Thread: Brits Fighting Back-Sovereignty, Freedom and Identity Issues

Reuters -- June 8

"We are just as opposed to mass immigration from all-white Poland as we are to immigration from Nigeria." -- Griffin
British National Party wins first Europe seats

Manchester, UK -- The far-right British National Party, which campaigns for a halt to immigration and British withdrawal from the European Union, won its first seats in the European Parliament on Monday.

BNP leader Nick Griffin, one of the two party members elected, hailed the achievement as an "astounding earthquake in British politics."

Mainstream parties lamented the breakthrough made by a party they regard as racist.
"It's a sad moment for British politics," Health Secretary Andy Burnham said...

"I think that, for years, the British public have watched in growing concern as our country has been transformed in all sorts of ways by an out-of-touch political elite and finally enough of them have summoned up the courage to do something effective about it at the ballot box," Griffin told Sky News.

He said his priority in Brussels would be "to do as much as we can to delay the process of further European unification because it is taking away Britain's sovereignty and our freedom and our identity."

The party would oppose Turkey's entry into the EU "because if people thought that the impact of cheap Polish labour was bad wait until you see what happens if Turkey is allowed in," he said.

Griffin said the BNP's membership policy had "nothing to do with race."

"We are just as opposed to mass immigration from all-white Poland as we are to immigration from Nigeria," he said.

With some results still to be announced, the BNP has already chalked up more than 900,000 votes in the European elections in Britain.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft and Darren Staples; Editing by Michael Roddy)

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps ... F620090608

utch, British get chance to vent anger in EU vote
By MIKE CORDER – 4 days ago

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A right-wing lawmaker called on Dutch voters worried about immigration to pick his party Thursday in European Parliament elections expected to bring successes for fringe and extremist groups.

Geert Wilders, creator of a short film that criticizes the Quran as a "fascist book," urged voters to reject EU involvement in immigration policy and said Turkey should not join the 27-nation bloc.

"Turkey as (an) Islamic country should never be in the EU, not in 10 years, not in a million years," Wilders said.

Voting was underway in Britain as well, where the far-right British National Party, which bars nonwhite members, was slated to win its first seat. The anti-European United Kingdom Independence Party was also expected to benefit from voter anger at the economic crisis and recent revelations that lawmakers sought public reimbursement for items ranging from horse manure to swimming-pool repairs.

Ivano Chiesa, a 49-year-old hotel proprietor in London, said that he'd voted for the UKIP.

"I don't think our laws should be from Brussels, it's worse than the Parliament here. They really abuse the system," Chiesa said, leaving a polling station in central London's Bloomsbury district.
About 375 million voters across the 27-nation European Union are voting Thursday through Sunday, appointing candidates to 736 seats on the assembly in the second-largest election in the world after India's.

Wilders has won support from Protestant and Catholic voters disenchanted with what's perceived as the growing influence of the nation's 800,000 Muslims, many of them immigrants from Morocco and Turkey.

Voting at City Hall in The Hague, Wilders said the Netherlands should not cede control over immigration to Brussels. Once ratified by all member states, the EU's reform treaty, known as the Treaty of Lisbon, will abolish EU states' right to veto European legislation on immigration matters.

"We want to decide who will enter Holland, not bureaucrats in Brussels," Wilders said.

Polls show the Freedom Party has the same level of support as the Christian Democrats and Labor. All three parties are projected to claim about 14 percent of the Dutch vote.

But Dutch IT manager Olivier van der Post, 40, rejected Wilders' vision.

"I didn't vote for Wilders ... History has shown that if you want prosperity you must open your borders, not close them," he said after voting in Voorburg, a leafy village on the outskirts of The Hague.

Matters directly controlled by the European Parliament were taking a back seat to national politics in many countries, where the economic downturn, cynicism over the union's eastward expansion and worries about relations between Muslims and non-Muslims were expected to fuel a voter backlash against mainstream politicians.

Record low turnout was also expected.

In Britain, few people arrived to cast early votes at polling stations in London. The country was also holding elections for about 2,300 of the country's 18,000 seats on local councils in towns and cities.

The 736-seat European Parliament has evolved over the past 50 years from a consultative legislature to one with the right to vote on or amend two-thirds of all EU laws including on immigration, the environment, transport, consumer protection and trade.

The parliament can amend the EU budget — euro120 billion ($170 billion) this year — and has a role in appointing the European Commission, the EU administration, and the board of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany.

But polls continent-wide consistently show that voters consider their MEPs to be overpaid, remote and irrelevant in their daily lives. Such voter disinterest typically fuels low turnouts and stronger-than-usual showings for protest candidates from the hard left and right of the political spectrum.

Official results from the European Parliament elections will be announced starting Sunday.

Associated Press Writers David Stringer and Nardine Saad in London contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD98JTFD80

I am proud of the Brits, we can learn from them.

Conservatives Win Big in European Union Voting

Sunday, June 7, 2009 3:25 PM

BRUSSELS -- Conservatives scored victories in some of Europe's largest economies Sunday as voters punished left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and other nations.


Some right-leaning parties said the results vindicated their reluctance to spend more on company bailouts and fiscal stimulus to combat the global economic crisis.


The European Union said center-right parties were expected to take the most seats _ 267 _ in the 736-member parliament. Center-left parties were headed for 159 seats. The remainder were expected to go to smaller groupings.


Right-leaning governments were ahead of the opposition in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties were leading in Britain and Spain.


Greece was a notable exception, where the governing conservatives were headed for defeat in the wake of corruption scandals and economic woes.


Germans handed a lackluster victory to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and a historic defeat to their center-left rivals in the European Parliament vote months before a national election.


The Social Democrats got an unexpectedly dismal 20.8 percent _ the party's worst showing since World War II in any nationwide election.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and a regional sister party won 37.8 percent, down from 44.5 percent five years ago. But the outcome was enough to boost Merkel's hopes of ending the tense left-right "grand coalition" that has led the European Union's most populous nation since 2005, and replacing it with a center-right government.


"We are the force that is acting level-headedly and correctly in this financial and economic crisis," said Volker Kauder, the leader of Merkel's party in the German parliament.


French President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing conservatives trounced the Socialists, while an ecology-minded party vaulted to a surprisingly strong third place, according to official results.


The Socialists, who dominated the last vote in 2004, suffered a stinging defeat, barely clinging to the No. 2 spot.


"Tonight is a very difficult evening for Socialists in many nations in Europe," said Martin Schulz, the leader of the Socialists in the European Parliament. "(We will) continue to fight for social democracy in Europe."


Far-right groups and other fringe parties gained in record low turnout estimated at 43.5 percent of 375 million eligible, reflecting widespread disenchantment with the continentwide legislature.


Britain elected its first extreme-right politician to the European Parliament, with the British National Party winning a seat in northern England's Yorkshire and the Humber district.


The far-right party, which does not accept nonwhites as members, was expected to possibly win further seats as more results in Britain were announced.


Lawmakers with Britain's major political parties said the far right's advance was a reflection of anger over immigration issues and the recession that is causing unemployment to soar.


Near-final results showed Austria's main rightist party gaining strongly while the ruling Social Democrats lost substantial ground.

But the big winner was the rightist Freedom Party, which more than doubled its strength over the 2004 elections to 13.1 percent of the vote. It campaigned on an anti-Islam platform.


In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders' anti-Islamic party took 17 percent of the country's votes, taking four of 25 seats.


The Hungarian far-right Jobbik party won three of 22 seats, with the main center-right opposition party, Fidesz, capturing 14 seats and the governing Socialists only four.


Jobbik describes itself as Euro-skeptic and anti-immigration and wants police to crack down on petty crimes committed by Gypsies. Critics say the party is racist and anti-Semitic.


Fringe groups could use the EU parliament as a platform for their extreme views but were not expected to affect the assembly's increasingly influential lawmaking on issues ranging from climate change to cell-phone roaming charges.


The EU parliament has evolved over five decades from a consultative legislature to one with the power to vote on or amend two-thirds of all EU laws. Lawmakers get five-year terms and residents vote for lawmakers from their own countries.


The parliament can also amend the EU budget _ euro120 billion ($170 billion) this year _ and approves candidates for the European Commission, the EU administration and the board of the European Central Bank.


Many Socialists ran campaigns that slammed center-right leaders for failing to rein in financial markets and spend enough to stimulate faltering economies.


"People don't want a return to socialism and that's why the majority here will be a center-right majority," said Graham Watson, leader of the EU's center-right Liberal Democrat grouping.


In Spain, the conservative Popular Party won two more seats than the ruling Socialists _ 23 to 21 seats _ with over 88 percent of the vote counted.


Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's Freedom People's Party held a two-digit lead over his main center-left rival in the most recent polling despite a deep recession and a scandal over allegations he had an inappropriate relationship with a young model. Italian results were being released Monday.


In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown was facing a showdown with rebel lawmakers on Monday after the party's expected dismal results in the European parliament and local elections were announced.


Brown has been struggling with the economic crisis and a scandal over lawmakers' expenses. The opposition Conservatives are expected to win the next national election, which must be called by June 2010.

According to a BBC projection, Labour was trailing the United Kingdom Independence Party in third place. It put the main opposition Conservative Party at 27 percent, UKIP at 17 and Labour at 16, followed by smaller parties.


"This time we have come second in a major national election. That is a hell of an achievement," said Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP _ which advocates Britain's withdrawal from the European Union.


An exit poll showed Irish ruling party Fianna Fail, which supports EU plans to strengthen its authority, trailing its rival Fine Gael by 23 percent to 30 percent.


The outcome of many Irish races was unclear early Monday. The count was halted for an hour Sunday night in Ireland's North West EU constituency after candidate Declan Ganley, founder of anti-treaty party Libertas, raised procedural questions about the opening of ballot boxes.


An exit poll in Poland showed Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-business Civic Platform party with 45.3 percent and the nationalist and conservative opposition Law and Justice party second with 29.5 percent _ a shift to the center-right for Poland at the European parliament.


The Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union garnered 12 percent.


In Sweden, the Pirate Party, which advocates shortening the duration of copyright protection and allowing noncommercial file-sharing, looked set to take its first seat with 7.4 percent of the vote.


Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and five other EU nations cast ballots over the last three days, while the rest of the 27-nation bloc voted Sunday.


© 2009 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/europe ... 22465.html

I think the majority of Americans are the most open-minded and open-armed when it comes to LEGAL immigrants. I know as a native Southern Californian I have known Mexicans my entire life. We are not racists, but rather we are fed up with the illegals who come here, steal from us(tax funded everything) and refuse to assimilate. Only in the last 20 years have I seen this, never before. Extremism starts when governments refuse to listen to their citizens and pander to these groups. The citizens get mad and eventually revolt.

I hope this is a HUGE WAKE UP CALL to all Dem's and Socialists here in the states.

No wonder Obama was on TV saying he was going to spend, spend, spend to get jobs going.

His ratings are now at 59% and after this vote overseas, I can't see how they will be able to "contain" the anger over here either.

There are now 1,101 cities registered for Tea Parties on July 4th:

http://www.teapartyday.com/

Even CA has 99 now!

Time for Arnold to get an earful!!! Please take action!

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-908144.html#908144

Mainstream parties lamented the breakthrough made by a party they regard as racist.

Yep, same ol story...play the race card..whatever you do, don't talk about immigration as a point of legality..always make it a civil issue..This is the tool being used by the globalists to install multiculturalism--the nation destroyer. These greedy control freaks know that the melting pot works in a society, but multiculturalism doesn't. Just like enforcement of our immigration laws work..they don't want enforcement because they know it works. Seems the tactics used to destroy the UK's culture is being utilized here in the states.