Strange?

Last week the BNP won a seat in a local by-election in Swanley, Sevenoaks, in Kent. In other places they recorded massive gains in electoral support. The Swanley seat had been regarded as a 'safe' Labour seat. In the other by-election results last week the swing was mostly from Labour, although in one case at least it was from the LibDems.

So what is going on? Is it that Labour/LibDem voters stayed at home, and the BNP found support from among those who normally can't be bothered to vote?

The BNP are written off by the left as some fascist, ultra right group, about as far to the right as it is possible to go. On the principle that left is good and right is bad, people you deem unacceptable may safely be called right-wing. This is the usual BBC description.

A glance at the views the BNP seem to hold as a party would suggest that it has more in common with the left than the right, - it advocates nationalisation, higher taxes, and protectionism. Even if it waves a union jack, it is seemingly republican as well. It may be extreme, coarse and unpleasant, it may feast on anger and discontent among voters, but essentially it is not a right wing organisation.

The right wing of the Conservative Party, (verging on the extreme right?), is a very different kettle of fish - authoritarian, yes, concerned about law and order, yes, wishing to leave the EU, again yes, but it certainly is not pro-tax and nationalisation. If Tory dissidents on the right leave it is usually to the UKIP, not the BNP. Here we have a mass switch from Labour to BNP among voters.

It may be that the extremes of left and right have more in common than either would want to admit. In essence both are statist and quite prepared to reduce individual freedom.

We may have here the situation of "two likes repelling" as in magnetism. They have more in common than either would like to admit, and each sees a threat in the other.

On the other hand voting for the BNP at the moment may be merely a protest - against uncontrolled immigration which has mopped up jobs and housing, at Europeans taking British jobs and European Courts overruling our courts. As the Labour government has been part of the cause of the grievances, and the voters do not yet see enough in Tory policies to switch there, there is a logic in giving conventional politicians a "bloody nose".