynical BNP activity could become very boring. It's supposed to be fun isn't it?
   Put me name down.


   Re newspapers not fit to wrap chips - I don't think I'd want my saveloy staring up at me from the pages of the Daily Sport.

[emrock]

I appreciate the feeling that folk should be apolitical, but I think this is the very reason we need support for FAF. FAF is trying to bring people together and show that folk has nothing to do with fascism and racism. Surely this is opposing folk being used for the wrong political purposes?

The BNP on the other hand seek to exclude non-whites and promote fascist ideas. Among their guests at their red, white and blue 'festival' were Eastern European Fascists who have organised pogroms against Roma, Racists such as Le Penn and a leading KKK member (who was barred from entering the country). We must not allow these people to associate themselves with folk and claim it for their own ends. This happened in Germany and the association still scars German Folk Music.

[xgx]

B******t? You cynic!

Moi?

nope, just a simple realist...

(with happy memories of Ebor and Ginge awards at a certain Lincs town many moons ago )

[an bosca ceoil]

     BNP is marketing folk performers' albums through its website ...

I barely dare ask this ....  .... Pete Coe?

Do not think so.
 After reading all these comments I  was curious enough to have a look at the BNP website!
 All I could find was an advertising banner for "Excalibur" who offer (in addition to stuff like Golliwogs and "Union Jack" money boxes) a couple of CD compilations containing stuff as diverse as Whiskey in the Jar and Curragh of Kildare. Hardly "TRUE BRIT." or a serious threat of equating Folk with facism?

[C age ing]

 My father and his generation fought a war against the Nazis/fascists to win the freedom of speech we enjoy, and freedom generally.
   Re newspapers not fit to wrap chips - I don't think I'd want my saveloy staring up at me from the pages of the Daily Sport.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that your father and his generation fought a war against the Nazis/fascists because they were conscripted? If your father and his generation fought as a member of The International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, then it would have been voluntary and possibly postponed or prevented WW2.

As for newspapers, paper was rationed during the war and you were grateful for whatever you could wrap your fish and chips in, although most chippies insisted on you taking your own newspaper which meant rationing that which was torn up and hung in the loo. 
An old, grumpy and bombed out in the Second World War Bill.

[Chris Ryall]

Hmmm - interesting web site. I didn't find any folk stuff there but they do sell Enoch T shirts! I recall my old Grandma in Wolverhampton West constituency thinking Powell was great. Seems like any political organisation they'll do whatever they can to stimulate publicity.

I think I'll go back to opposing BNP as a concept. Full stop. I suspect all this FAF will simply give BNP publicity and credibility. In the end they need to be faced down politically, and the present general weakness across mainsteam UK politics has a lot to do with it. If the Lab/Con/LibDem/Nationalist axes were more robust these nasty parties would soon be back to having a single councillor somewhere in the Lancashire hills.  But it's the age of the sound bite.
Apologies for that chips analogy -  it seems to have started a new Movement  

[HallelujahAl]

I suspect all this FAF will simply give BNP publicity and credibility.

I can't help but agree with you there I'm afraid - but such as the BNP need to be oppossed in as many ways as possible.
'Evil prospers when good men (and women) do nothing'
AL

[Steve_freereeder]

'Evil prospers when good men (and women) do nothing'

That is SO true! Thanks for reminding us, Al.

[Steve_freereeder]

A similar thread over at concertina.net has had to be closed down by the moderators because it got abusive and personal.

I am very heartened that here we are able to discuss this emotive topic sensibly and without sinking to name-calling and nastiness. It says a lot for this forum and the lovely people who post here. Well done everyone and please keep it up. 

[Theo]

A similar thread over at concertina.net has had to be closed down by the moderators because it got abusive and personal.

I am very heartened that here we are able to discuss this emotive topic sensibly and without sinking to name-calling and nastiness. It says a lot for this forum and the lovely people who post here. Well done everyone and please keep it up. 

I've had my moderators fingers crossed ever since this thread started.   

[Fi]

'Evil prospers when good men (and women) do nothing'

Exactly. I spoke to one of the FAF organisers at Towersey, and as I said to her, I do feel I can't just sit about and do nothing about what's happening, especially having heard BBC Radio 4's 'The World Tonight'  coverage on the FAF launch at Sidmouth, with a contribution from the BNP. If anyone hasn't heard it it's still on the iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lttsp/b00ltts7/The_World_Tonight_07_08_2009/

it starts about 34.50 minutes in.  As Steve just said, it is an emotive topic, and I may have reacted to this broadcast on an emotional level -  I certainly felt really sick listening to the BNP representative, but I also felt the arrogance of the man comes across and shows them for the cynical, sly people they are.

[mikesamwild]

A similar thread over at concertina.net has had to be closed down by the moderators because it got abusive and personal.

I am very heartened that here we are able to discuss this emotive topic sensibly and without sinking to name-calling and nastiness. It says a lot for this forum and the lovely people who post here. Well done everyone and please keep it up.  

Steve
I don't think it was particularly abusive and I was surprised at the censorship.  The Session has a wide ranging and generally good debate
Cheers
Mike

[Chris Ryall]

Lovers of debate here will be delighted that the Mainstream Parties's negligence in letting BNP get a couple of parliamentary seats  - has qualified it to go on BBC 'Question Time'.

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8240206.stm

[Keithypete.]

I was very much saddened at work today to see that some of the Polish boys had engraved swastikas into their work bench. If only they knew.....

(with happy memories of Ebor and Ginge awards at a certain Lincs town many moons ago )
[/quote]

I am on the board of ex-Squires of that morris side; who did you/ do you dance with or play for?

[Keithypete.]

 My father and his generation fought a war against the Nazis/fascists to win the freedom of speech we enjoy, and freedom generally.
   Re newspapers not fit to wrap chips - I don't think I'd want my saveloy staring up at me from the pages of the Daily Sport.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that your father and his generation fought a war against the Nazis/fascists because they were conscripted?

As far as I am aware, dad volunteered. He was decorated above and beyond the general campaign medals too. There was also a C.M.O. somewhere in the family - of whom I am equally proud. He did what he had to do.

[C age ing]

 My father and his generation fought a war against the Nazis/fascists to win the freedom of speech we enjoy, and freedom generally.
   Re newspapers not fit to wrap chips - I don't think I'd want my saveloy staring up at me from the pages of the Daily Sport.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that your father and his generation fought a war against the Nazis/fascists because they were conscripted?

As far as I am aware, dad volunteered. He was decorated above and beyond the general campaign medals too. There was also a C.M.O. somewhere in the family - of whom I am equally proud. He did what he had to do.

I am sure that many who served in the various Axis Forces could say the same, suggesting that the governments lead the countries into a war position. Maybe if they had dealt with the Spanish situation, Hitler's aims might have been moderated.
We must always remember awkward facts like Margaret Hilda Thatcher classing the ANC as terrorists, yet you certainly disapproved of apartheid and thought of them as freedom fighters.
Maybe we should ask the BNP why they adopt a, to us, extreme philosophy, and then try picking at it until it gets better. Sadly it is the way of the world for extreme positions to be adopted by power seekers. My father was a conscientious objector in WW!, something to do with "Thou shall not kill". I'm proud of that.