British National Party
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The BNP took over from previous nationalist organisations and parties such as the National Front during the 1990s, and early BNP leaders did not deny their racist connections. The party's founder, John Tyndall, is known to have remarked that "''[[Adolf Hitler|Mein Kampf]]'' is my bible".<ref>"[http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/aug/24/uk.thefarright Expelled BNP founder plans court battle]", Jamie Doward, ''The Observer'', August 24 2003.</ref> After the current wonky-eyed Chairman and Fat [[Hitler]] impersonator, Nick Griffin (no relation to Peter Griffin of ''Family Guy''), replaced Tyndall in 1999 and Tyndall was expelled from the party, the BNP has attempted to change its image by using spin and political [[euphemism]]s. For example, the BNP denies that it is a [[white supremacy|white supremacist]] organisation, claiming instead that it represents the interests of "the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic which have been our homeland for millennia".<ref>BNP website: [http://www.bnp.org.uk/about-us/mission-statement/ Mission Statement].</ref> | The BNP took over from previous nationalist organisations and parties such as the National Front during the 1990s, and early BNP leaders did not deny their racist connections. The party's founder, John Tyndall, is known to have remarked that "''[[Adolf Hitler|Mein Kampf]]'' is my bible".<ref>"[http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/aug/24/uk.thefarright Expelled BNP founder plans court battle]", Jamie Doward, ''The Observer'', August 24 2003.</ref> After the current wonky-eyed Chairman and Fat [[Hitler]] impersonator, Nick Griffin (no relation to Peter Griffin of ''Family Guy''), replaced Tyndall in 1999 and Tyndall was expelled from the party, the BNP has attempted to change its image by using spin and political [[euphemism]]s. For example, the BNP denies that it is a [[white supremacy|white supremacist]] organisation, claiming instead that it represents the interests of "the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic which have been our homeland for millennia".<ref>BNP website: [http://www.bnp.org.uk/about-us/mission-statement/ Mission Statement].</ref> | ||
| − | Until recently, membership was open to white citizens only<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20070629010001/http://www.bnp.org.uk/resources/constitution_8ed.pdf Constitution of the British National Party], eigth edition, 2004, "Section 2: Membership".</ref> although a ruling in September 2009 found this policy to be in | + | Until recently, membership was open to white citizens only<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20070629010001/http://www.bnp.org.uk/resources/constitution_8ed.pdf Constitution of the British National Party], eigth edition, 2004, "Section 2: Membership".</ref> although a ruling in September 2009 found this policy to be in breach of the UK's Race Relations Act. Fighting such a ruling could cost the party enough money to prevent it running in an election (what a shame) or possibly bankrupting it (our hearts bleed, they really do). Eventually, unable to raise the funds to fight the hefty legal battle - which they'd have little chance of winning because, well, it's the ''law'' - they gave in and said that they would make "all reasonable endeavours" to change their constitution in order to accept non-white members.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8308582.stm BBC News - "BNP to consider non-white members"], 15 October 2009.</ref> In February 2010, members voted to abandon the whites-only rule.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8514736.stm BBC News - "BNP votes to ditch whites-only membership rule"], 14 February 2010.</ref> The rules were later ruled to still be discriminatory by a judge, who said, "I hold that the BNP are likely to commit unlawful acts of discrimination within section 1b Race Relations Act 1976 in the terms on which they are prepared to admit persons to membership under the 12th addition of their constitution." <ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8564742.stm, 12 March 2010.</ref> This remains a matter of legal compliance, and is unlikely to signify any change in the party's attitudes, policies and demographics. |
==Policies== | ==Policies== | ||
Revision as of 19:05, 25 April 2010
The British National Party (or BNP) is the token extreme-right nationalist and racist political party in the United Kingdom. Despite being ostracised and condemned by mainstream politics and the media, the BNP currently hold over 50 seats in local councils, largely in northern English cities such as Bradford, Burnley, Oldham and Leeds, which have a history of racial tensions between the white working class and Asian communities.
Contents |
Origins of the current BNP
The BNP took over from previous nationalist organisations and parties such as the National Front during the 1990s, and early BNP leaders did not deny their racist connections. The party's founder, John Tyndall, is known to have remarked that "Mein Kampf is my bible".[1] After the current wonky-eyed Chairman and Fat Hitler impersonator, Nick Griffin (no relation to Peter Griffin of Family Guy), replaced Tyndall in 1999 and Tyndall was expelled from the party, the BNP has attempted to change its image by using spin and political euphemisms. For example, the BNP denies that it is a white supremacist organisation, claiming instead that it represents the interests of "the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic which have been our homeland for millennia".[2]
Until recently, membership was open to white citizens only[3] although a ruling in September 2009 found this policy to be in breach of the UK's Race Relations Act. Fighting such a ruling could cost the party enough money to prevent it running in an election (what a shame) or possibly bankrupting it (our hearts bleed, they really do). Eventually, unable to raise the funds to fight the hefty legal battle - which they'd have little chance of winning because, well, it's the law - they gave in and said that they would make "all reasonable endeavours" to change their constitution in order to accept non-white members.[4] In February 2010, members voted to abandon the whites-only rule.[5] The rules were later ruled to still be discriminatory by a judge, who said, "I hold that the BNP are likely to commit unlawful acts of discrimination within section 1b Race Relations Act 1976 in the terms on which they are prepared to admit persons to membership under the 12th addition of their constitution." [6] This remains a matter of legal compliance, and is unlikely to signify any change in the party's attitudes, policies and demographics.
Policies
The British National Party advocates British withdrawal from the European Union, and, according to its constitution, "is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples." Hence the party is "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948."[7]
If enacted, this policy would involve deporting "back to their own country" not only recent immigrants, but all members of the sizeable Asian and West Indian communities that have grown in Britain over the past sixty years, notwithstanding that most of the current generation of these ethnic minorities have lived their entire lives in Britain.
In a statement of the party's policies and intentions, Griffin repeatedly emphasised that the party is "not racist", while describing Britain as a "fundamentally white nation", condemning miscegenation as unnatural, and reiterating that he considers non-caucasians, or white citizens who choose non-whites as sexual or marriage partners, are unsuitable for party membership. He stated that, once the BNP has removed the majority of immigrant groups from the country, "[t]hose non-Europeans who stay will have British passports and will be protected by our laws, but they will be regarded as permanent guests, and not as native English, Scots, Welsh or Irish, because such status springs from blood and not from printers’ ink."[8]
Antisemitism has also been a significant aspect of BNP ideology, and BNP leaders, including Nick Griffin, have made several statements of Holocaust denial. However, in recent years the party has decided that its major enemy is Islam. A BNP statement during 2006 asserted that "[t]he real enemies of the British people are home grown Anglo-Saxon Celtic liberal-leftists who seek to destroy the family as the building blocks of society and impose multiculturalism on a reluctant indigenous population and the Crescent Horde - the endless wave of Islamics who are flocking to our shores to bring our island nations into the embrace of their barbaric desert religion".[9]
The BNP's attempts to disguise its racialist roots and pose itself as a legitimate political force are not at all convincing, especially as many of its prominent members have past convictions for violent offences and hate crimes. Its attempts to sound the alarm about the supposed Islamic "threat to all of us" also comes off as hollow in the wake of this quote from Mr Griffin: "We bang on about Islam. Why? Because to the ordinary public out there it's the thing they can understand. It's the thing the newspaper editors sell newspapers with. If we were to attack some other ethnic group—some people say we should attack the Jews... But ... we've got to get to power. And if that was an issue we chose to bang on about when the press don't talk about it ... the public would just think we were barking mad. They'd just think oh, you're attacking Jews just because you want to attack Jews. You're attacking this group of powerful Zionists just because you want to take poor Manny Cohen the tailor and shove him in a gas chamber. That's what the public would think. It wouldn't get us anywhere other than stepping backwards. It would lock us in a little box; the public would think "extremist crank lunatics, nothing to do with me." And we wouldn't get power."[10]
Predictably, their law and order policies follow the "hang um and flog um" line. But they mean it literally. They would: "Re-introduce corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals and "Restore capital punishment for paedophiles, terrorists and murderers as an option for judges in cases where their guilt is proven beyond dispute".
Wikileaks
In November 2008, a list of the BNP's members was released on the internet.[11] The list included many people from all walks of life across the entire country, including a policeman and a priest. Many were down as members, others down as "activists" and several were labelled that they would like their membership made discreet due to professional concerns. The party leader Nick Giffin claims that the list was outright stolen, rather than misplaced, possibly in reference to multiple blunders by the UK government during 2008 where data was lost or misplaced by (incompetent) civil servants.
Andrew Schlafly's comments about the BNP
During a discussion of British politics at Conservapedia in March 2009, an editor mentioned the BNP, suggesting that their political stances are close to the American conservative position. After examining their website, Conservapedia owner Andrew Schlafly replied with the following:
“”The BNP might get my vote for its position alone on education: "We will end the practice of politically correct indoctrination." Of course, I expect knee-jerk liberals to claim there is something racist about that or about the BNP in general, but overuse of the racist label as a political tactic has gotten pretty tiresome for everyone on this side of the pond.[12]
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It is ironic that Schlafly declared the labelling of the BNP as racist to be a "knee-jerk", when his own judgement that they are not racist was obviously based on a mere cursory glance around their website, and no background reading. Other editors were quick to point out Schlafly's mistake and the BNP's racist agenda. However, Schlafly denied he had done anything wrong and rejected the claims of racism as liberal "race-baiting."
See also
External Links
- Stop the BNP
- BNP says some members are oddballs and liars
- Cassetteboy remix of Nick Griffin on Question Time
Footnotes
- ↑ "Expelled BNP founder plans court battle", Jamie Doward, The Observer, August 24 2003.
- ↑ BNP website: Mission Statement.
- ↑ Constitution of the British National Party, eigth edition, 2004, "Section 2: Membership".
- ↑ BBC News - "BNP to consider non-white members", 15 October 2009.
- ↑ BBC News - "BNP votes to ditch whites-only membership rule", 14 February 2010.
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8564742.stm, 12 March 2010.
- ↑ Constitution of the British National Party, "Section 1: Political Objectives".
- ↑ Nick Griffin, "The BNP: Anti-asylum protest, racist sect or power-winning movement?", 2004, at the BNP website.
- ↑ BNP website: News archive, 28th July 2006.
- ↑ BNPtv films Nick Griffin Speaking at Burnley Branch Meeting March 2006, 22 March 2006
- ↑ "Leaked list 'exposes BNP members'", BBC News, 19 November 2008.
- ↑ A screenshot of the full comment is preserved here. The full discussion can be found here.