The Angry Exile: Freedom of association under attack.

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Friday 4 September 2009

Freedom of association under attack.

I have very little time for or common ground with Nick Griffin or the BNP - I think they're wrong on immigration and free trade, which I support and they don't, and also on corporal and capital punishment, protectionism, re-nationalization of certain industries, which they want and I'm dead set against. I disagree with many of their policies on education, health, housing, the environment and several other issues* as well. So sitting here feeling a little bit of sympathy for them is not entirely comfortable, but once again the reasons for that sympathy is being manufactured by the witless fucktards of the equality establishment.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is taking the BNP to court over its constitution, which it says breaks the Race Relations Act.
The EHRC said it had not been informed of any move to change the party's constitution, which it argues is discriminatory.

Presumably the part of the BNP's constitution that the EHRC has got it's collective cock in a knot over is this bit from the membership section:

2) The indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of ‘Indigenous Caucasian’ consists of members of: i) the Anglo-Saxon folk community; ii) the Celtic Scottish folk community; iii) the Scots-Northern Irish folk community; iv) the Celtic Welsh folk community; v) the Celtic Irish folk community; vi) the Celtic Cornish folk community; vii) the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic folk community; viii) the Celtic-Norse folk community; ix) the Anglo-Saxon-Norse folk community; x) the Anglo-Saxon Indigenous European folk community; xi) members of these ethnic groups which reside either within or outside Europe but ethnically derive from them.
3) Membership of the party shall be open only to those who are 16 years of age or over and whose ethnic origin is listed within sub-section 2.

Okay, I assume that all this talk of folk communities doesn't mean that the BNP is restricting membership to hemp wearing people with fiddles, banjos and guitars singing songs about basket weaving, and does in fact mean that the BNP are indeed the kind of racially exclusive shit munching bastards they're usually painted as. But while I may despise them for being unreasonably choosy over membership why shouldn't they be when it's their party? There are any number of organizations which exclude various groups for whatever reason and generally nobody gives a fuck about it because it doesn't really matter. I imagine I wouldn't be allowed to join an electricians' union because I'm not an electrician, and not too incredibly my life feels no more or less complete for it. Ah, you might say, but I could retrain and become an electrician, couldn't I? Well, yes, but I am also excluded from membership of the Lyceum Club and not a few other organizations because I'm short of a vagina and once again it's a matter of supreme indifference to me, as it should be for any other man. Christ, if excluding half the population from the Lyceum for having a Y chromosome is good enough for Madam Governor General of Australia, a former discrimination commissioner incidentally, then why should we men worry about it? And fair enough, the GG is excluded from the men only membership Melbourne Club next door to the Lyceum for similar reasons, despite the membership of the Melbourne Club traditionally going along with the post of Governor General. Somehow I can't imagine the GG sobbing into her pillow over it. I'd be astonished if there aren't similar clubs, both male only and female only, in the UK as well, and that's before we consider the Girl Guides, the Boys' Brigade, the WI and any number of sports that are split along gender lines (albeit in the interests of fair competition rather than exclusivity or discrimination). So why get all bent out of shape and take legal action because a bunch of xenophobic twats want to make their little organization ~~white only~~, I mean open only to the Anglo-Saxon folk community, the Celtic Scottish folk community, the Scots-Northern Irish folk community, etc etc?

I think the big difference is that the various organizations that exclude along gender lines, and perhaps also a few who may also do so ethnically, there is no ill will harboured towards those who aren't able to apply to be members. Sure, the Melbourne Club and other men only clubs may well have a number of misogynistic old farts who want to keep the men only environment to preserve their personal haven away from the fairer sex, and equally there are probably a few misandrists who hold men beneath contempt lurking among the ladies' clubs, but I very much doubt the clubs themselves hold either view as official these days. That's quite a bit different from an organization which is not only political but excludes along lines of ethnicity because it is...

... pledged to the restoration of the unity and integrity of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [and] believes that the indigenous peoples of the entire British Isles, and their descendants overseas, form a single brotherhood of peoples, and is pledged therefore to adapt or create political, cultural, economic and military institutions with the aim of fostering the closest possible partnership between these peoples [and] stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples [and] is therefore committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white make up of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948.

Again, straight from their own constitution, and I don't like even reading it. I think it's stupid and offensive, but there's no law against stupidity and no enshrined right that nothing will ever cause offence. To paraphrase what's usually attributed to Voltaire, I may disagree with what they say there and even despise the cunts for believing it but I defend their right to hold and articulate their views, even if they do offend me. And if I believe they have the right to speak their views freely then it's no great leap to say that they also have the right to grant membership in accordance with their views. Is this supporting the BNP? No, because I'm not supporting them specifically but the principle of people being free to associate as they choose, and if we deny it to one group for a good reason, such as being a bunch of xenophobic twats, then it's only a matter of time before some government cunt tries to deny it to others for a bad reason, such as being a unionist or a member of an opposition party or part of a protest against the kind of government that denies natural liberties to its citizens. The BNP may be arseholes that I'd cross the street to avoid but on this, bitterly and with loathing, I stand with them. The EHRC should be told to go fuck themselves, partly for their illiberal attitudes and partly because I'd quite like to be able to go back to disliking the BNP as soon as possible, please.

And there's a final thought I want to share. If you're a business owner then wouldn't you see a racist competitor as a good thing? When hiring you get to choose from all the potential talent while the cockwad across town asks for photos to be attached to CVs and chucks any that came from people who are the wrong colour, and while he restricts his profits by his shitty treatment of certain people, maybe even shutting the door on them, you benefit from seeing only the colour of money when those same people come to your door instead. Fuck, I wish we were competing with a racist tool who'd drive customers to us for free, but then there'd probably be someone like the EHRC forcing him grudgingly to fake a smile and accept the money of those he hates. Nice job, you total fuckwits.

* Do I disagree with them on everything? Well, no. There are some things they propose that I'd agree with, but since there are also a few details on which I agree with the LibDems and the Tories, fuck, even the fucking Labour Party, thinking the BNP are right on a few points does not make me a BNP supporter. I just want to make that crystal clear. The fact is their policies contain enough deal breakers for me that if you put a gun to my head and told me to choose between Gordon Clown and NuLabour running the country or Nick Griffin and the BNP then I'd go for the monocular mentalist every time - the Scottish one that is. Of course, in time I might come to regret not taking the bullet instead.