Babes of the BNP revisited - courtesy of Viceland.com

http://www.viceland.com/wp/2009/07/babes-of-the-bnp-revisited/

This month’s “Babes of the BNP” blog exploded the internet, sending a shower of bits, bytes and unpleasant debate raining through our office like an uncapped oil well. Some felt that the she-wolves of the far right didn’t get a fair hearing last time out. So, in the interests of political correctness (gone mad?), we invited Rebecca Edwards back to offer her fragrant wit and wisdom on the flipside of fame. It’s like Jordan vs. Piers Morgan all over again.

Vice: So you’ve seen the blog, right?
Rebecca Edwards: Yeah, I was so upset that night. Really, I was crying. People were really mean to me. I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in foreigners coming here and taking over our country.

Weren’t you expecting a very negative reaction?
No. I thought that people would respect someone who’s standing up for what they believe in.

What do you say to people who’ve called you thick?
I’m not. At least I’m prepared to stand up for what I believe in. There were people on there who were calling me ugly. Well, it’s not like I was going around telling everyone I was a full-time model. I’d just done those modelling shots part-time.

Eddie, your husband, wrote something under the blog about Enoch Powell.
Yeah. Eddie was looking him up that night, telling me about him and what a hero he was. What were you saying about him, Eddie?

[Eddie can be heard coaching Rebecca.]

He was a politician… in the 1960s… who offered each immigrant £20 to go home. Obviously that was a long time ago. It’d be more in today’s money.

How much do you think we should pay nowadays?
Nothing.

£20,000? I’d up sticks for that.
No, nothing. Nothing at all. They should just go back if they’re not meant to be here in the first place.

Don’t you think maybe we could keep the Indians on to do the corner shops, where they already have enormous expertise?
No.

Don’t you think it would make it much harder to get 20 Benson &Hedges and a copy of Nuts if they weren’t here?
Well, all I know is that English people should have those jobs ‘cos there’s plenty out of work right now.

Has anyone from BNP HQ been in touch?
They haven’t, actually.



You should do some modelling for them. Are they doing a calendar or suchlike?
I know. I want to join.

So you’re not already a fully paid-up member?
I’ve been having a look on their website. It’s a really good website, actually. They have some really interesting articles on there. We’re going to, but I think it’s about £35 a month to join. Is that right, Eddie?

[Eddie sounds unsure.]

If you needed a liver transplant, would you be willing to have a black liver transplanted into your body?
No.

What about a black spleen?
Actually, it’s probably all the same, isn’t it?

What about a black brain?
What do you mean?

Well, would you be able to love an adopted black baby?
This is gonna sound really racist, but probably not.

What if it arrived pre-trained to know your name and various other useful facts about you?
No.

OK, here’s a philosophical dilemma. A terrorist is holding a plane hostage. There are three hundred people on there. But they’re all old, like about sixty; which isn’t to say they don’t have a fair bit of life left in them. Now, the terrorist informs you that you either shoot the baby and 300 people can live or 300 people must die but the baby can live. Which do you choose?
I’d probably choose the baby because it’s got its whole life to live.

Yeah, but technically you’ve rubbed out 6000 years to save maybe 80.
No, I’d still choose the baby.

The baby is black.
Still the baby.

The baby is half-Asian.
Still the baby.

The baby is half-reptilian.
What do you mean?

So you haven’t changed your mind about moving to Lanzarote?
Yeah, I can’t wait to get out of this country.

GAVIN HAYNES

Fashion in Politics interview on Viceland.com

http://www.viceland.com/fashion/2009/05/some-people-really-want-to-be-judged-on-appearances/#more-3332

Whatever people claim, when it comes down to it, fashion is all about making people like you. Even if your personality smells like a glove compartment full of arseholes, you’re only one sexy pair of jeans away from popularity and power. Everybody says they hate politicians, but in reality most politicians are actually pretty good at getting people to like them – so much so that they get to control the world. Obviously, then, they use fashion to help their dominance. David Hellqvist links the two on his blog, Fashion In Politics.


Why it took so long for some blogger to link the two is anyone’s guess. Hellqvist’s blog uses all that crap we know about fashion to try and decode the inner-mind of all those people with egos so big they want to rule us — otherwise known as politicians.

Vice: Being interested in fashion and politics is pretty unusual. Most fashion people are pretty scared of politics, right?
David Hellqvist: Yeah, that’s because traditionally fashion designers aren’t meant to interfere in politics. The thing is, most politicians don’t understand what a powerful way of communicating fashion is, except the despots and dictators, of course.

Can fashion ever really be political?
A lot of the time fashion is square and predictable, but sometimes it’s anarchic and rebellious, which are political things. It’s easy to print slogans on t-shirts like Vivienne Westwood does, but that’s boring. The political standpoint should be made by the wearer, not the designer. For example, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wears a beige windbreaker and a white shirt to try and make out he’s one of the people, while Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is a master at showing off his socialistic convictions by wearing a red beret or a red lambs wool pullover .

Why did you set up the blog?
People say they find politics boring but they do care about who the people leading them are. Fashion is a big part of that cult of personality and celebrity. So I wanted a blog where I could write about all of that.

Do you wish you were a politics writer?
No, a politician! I’d style myself on Fidel Castro or Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet, but not in terms of politics, obviously. I would rock the Fidel look with some khaki combats on my days off and wear a Pinochet-esque black cape from YSL for state openings. Throw in a pair of Cutler & Gross sunnies and I’m all set to go.

Who are the most stylish people in politics?
The evil politicians always outdo the good ones when it comes to style. People like the Ugandan leader (and rumoured cannibal) Idi Amin. Or Jean Bedel Bokassa, the ruler of the Central African Republic in the 60s, who spent a third of his country’s budget on his crowning ceremony and declared himself Jesus’ 13th apostle, or Zaire’s leopard-print loving leader Mobuto Sese Seko. But it’s not just dead despots who make snappy dressers. Muammar Al-Gaddafi is always matching his hats and dresses and North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, with his comedy hair, platform shoes and amazing over-sized sunglasses. Sometimes he even turns out in just his bathrobe — that’s a dictator with sartorial attitude.

DARYOUSH HAJ-NAJAFI

Yulia Tymoschenko, the PMilf of Ukraine, on VICELAND.COM

Let’s call out everybody on the Michelle Obama is a fashion icon bullshit – she looks like a hobo compared to Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko: the Princess Leia of Ukraine, the Slavic Joan of Arc, the PMilf, or, as Russia’s Ukraine-hating tabloids call her, the “cake with ears”. She’s currently battling Ukraine’s top dog, President Viktor Yushchenko in the run up to the country’s presidential election.

But who cares about him? He’s only famous for his face (which was deformed when the Russians poisoned him) and maybe for leading the Orange revolution in 2004. No biggie. Expect her to win because not only does she look like Hitler’s dream date but she’s fierce as hell; during the revolution she was seen on TV smashing prison windows. Weirdly, her daughter’s boyfriend is from Leeds and is the singer in heavy metal band the Death Valley Screamers. Rock on, Yulia.

DAVID HELLQVIST