"A very, very sad day for British democracy"

You are unlikely to guess correctly where the title of this post has come from. It does not refer to the 35% turnout in last week's European elections. Nor is it a quote from a reader of Vogue upon hearing that Gordon Brown had been voted 12th sexiest man in British politics. It isn't even about the BNP winning two seats in the European Parliament (which in fact could turn out to be a Good Thing, as Gideon Rachman showed yesterday).

No this quote comes from Nick Griffin, leader of the "odious" BNP (for some reason journalists seem to feel the need to always insert such adjectives before actually naming said party) after he was pelted with eggs yesterday outside the UK Houses of Parliament whilst trying to give a victory speech. See the disappointingly brief video of the egg pelting here. And Griffin's response on BBC here claiming that a "Labour Party sympathiser", "funded by British taxpayers' money" had "tipped them off" certainly enhanced his credibility and silenced his critics who claim he is a conspiracy theorist preying on baseless popular prejudice and dividing British society to win easy votes. "A very sad day for British democracy" Griffin concluded.

Well yes, it was. The last time the United Kingdom was threatened with fascism, it mustered over 1,000 aircraft, many more brave young men, an at that time state of the art air defence system, and a national resolve never seen before or since, and slugged it out with the German Luftwaffe over the skies of Britain's industrial cities. Now we get 50 students who can't even chant the same words, some hastily-made paper signs (good job it wasn't raining) and a few (no doubt free range) eggs, most of which hit the Sky News cameraman.

Is this the arsenal of democracy in 2009? Or have most people realised (whisper it quietly) that if you ignore Griffin and his army of failed Rugby League players from Warrington they will just go away? Imagine for a moment him standing there jabbering away about racial purity surrounded by an unnecessary amount of bodyguards whilst shoppers drifted by carrying on their conversations about where to get the best bargains and a lone tramp looked on from across the road swigging his special brew. Wouldn't that have been a better response?