Geert Wilders, Real Name No Gimmicks

http://i39.tinypic.com/21dpddu.jpg

Is this the guy whose radio interview I just switched off?

how wouldd i know?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/12/far-right-dutch-mp-ban-islam

Keith Vaz was on Newsnight just now, saying the government aren't closing down freedom of speech because 'you can get on a plane to Holland and debate him there'. This government is appalling.

first they came for the nazis...

weird thing in the bbc coverage is they always say he's far-right-wing and that he describes the koran as 'fascist'; idk if he does or not, but it makes him sound pretty inconsistent.

anyway it goes without saying that the man geert is not exactly taking the heat out of the issue of islamist militancy, but, you know, either ban all of the fanatics or none of them.

far-right guy calling people fascist is probably a routine political irony, though, like the flipside of the 'politics makes strange bedfellows' thing. also he's complaining about freedom of speech and wants the Koran banned, so yeah "inconsistent" seems a fair characterization.

Can we talk about his lovely hair?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2203/2256555773_04dbacc7be.jpg

Dick Banned in Dick Move

Keith Vaz was on Newsnight just now, saying the government aren't closing down freedom of speech because 'you can get on a plane to Holland and debate him there'. This government is appalling.

― Ismael Klata, Friday, February 13, 2009 12:13 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

holy fuck, just watched this.

what un unbelievable twat.

What do you expect when we have an overpromoted dinner lady pretending to be Home Secretary?

thanks to Britain this asshole is now the 2nd biggest party in the country. :( (how the hell is he going to "solve" an economic crisis? deporting muslims will help, surely...)

thanks to Britain this asshole is now the 2nd biggest party in the country.

Uh, excuse me? How does that work?

Keith Vaz truly is the worst man in British parliament.

thanks to Britain this asshole is now the 2nd biggest party in the country.

Uh, excuse me? How does that work?

― Vitbe Is Good Bread (Tom D.), dinsdag 17 februari 2009 10:20 (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

He skyrocketed in the polls after Britain kept him out. It only contributed to his much desired martyr-like status of being a 'crusador of the free word'. (ugh)

I wouldn't go as far as Ludo to say 'thanks to Britain' - it's the Dutch who'll vote for him, after all - but not being allowed in the country was exactly what he set out for.

it's the Dutch who'll vote for him, after all

That's what I was driving at

i was sarcastic/ironic whatever. let's just say it doesn't help..

thanks to Britain this asshole is now the 2nd biggest party in the country.

Uh, excuse me? How does that work?

Ludo stretches it a bit but there was so much presscoverage (dutch press, to be clear) in the Netherlands - half the plane was filled with journalists/photographers for fuck's sake. Only to see Wilders take two steps on British ground before being taken away by the Immigration Service.
And then they all report on how the dutch press followed Wilders en masse without actually having something to write about... The articles in the mainstream papers the next day were abominable.

Regardless of his ideas, the man's a master at playing the media here in the Netherlands. So much so that a lot of people adore him for it (it's not only that of course, I fear the main reason for his popularity is the whole all muslims are bad and must be deported schtick he keeps banging) - hence his popularity in the polls, yes, 2nd biggest at the moment...

xxxpost yeah what LBI said (can I call you G. here? LBI looks a bit quaint ;-))

i mean, the man is not a war criminal or Mugabe or something. surely hundreds of racist politicians have visited Britain in the past.

Hundreds of terrible politicians have done a lot more than *visit* Britain in the past.

Willem OTM about the media coverage about this circus.

(and please do call me G.! ;) )

not saying the ban is anything but indefensible, but quite enjoyed the home office spokesman inviting geert to appeal against the decision at an asylum immigration tribunal.

I'm pretty sure he'd win that appeal.

This government can't go soon enough. They're fucking things up very very badly, with no sign that they realise what they're doing. Things like this are turning the country into something like a football match with a weak referee, where the players spend all their time diving, appealing, protesting and escalating, and very little time trying to actually play the game. And all the while the crowd get more and more angry and aggrieved, because you can't choose your team and nobody listens unless you're partisan.

It depresses me that they still have more than a year to go, and worries me that the tories don't seem to have coalesced round a sensible alternative yet.

well they've only had 177 years.

Indeed, they've never managed to be sensible yet

Nothing to do with this thread - other than it's also about potentially-repressive legislation that will inevitably become actually-repressive legislation - but what's this photography ban all about?

Can we talk about his lovely hair?

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Thursday, February 12, 2009 11:53 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2011/6/21/201162113275926734_20.jpg
His hair is really gearing up for the forthcoming verdict.

Ugh

ya if you were dutch, a revive devoted to his hair would be every ounce as enervating as a finding a thread praising LOLBORIS DE LEGERND on a .nl site would be for us

a

You sir, know exactly how I feel...

He should have been sued for that hair, but he's been acquitted of that other thing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13883331

ya if you were dutch, a revive devoted to his hair would be every ounce as enervating as a finding a thread praising LOLBORIS DE LEGERND on a .nl site would be for us

― tipper gore (nakhchivan), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 8:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

I don't really understand this but I was just reviving it because the verdict was due.

Nakh means that for Dutch people it's been done to death, lolling about his hair, so a revive because of the hair would be as enervating as a revive on the Rolling British Politics thread about Boris Johnson's hairdo. But you didn't revive it for the hair reason, so it doesnt't apply.