Throw Them A Life Raft

Yesterday, Brian Kilmeade walked down a rhetorical blind alley and found himself arguing in favor of "ethnically pure" societies. It's painful to watch. And yes, the likes of Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs call America home. But in fairness, we don't have all the racists. My favorite part of this is the backtrack ("Hey, I didn't say kill them!"):

Boats carrying illegal migrants to Europe should be sunk, Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, said yesterday.

In a provocative intervention, Griffin, elected to the European parliament last month, called on the EU to introduce "very tough" measures to prevent illegal migrants entering Europe from Africa.

"If there's measures to set up some kind of force or to help, say the Italians, set up a force which actually blocks the Mediterranean then we'd support that," Griffin told BBC Parliament's The Record Europe.

"But the only measure, sooner or later, which is going to stop immigration and stop large numbers of sub-Saharan Africans dying on the way to get over here is to get very tough with those coming over. Frankly, they need to sink several of those boats. Anyone coming up with measures like that, we'll support, but anything which is there as a 'oh, we need to do something about it' but in the end doing something about it means bringing them into Europe we will oppose."

Shirin Wheeler, the programme's presenter, interrupted him to say the EU did not murder people. "I didn't say anyone should be murdered at sea – I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya," Griffin said. "But Europe has, sooner or later, to close its borders or it's simply going to be swamped by the third world."

Maybe Britons should pay more attention to those European Parliament elections, ay? Do us all a favor.