Should a mainstream news organisation be providing a platform for these views?
Richard Barnbrook, the British National party’s London Assembly member, has used a blog on the Daily Telegraph’s website to blame immigrants and their sons for knife and gun crime among young people in the capital after a spate of murders.
Under the headline “Blame the immigrants”, the posting on My Telegraph, a platform which allows readers to publish their own articles, Barnbrook claims the perpetrators are protected by a government eager to secure the “Ethnic Block-Vote” and says immigrants “will not be allowed to terrorise our kids any longer”.
Personally speaking, I think it’s probably worthwhile to hear these ideas, despite the ignorance that they represent. In the UK, at least, they are growing in power and must be countered with arguments not censorship.
Yep, I agree. Best to have these thoughts out in the open for argument. Not always easy though to counter prejudice, fear etc without personal-level engagement. Certainly need to tackle head-on the well-placed flame fanners of division.