Events | 2009.11.22
Hugh Muir's diary
Sleepy, ragtag and bobtail. Meet Nick\'s new far-right friends in Europe
It may yet become a force to be reckoned with, but the consensus following yesterday\'s public launch of Nick Griffin\'s new Euro vehicle, the Alliance of European National Movements , is that the project could do with a little fine-tuning. Remarks by his new French chum, Bruno Gollnisch were inauspicious. "I am not a Holocaust denier," Gollnisch said: though recently he had to go to France\'s highest court to prove it. Proceedings were interrupted by a telephone call. It was Nick. He couldn\'t find the press room, but eventually he did, arriving in a pink shirt and talking of the need "to get European money to show up the system". They also need more bodies, but where to get them? Gollnisch said he was happy for Romanian and Slovak "patriots" to join, but tell that to the Hungarian from the far-right Jobbik party. "We would never ally with the Romanian and Slovak patriots," he said. Awkward silence. And what of the daddy of the far right, Jean-Marie Le Pen? Well he was there, but only just. At times he appeared to be asleep.
The tendency to over-dramatise any scandal with the suffix "-gate", as in Watergate, continues unabated. Come on, you\'ve done it, says a voice at the back. To that we say, guilty. In Scotland, Alex Salmond (pictured) is in a spot of bother because he appears to have used public funds to wine and dine his dentist. Colgate they\'re calling it in the Glasgow Herald . Oh dear.
Turning swiftly to letter-gate (Gordon-gate? Afghan-gate?), there is this from the Sun website. "Yesterday on a MY Sun discussion block, the surname of Jacqui Janes, the mother of Guardsman Jamie Janes, was spelled incorrectly. As soon as we became aware of the error it was corrected. We are happy to apologise for the mistake."
But is the FT right about this? Did the Sun and No 10 agree to draw a line under the row about Gordon\'s error-strewn letter because the PM called Rupert ? Soon afterwards, the story goes, hostilities triggered by Gordon\'s letter to Jacqui Janes quickly ceased. Still at least, say Gordon\'s supporters, he wrote the letter. David Cameron by contrast, seems unable to pick up his pen. For it is now two months since MPs in the Doncaster area, including Ed Miliband and Caroline Flint, wrote to the Tory leader asking whether he approves of the pact between Conservatives in Doncaster and Peter Davies, the English Democrat mayor, who says we have much to learn from the Taliban. Two long months and nothing from the man who would be prime minister. Handwritten, typed, they wouldn\'t mind.
All smiles now that peace has broken out at the Royal Mail. "We\'re ready to deliver a great Christmas," said the adverts yesterday. But it\'s all a bit fragile, for some are still grumbling about a Communication Workers Union seminar the other day which was all quite harmonious until Kay Allen, Royal Mail\'s head of social action and inclusion, let slip that she herself had recently been out delivering letters. The word "scab" was muttered darkly, and little wonder. Those being addressed had spent their days picketing. They let it drop, because no one wants trouble approaching the busiest period, but their patience isn\'t endless. Best if they are not provoked.
So the result is in and by now Willie Bain , the Labour candidate in Glasgow North East , will know his fate. He cannot know exactly who voted for him, for electors say all sorts of things on doorsteps. But one thing is certain. His mother did, despite the entreaties of the SNP. For Labour tells us it was the Scottish National party rather than one of its activists who rang the family home, and that the caller, realising what they had done, nevertheless pressed the matriarch to consider a political defection. Did she waver? "Not for a nanosecond," says our informant, for loyalty is prized in Glasgow. But what about that family-splitting canvasser? Bravo. Full marks for trying.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/13/bnp-right-europe-nick-griffin
