BNP's website 'the most popular in politics'
Last updated at 01:52am on 19.02.08
Nick Griffin of the BNP. The far-Right party has the UK's most visited political website
The British National Party has the UK's most visited political website, a study shows.
The far-Right group received 51 per cent of all hits to party sites last year - seven times more than the online pages run by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
It was also twice as popular as the Conservatives' main website.
The report, for the Centre for Policy Studies, claims the site has flourished because it allows visitors to leave messages and interact with one another.
Robert Colvile, who wrote the study, Politics, Policy and the Internet, says mainstream parties' websites suffer from a "failure of imagination".
"Although each of the major political parties has a solid online presence, none has really taken the internet by storm," he writes.
"Their websites remain a source of information rather than an online home for party members, activists and members of the public.
"This gap has been eagerly exploited."
But Robin Goad, of Hitwise, the online monitoring service which provided the figures, claims most visitors to the BNP site were "curious" rather than party supporters.
"Visits to a website are not the same as votes in an election," he added.
Reader views (18)
Can anyone tell me exactly what is Great about Britain anymore? Damned if I know...if the BNP are democratically elected, give them a chance. If they fail, democratically we can remove them!!!! But they may be able to make our country great again....goodness knows the other lot can't.
- Jeffrey For Common Sense, Leeds UK
I would like to add that i visit the website everyday and i can tell u the bnp report on matters that a lot of the times appear in the national media a few days later. i would also like to add that why are people visiting the website, why are the bnp growing, do you not think it is because the three main parties are not listening to the people. the face of britain is changing. we are not all racist or knuckledraggers, which is so easy for people to get on the bandwaggon and say, this is far beyond a black and white issue. this country is full, public services are at breaking point and we constantly get lied to by the labour goverment, i do not want to be run by europe, i do not want sharia law in this country, i dont want eastern europeans undercutting our wages, i dont want mosques in this country, i would like to see the human rights act ripped up etc, i want our culture values and laws to stay british and this country to be run by the british. if asylum seekers,illigals or immigrants dont like it then im afraid go somewhere else, but i bet they wont find many countries as tolerant as ours and this is why the bnp will get my vote, sometimes you have to protest to get ur point over, then one day the LibLabCon might actually listen instead of constantly lying to the people, examples a vote on europe, only 140000 eastern europeans will arrive on our shores, took us to war on a lie and the list goes on
- Mark, chelmsford
The BNP panders to the illiterate and the confused, they are the people that should be deported.
- Daveb, london
I don't think this site is being visited out of curiosity. I think the people of this country have had enough of ridiculous political correctness and a government that bends over backwards to help visitors and immigrants to our land, yet ignores the needs and opinions of the people who come from this beautiful country. I'm all for tolerance and welcoming others to our country, but not at the expense of my own faith, culture and beliefs.
- Kathy, London
I would not say they are far right, to say so you would have to then acknowledge that Labour are far left.
- Brandon Thomas, London UK
There would not even be a BNP if the main parties actually listened to people's concerns instead of spinning, twisting the truth and labelling anyone who is against a multicultural society, racist.
- L B, London
Who knew that BNP supporters could read?
- Andy Facist, Chigwell
If you visit any news forum you will see that naturally politics features highly.
I believe the reason for this high volume of 'readers' is because when someone points out on one of these forums that the BNP are the only party 'to take your interests seriously', it causes others to go to the site to see exactly what the BNP policies are.
The high volume of 'readers' on the BNP website does not reflect the nations thoughts, ideals or anything really. It merely suggests that others are defending their point of view by finding out about the policies of the BNP.
The only way to show the voice of the nation is through voting and I think we all know where the BNP stands on that count.
- Kim, london
Almost everyone I know visits it regularly - and believe me, it is not just out of curiosity - there is a huge groundswell amongst the 'forgotten middle Englanders'.
- Gary Parker, amersham
I visit the BNP website on a daily basis. It publishes stories which the main media outlets won't for reasons of political correctness.
The BBC has an unlawful built-in bias towards NuLabour and manages its news output to report what they want us to know, excluding those stories which they don't want us to know about.
I see the BNP's website as the equal and opposite reaction to that situation.
Obviously many others feel the same as me and that's why the BNP website gets 51% of the traffic visiting the main political parties' websites.
- Lickyalips, Richmond, Surrey.
Since that study the BNP has changed its website and it's really boring now.
- Marianne, Ilford, UK
It is not a failure of imagination it is actually because this is where very many people are turning with their politics.
The politicians are blind to what is happening in this country or worse choose to ignore it. There is a shift to the right as the idiots in charge move to the far left. Brezhnev Brown and his corrupt incompetent communist cronies are heading back to the 70s.
This socialist government with it's 'minority-centric-politically-correct-multi-everything' policies (and now nationalisation), has completely ignored the natives to this land. They will reap the results of that.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
When the establishment demonises anyone, and tries to silence alternative views - however unpalatable they might be to some - voters will automatically want to find out more. You have only to look at what happens when broadcasting authorities ban records from airplay...straight in at number one they go, in sales fuelled by people who might never have gone into a music shop in their lives before. People do not trust politicians of the old parties, by and large, and Labour has now been hit by the malaise that the Tories first caught in the 90s: so Labour voters will often sadly be attracted by the left wing policies of the BNP...remember it does describe itself as the Labour Party that your grandfather voted for, and includes left wing solutions to issues which would gladden the hearts of the far left...
- Damian Hockney Am, Mayoral candidate for One London Party, London Assembly
How does Robin Goad know they are only visitors who are curious? It could well be that many more people are sick and tired of the Westminster mob with their lies and deceit. Not only do mainstream parties suffer from a failure of imagination but their politics also reflect a failure of the imagination; except of course when it comes to filling their pockets with my hard earned cash, then their imaginations run riot. Whenever a politician knocks on my door they always say we will do this and that if we get elected, but why not do it now I ask, this is usually met with a blank stare or some lame excuse. The three main parties have had years to sort this country out and they have done nothing at all except look after themselves. I am well and truly sick of them.
- Stephen D., London England.
New Labour and their weak policies on crime, immigration and pandering to Islamic sensitivities are to blame for the rise in popularity of the BNP.
- Marc, Harrow, Uk
If you have extreme silliness in power, coming out with extremely silly ideas, it is not surprising that extreme, equal and opposite, ideas become attractive to newly enfranchised voters in a democracy. Such voters will always look for something new - that is the nature of the beast of democracy; the best that can be done by responsible adults and societies.
About the only good thing that comes from all of this is that people will see the Conservative Party as a right of centre, rather than an extreme right political party as it is made out to be by the opposition, the far more radical, in my opinion, socialists. They ARE a viable alternative despite their (less-than-their-opposite-numbers samples) few right of the Conservative Party, right of centre, idealists. (Think about it - how could the 'float' voters swing between the right and left in good conscience unless the two were closer than advertised?)
Dump the free-loaders! Maintain the balance. The time will come for the Conservatives to be reminded that they can't depend on unthinking support, just as it has come for the socialists now. Extremists like the BNP are nothing more than opportunists revelling in the opportunities presented to them by battered societies. People can still make responsible choices - but it is an active choice, rather than passive, that is required.
- Rogan, DFW Texas
I visit the website as its the only place I can find the truth behind the news.
- Mr R Smith, barnsley, england
Anyone surprised by this report probably has his head in the sand.
- Cuddly Duddly, Cuffley UK
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