Laura Miller – Brunel University

1. Laura Miller – Brunel University New media: the BNPs unholy alliance

2. Co-option of Rights Discourses • Part of new self-presentation • Alignment with broader consensus • Victimhood as warrant

3. The role of blogging • Permission to personalise • Creation of ideological community through structure of blogosphere • New form of ‘public sphere’

4. Character and Performance • Self-knowing presentation of identity and selfhood • Contrast with Otherness • Alignment with cultural values of virtue

5. Uses of Humour Having been a university boxer many years ago, I can tell you that the boxing analogy is actually rather accurate. There's the same pre-match nerves, that sinking feeling in your stomach and the voice in your head that asks "why the hell did I get myself into this position?" Your stomach suggests a visit to the toilet in the back of the cell at the side of the dock (the security guards discretely slip back into the dock itself under such circumstances, giving one more privacy than the half height screen that serves as a toilet door). The only thing I can tell you is that this part of the process is very much harder when wearing boxing gloves!

6. Establishment of Authority Having been in a far more public ring with the likes of Jeremy Paxman, James Naughtie, Sue McGregor, Jeremy Vine, Peter Allen, Jeremy Bowen, Angela Rippon (who really does have lovely legs, by the way), various pretty Sky News blondes, and the near psychotic Tim Sebastian, my bout with Mr Jameson soon settled down into a fairly painless routine: Question jabs out, answer blocks or slips it, "thank you for that, Mr. Griffin" (delivered in a tone which says "gotcha", but I quickly realise that's the same empty bravado as when an opponent in the ring grins when you've just landed a punch that really hurt), then move on to another question.

7. Evaluation of Performance This is the greatest show on earth. Watching Nick debate with this over paid little man is wonderful, for all his money and the many many times he has stood in court he simply can't get a grip of Nick whatsoever. Nick sounds cool and calm throughout, barely phased by the constant barrage of questioning. Jameson even spots that Nick can see what questions he is going to ask next, he is being outclassed. Nick points out that Jameson has had to trawl very carefully though these speeches to find sentences and phrases to couple together to try to prove points.

8. Evaluation of the Other The same is true of the lying parasites behind me in the press section of the public gallery, who in their reports of the day later predictably make no mention at all of my evidence about their own failings or my reasons for concluding that Islam is a menace. People like Hamza and the smoother fundamentalists of the Muslim council of Britain I respect - they believe they have a higher mission and they work to carry it out - but for these upper class or media luvvie vermin, who have sold their own people out for money and a career, I have nothing but hatred.

9. Vindication of Self TV crews and still photographers surge forwards, and I shake hands with 'St. George' (many thanks, Derek) amid a sea of flashlights and a media scrum. One of our Event Stewards (clearly visible in smart high-viz tabards) hands me a hand-held megaphone and I address the crowd briefly. I thank them for coming and point out the clear contrast between them and the hate-filled workshy rabble across the street. I go on to say that the prosecution now cannot win: "Either we walk free, and millions of people will hold their heads a little higher and feel a little more free to speak their minds, or we are jailed, and millions of people will be utterly disgusted by the fact that we are sent to prison simply for telling the truth."

10. Conclusion • Reproduction of contentious arguments (generally hinted at in publications) warranted by trial and blog. • Formulation of unholy alliances between groups. • Harnessing the ‘urgency’ of the blogosphere