The song was inspired by the BNP's Tower Hamlet's election victory, as kmk_natasha explains, and it's chock full of historical references about fascism.
"It Can't Happen Here" is Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel, which was written as a warning to complacent Americans that fascism wasn't just Europe's problem. The point of the book is the same as the point of this song: that it can happen anywhere if people are apathetic to the danger of the right.
The second verse is about neo-Nazi skinhead gangs. The BNP had supposedly cut all ties with neo-Nazis, but the volunteers handing out their pamphlets in the day were the same people throwing petrol bombs through Pakistanis' windows at night.
"When they come to ethnically cleanse me" is a reference to Martin Niemöller's 1946 speech criticizing anti-Nazi German intellectuals—including himself—for not standing up. It's more familiar in the poetic translation you find on the wall at the Holocaust Museum. Niemöller (a conservative theologian) did nothing to defend the handicapped, the communists, the socialists, and the Jews, so there was nobody left to defend him when they came to purge the Lutheran churches and put him in Dachau.
Of course "ethnically cleanse" was the Serbs' euphemism for their attempted genocide of the Bosnians. At first everyone was angry with them for trying to dodge responsibility, but soon world leaders like Clinton and Major were using it. Which meant anyone who ever wanted to commit genocide in the future (including the Croats and Bosnians in the same way) could get away with claiming they weren't committing genocide, only ethnic cleansing.
I can't remember what "through a glass eye" is a reference to, but it's definitely something. V for Vendetta? Repent, Harlequin?
"Politics of Hate" was the 1968 front-page editorial in the Times calling for the Tories to expel Enoch Powell for his "Rivers of Blood" speech, the speech that basically created the far-right wing of the Tory party overnight (although they'd have to wait a few decades for Boris Johnson).
"Freedom of expression doesn't make it alright" refers to the BNP's claim that their real issue was freedom of expression, not racism. The BBC asked a BNP candidate not to use words like "Paki" and "darky" on air; when he refused, they didn't put him on broadcast, and the BNP cried censorship, which ended up giving them much more, and better, press than a blatant racist on telly speaking for them ever would have.
The song was inspired by the BNP's Tower Hamlet's election victory, as kmk_natasha explains, and it's chock full of historical references about fascism.
"It Can't Happen Here" is Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel, which was written as a warning to complacent Americans that fascism wasn't just Europe's problem. The point of the book is the same as the point of this song: that it can happen anywhere if people are apathetic to the danger of the right.
The second verse is about neo-Nazi skinhead gangs. The BNP had supposedly cut all ties with neo-Nazis, but the volunteers handing out their pamphlets in the day were the same people throwing petrol bombs through Pakistanis' windows at night.
"When they come to ethnically cleanse me" is a reference to Martin Niemöller's 1946 speech criticizing anti-Nazi German intellectuals—including himself—for not standing up. It's more familiar in the poetic translation you find on the wall at the Holocaust Museum. Niemöller (a conservative theologian) did nothing to defend the handicapped, the communists, the socialists, and the Jews, so there was nobody left to defend him when they came to purge the Lutheran churches and put him in Dachau.
Of course "ethnically cleanse" was the Serbs' euphemism for their attempted genocide of the Bosnians. At first everyone was angry with them for trying to dodge responsibility, but soon world leaders like Clinton and Major were using it. Which meant anyone who ever wanted to commit genocide in the future (including the Croats and Bosnians in the same way) could get away with claiming they weren't committing genocide, only ethnic cleansing.
I can't remember what "through a glass eye" is a reference to, but it's definitely something. V for Vendetta? Repent, Harlequin?
"Politics of Hate" was the 1968 front-page editorial in the Times calling for the Tories to expel Enoch Powell for his "Rivers of Blood" speech, the speech that basically created the far-right wing of the Tory party overnight (although they'd have to wait a few decades for Boris Johnson).
"Freedom of expression doesn't make it alright" refers to the BNP's claim that their real issue was freedom of expression, not racism. The BBC asked a BNP candidate not to use words like "Paki" and "darky" on air; when he refused, they didn't put him on broadcast, and the BNP cried censorship, which ended up giving them much more, and better, press than a blatant racist on telly speaking for them ever would have.