British National Party

British National Party
Leader	Nick Griffin
Founded	1982
Headquarters
Ideology	Radical Right-Wing Nationalism/Populism
European affiliation	none
International affiliation	Various bilateral ties, see "affiliates" section
European Parliament group	n/a
Colours	Red, White and Blue
Website
www.bnp.org.uk

The British National Party (BNP) is the largest political party of the far right in the United Kingdom. Unlike some of its European analogues, it has no presence in the national Parliament, and a small number of councillors in local government; supporters claim that this is partially because the UK's first-past-the-post system makes it harder for small parties to achieve electoral success than the proportional representation systems used in most of Europe. According to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission for the year 2004, it had a membership of 7,916, and income and expenditure of around £730,000. [1]

History

Founding of modern BNP

The modern BNP has its roots in the New National Front, founded in 1980 by the late John Tyndall, a former chairman of the National Front (NF) and veteran National Socialist ideologue. Tyndall was a member of the previous (1960s) BNP, which itself was one of the organizations that eventually became the NF. Tyndall resigned from the NF in January 1980 after failing to oust its National Organiser, Martin Webster.

In 1982, the New National Front and a faction of the then-disintegrating British Movement led by Searchlight magazine informant Ray Hill merged to form the new British National Party. Tyndall was elected leader and Hill became his deputy. The launch was announced in a press conference in the spring, and on April 24, the party had its inaugural march in London. (Hill 1988)

Griffin assumes leadership

In 1995, Nick Griffin joined the BNP. Griffin was previously a member of the NF Directorate under Tyndall who remained after Tyndall's resignation. In December 1983, Griffin and his colleague Joe Pearce succeeded where Tyndall had failed and successfully removed Webster from the NF leadership. Griffin continued in the NF through its subsequent schism, eventually leaving in 1989. (See articles on Griffin and the National Front for more detail.)

In 1998, Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to incitement to racial hatred. He received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was fined £2,300.

In 1999, Griffin replaced Tyndall after a leadership election. Tyndall went on to run several articles in his magazine Spearhead (which Griffin had previously edited) that were highly critical of the Griffin leadership. He was expelled from the BNP in August 2003.[2] He continued to publish articles in Spearhead attacking Griffin and disputing the BNP's account of his expulsion, for example Tyndall (2003). He was readmitted to the party in December 2003 after an out-of-court settlement with Griffin, announced his intention of challenging Griffin for the leadership in July 2004, and was expelled again in December of the same year.[3] Tyndall died on July 18, 2005.

2004 BBC documentary

File:BNP Sun headline.jpg

In The Secret Agent, a BBC documentary broadcast on July 15, 2004, filmmaker Jason Gwynne went undercover and joined the BNP for six months. His secret filming recorded party leader Nick Griffin calling Islam a "wicked, vicious faith"; party member Steve Barkham confessing to assaulting an Asian man in the 2001 Bradford Riots; party member Stewart Williams stating that he wanted to "blow up" Bradford's mosques with a rocket launcher; and council candidate Dave Midgley confessing to pushing dog faeces through the letterbox of an Asian takeaway.

In his speech, Griffin stated that "For saying that, I tell you, I will get seven years if I said that outside", apparently referring to the maximum sentence for the criminal offence of incitement to racial hatred.

The day after the documentary was broadcast, Barclays Bank froze the BNP's bank accounts.[4]

The BNP's response to the programme claimed it had featured "the loudest and most hot-headed BNP activists [who] were deliberately plied with drink and subject to suggestive provocation." In the wake of the documentary the party expelled Barkham and Midgley (but not Williams, who had technically committed no crime). Griffin did not apologise for his own comments, stating that "it's still not illegal to criticise Islam". He and BNP member Mark Collett were subsequently prosecuted for incitement to racial hatred (see below).

The BNP alledge that Midgley was working with Jason Gwynne and Andy Sykes (who was running the Bradford branch and invited Gwynne to secretly record events and who put him up for election after the comments were recorded). They say they have proved comments were false and no take-away was attacked and that said take-away was forced to close due to these comments on camera. (Identity Magazine - P12 - November 2004)

2005 Griffin/Collett prosecutions

On July 21, 2005, Griffin and BNP activist Mark Collett pleaded not guilty at Leeds Crown Court to four and eight charges respectively of incitement to racial hatred. The charges resulted from the BBC documentary The Secret Agent (see above). John Tyndall was also due to appear in court but had died three days earlier.

On February 2, 2006, Griffin and Collett were each acquitted of half of the charges against them. The jury could not decide on the others and the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed a retrial the same night.[5]

Other incidents

On April 25, 2004, Griffin appeared at a joint press conference with Front National leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, sparking protests.[6]

On 11 September 2005, sixty thousand copies of BNP newspaper, The Voice of Freedom (Vof), were confiscated at Dover by British police (Special Branch) on the orders of the Crown Prosecution Service. The next day, the police handed back the seized VoF papers after the BNP sent a legal letter, delivered by a barrister acting on the BNP's behalf, which warned that they would press for “serious and maximum damages” against Kent Constabulary for the loss of earnings from the newspaper with a further threat to take the Force to the European Court of Human Rights.

In the wake of the 7 July London bombings, the BNP released leaflets featuring images of the bombed Route 30 bus and the slogan "Maybe now it's time to start listening to the BNP". They were accused [7] of using the leaflet to stir up racial hatred. The leaflet can be viewed here.

After the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, the BNP republished one of the cartoons of Muhammad on a leaflet, accompanied by a photo of muslim demonstrators holding placards bearing murderous slogans and a "Which do you find offensive?" caption [8].

Policies, and position on the political spectrum

The BNP is generally not regarded as economically right-wing, i.e., as having a strong belief in laissez-faire economics. Rather, the description of them as 'far-right' relates to their allegedly extreme social views, obviously particularly in relation to race (see for example [9]).

Since Griffin took over its leadership, the BNP has tried to moderate its public image in line with the "Euronationalist" approach adopted by a number of far-right European counterparts such as the Austrian Freedom Party. This is a pattern of emphasis and presentation of policies that is often cited as a factor in such parties' increased electoral successes of the 1990s and, arguably much more, the 2000s.

For example, under Tyndall's leadership, the party campaigned for the compulsory repatriation of all ethnic minorities. Instead, it now advocates "voluntary repatriation" encouraged by government grants. Likewise, the BNP's historical commitment to re-criminalising homosexuality seems to have disappeared from its 2005 manifesto, but it opposed the introduction of civil partnerships in the United Kingdom.[10]

According to the BNP's website, the party's policies include:

• The ending of immigration to the UK
• "Firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home" [11]
• The "removal" of all illegal immigrants [12]
• The repeal of all equality legislation, regarded as positive discrimination/reverse discrimination.
• Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the pursuit of protectionist economic measures.
• Encouraging greater share-ownership and worker co-operatives.
• Funding public spending increases and tax cuts by cutting foreign aid.
• The introduction of corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals, and the introduction of capital punishment for paedophiles and terrorists and its reintroduction for murderers.
• The reintroduction of national service and the requirement of people completing national service to maintain a standard issue automatic rifle in their home.
• A mandatory jail term for anyone assaulting an NHS worker.

Other policies include the promotion of organic farming, funding to allow one parent in every family to stay home and raise children not yet of school age, and increasing defence spending.

Alleged racism

The British National Party advocates racial segregation, a type of racist discrimination. [13] [14]

Racist history of party and claims of repudiating racism

In October 1990, the BNP was described by the European Parliament's committee on racism and xenophobia as an "openly Nazi party... whose leadership have serious criminal convictions". When asked in 1993 if the BNP was racist, its deputy leader Richard Edmonds said, "We are 100 per cent racist, yes".

The BNP's original leader, John Tyndall, had proclaimed in 1968 that "Mein Kampf is my Bible." Under his leadership, the BNP was strongly supportive of the South African Apartheid system.

When Nick Griffin eventually became Chairman in 1999, the party began to water down their public statements about racial issues. Griffin claims to have repudiated racism, instead espousing something he calls "ethno-nationalism". He claims that his core ideology is "concern for the well-being of the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish ethnic nations that compose the United Kingdom".

The party now claims to oppose any unfair discrimination on the grounds of race and to disavow any interest in white supremacy, which it defines as the "wish to rule over foreign peoples". Nevertheless, its constitution states that all members must be of "British or closely kindred native European stock." The BNP is opposed to mixed-race relationships on the stated ground that ethnic differences must be preserved; it argues that when a white person produces a mixed-race child, "a white family line that stretches back into deep pre-history is destroyed".

Nick Griffin has stated his views on race as follows:

"... while the BNP is not racist, it must not become multi-racist either. Our fundamental determination to secure a future for white children is restated, and an area of uncertainty is addressed and a position which is both principled and politically realistic is firmly established. We don't hate anyone, especially the mixed race children who are the most tragic victims of enforced multi-racism, but that does not mean that we accept miscegenation as moral or normal. We do not and we never will." [15]

Griffin's use of the phrase "secure a future for white children" seems to allude to the white-nationalist "Fourteen Words".

Anti-Semitism

The BNP denies that it is anti-Semitic and points out that the party has Jewish members, and one of its councillors, Pat Richardson, is herself Jewish. The party's website states that racially British or European Jews may join the party.

Nevertheless, the party and its leadership have a documented history of anti-Semitic speech and activity, including Holocaust denial:

• In the early 1990s, the BNP regularly and openly published the journal Holocaust News; a newspaper whose sole purpose was to deny the Holocaust.[16]

• BNP leader Nick Griffin has repeatedly denied the Holocaust. He has also alleged that a Jewish cabal controls the British media. (See entry on Griffin for more detail.)

• The 2002 Channel 4 documentary, "Young, Nazi and Proud", featured secret filming of BNP youth leader Mark Collett claiming his admiration for Adolf Hitler, and stating "I'd never say this on camera, the Jews have been thrown out of every country including England. It's not just persecution. There's no smoke without fire." It also featured footage of visitors to the party's annual "Red White and Blue" festival, some of whom wore SS symbols and the legend "88" (code for HH; Heil Hitler), others simply had straightforward swastika tattoos. [17] Collett resigned from the party after the documentary's filming, but rejoined shortly afterwards, with the approval of Nick Griffin on the condition that Mark Collett change his views on the subject, or at least, to never let them influence his involvement with the Party again.

BNP claims of "anti-white racism"

A recurrent theme of the BNP's current campaigning is its accusation that the mainstream media and police devote less attention to racially motivated violence when the victims are white. The party has frequently cited the cases of Gavin Hopley of Lancashire and Kriss Donald of Glasgow, two young white men whose murderers were Asian, and whose murders the BNP maintains were hate crimes.

The BNP conducted a demonstration outside the offices of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to highlight what it regarded as biased coverage of the Hopley case. The police and the NUJ have rejected the BNP's criticism, pointing out that ten men were arrested within a week of Hopley's murder, and 48 articles were written on the subject by NUJ members. Hopley's family have also distanced themselves from the BNP.[18]

Christmas party incident

In December 2004, the British tabloid the Daily Mirror reported that a BNP member had hired a black DJ by telephone for the BNP Christmas party without knowing that he was black. The Mirror claimed that some members walked out, which the BNP denied.

Alleged fascism

Alleged fascist nature of party

Although the BNP strongly disputes that its policies or members espouse neo-Nazism, some opponents of the party, as well as journalists in two newspapers, the right wing tabloid Daily Express and the left wing broadsheet The Guardian, have claimed often that the BNP is not only racist but also an explicitly fascist or neo-Nazi organization.

The former leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard has called the BNP 'a bunch of thugs dressed up as a political party.'[19]

Links to fascist/neo-nazi terror groups and individuals

While Griffin was still a leading figure in the National Front, he was a close associate of Roberto Fiore, an Italian who, having fled to London, was convicted in absentia[20] of belonging to the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari, a fascist terror group that carried out the Bologna massacre, killing 85 people and injuring 200 others in the train station of that town. (Mail on Sunday, 1 July 1985.)

The violent, openly neo-Nazi group Combat 18 was formed in 1992 (although not originally under this name), to act as stewards for BNP rallies, which were often physically assaulted by left-wing groups, such as Anti-Fascist Action. According to the BNP, all associations with Combat 18 were ended shortly after the latter were formed, John Tyndall telling BNP members that they could not be members of both organisations simultaneously.

When Tyndall was still chairman, the BNP's 1995 national rally was addressed by American neo-Nazi Dr. William Pierce, head of the US National Alliance. Pierce wrote The Turner Diaries, which allegedly inspired Timothy McVeigh to carry out his Oklahoma city bombing, killing 168 people. The American Friends of the BNP, a party offshoot headed by Mark Cotterill, was still having extensive contacts with the much more extreme National Alliance as recently as 2003, as documented at length by Nick Ryan in his book Homeland: Into A World of Hate. [21]

Redwatch, a website that publicises the names and addresses of left-wing activist, and has led to death threats and harassment, was set up by ex-BNP member Simon Sheppard in 2001. The BNP has proscribed the use of the website by its members.[22] Nevertheless, BNP Youth leader Mark Collett has been implicated in involvement with the site.[23]

The London nailbomber, David Copeland, was a member of the BNP for about two months before moving to the National Socialist Movement. Copeland says he left the BNP because it did not support his extremist views as fully as he had liked. Nonetheless, his stated aim was to start a "race war" which would "lead white people to vote for the BNP".

The BNP distanced itself from Copeland. However, Griffin wrote in the aftermath of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing (which killed three people, including a pregnant woman) that the gay people protesting against the murders were "flaunting their perversion in front of the world's journalists, [and] showed just why so many ordinary people find these creatures disgusting." (Spearhead magazine, June 1999).

In response to allegations of neo-Nazism the BNP under the leadership of Nick Griffin has publicly denounced the utility of neo-Nazism in relation to British Nationalism.[24]

Similarly, Griffin urges white nationalist oriented youth to join the BNP and use the ballot box instead of violence to achieve political aims. [25]

Violence and criminal behaviour

BNP organisers and members have advocated and been convicted for violence.

BNP publications in the past have glorified racist violence. In 1991, the BNP newspaper gloated after several BNP supporters stabbed an African immigrant at London Bridge station. The victim had his “kidney surgically removed”, the paper boasted.[26]

In 1995, Nick Griffin wrote in The Rune magazine of the need to defend "rights for whites" with "well-directed boots and fists" [27].

Convicted BNP leadership and organisers

• Tony Lecomber was jailed for possessing explosives in 1985 and for assault in 1991, when he almost killed a man on the London Underground. He was Nick Griffin's key deputy in the party from 1999 until January 2006.
• Kevin Scott, the BNP's North East regional organiser[28], has two convictions for assault and using threatening words and behaviour.[29]
• Joe Owens, a BNP candidate in Merseyside and former bodyguard to Nick Griffin, He has served eight months in prison for sending razor blades in the post to Jewish people and another term for carrying CS gas and knuckledusters.[30]
• Tony Wentworth, BNP student organiser, was convicted alongside Mr Owens for assaulting demonstrators at an anti-BNP event in 2003.[31].
• Jason Douglas, a BNP candidate in the 2004 London local elections, is a convicted football hooligan.[32]
• Brian Turner, a Burnley BNP councillor, is a convicted wife-beater.[33]
• Mick Treacy, the Oldham organiser has five convictions for violence, theft, and handling stolen goods [34]
• Colin Smith, BNP South East London organiser has 17 convictions for burglary, theft, stealing cars, possession of drugs and assaulting a police officer[35]

Other examples are cited on the website of the BBC Panorama special, "Under the Skin of the BNP".

The BNP says that over 20% of the working population has some criminal record or another. The party argues that it does not and cannot completely vet every single member and that it is impossible to know the proportion of members with a criminal conviction in any party.

Critics of the BNP assert that the percentage of elected politicians with criminal records belonging to mainstream political parties seems much lower, that many of the offences committed by the BNP are substantially more serious than the offences typically committed by the general population of minor criminals, that the people named are prominent members of the BNP, and that the party is more tolerant of the criminal actions of some of its members than other parties would be. The critics fail to take into account that members of the BNP are scrutinised to a much greater extent than members of other political parties and, as such, are more likely to have their offences discovered and publicised than other politicians.

Alleged links to Loyalist paramilitaries

The BNP has been accused of links with Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.[36][37]

Alleged incitement of violence

As well as crimes carried out by individual members of the BNP, there have been accusations that elements in the BNP leadership incited violence for political reasons.

Andy Sykes was the Bradford organiser for the BNP. He says he became somewhat alienated from the organisation when members were "over the moon" about race riots in Bradford in 2001, when he was "devastated by the harm it had done to Bradford, and it didn't seem right for them to be so pleased."

Sykes then claims he "got this call [from another BNP organiser] telling me to get as many lads together as I could and go and attack any TUC members or Labour people or lefties" at an anti-racist event organised after the riots.

"I was horrified. I told him this was a fun day with women and children and he said that if women wanted to support the TUC they deserved what they got." [38]

In 1989, a group of elderly people who were protesting the existence of a BNP branch in Welling were attacked by a group of 40 men. Former BNP member Matthew Collins claims that after the attack, "they were sitting around [BNP headquarters], talking about how they'd bashed those Reds and those Pakis. But they weren't - they were women. Old women." Collins also claims he was asked to contribute to a fund for the defence of four men who had been arrested after the attack.[39]

Electoral strategy

The BNP aims strongly to appeal to those members of the population who consider immigration to be a threat to jobs, a cause of rising crime, and a basis for cultural decline. Under its current policy, the party backs an immediate halt to all further non-European immigration and the voluntary resettlement of foreigners to their lands of ethnic origin by way of generous "homeward-bound" grants which would be made available to anyone who wanted to take advantage of them.

Some critics of the party claim that it endorses consideration of "forcible repatriation" for those foreigners who refuse to return, as it states so in various papers, and documents.

The party has also made clear that it does not regard non-white people as being British, even if they have been born in the UK and are British citizens. Instead, Griffin has stated that 'non-Europeans who stay', while protected by British law, 'will be regarded as permanent guests'.[40]

The party has often been accused of exploiting and inflaming racial tensions for its own benefit in a number of areas, a claim the BNP vociferously denies - indeed, it states that if any individuals responsible for inflaming racial tensions have any connection with the BNP, such connections would swiftly be ended once discovered. The party also claims to be merely the 'messenger' of racial tension, not their creator, which it attributes to current immigration policy.

The party cites its statement that all members must stay out of volatile areas at times of high racial tension, or face expulsion from the party. While the BNP has regularly marched in areas where their presence was provocative, the BNP claims it has made no marches since Nick Griffin took up its leadership, however the night before the riots in Bradford, the BNP held a private branch meeting of 100 in a Bradford pub, as claimed by several independent witnesses. Indeed, Hasmukh Shah, an international trustee of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) often boasts that Nick Griffin arrived personally, to meet him, looking to create sectarian alliances against Muslim people, although this has never been substantiated.

In August, 2001, Firsat Yildiz, a 22-year-old Kurdish refugee, was stabbed to death in Sighthill, Glasgow. The previous month, Nick Griffin had written in the BNP publication Identity: "We are spearheading a campaign against asylum seeker placements in the Sighthill area."[41]. There had also been press coverage of Griffin's personal visit to Sighthill, although Griffin claims he never actually went there.[42]

In the case of Burnley, BNP election canvassers handed out leaflets claiming that the town's Asian population was receiving preferential treatment from the local council (which the council has strenuously denied). Critics cite this as an example of the BNP's efforts to incite racial division, the BNP states that it simply wants to see fair and equal funding to all ethnic groups within the town.

The official government report into the Burnley troubles showed that a majority of white people living in the town believed that Asians were receiving preferential treatment to the detriment of the white population. [43]. However official government statistics dismiss this claim as false.

The BNP does still hold protests at specific events - one of the most famous of these was at the count in the Oldham elections of 2001, where Nick Griffin and Mick Treacy, the party's Oldham organiser, wore gags and T-shirts bearing the words "Gagged for telling the truth" in protest of the decision to ban candidates' speeches at the event due to the BNP's presence.

No BNP candidate has ever won a seat as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, although in 2001 - possibly partially due to a number of riots in the North of England that were arguably race-related - BNP local election results improved markedly. The then growing issue of asylum-seekers was another probable factor contributing to this increased electoral success.

In the current climate the major emphasis of the BNP's electoral propaganda appears to be anti-Islamic, alleging widespread support of extremism and terrorism amongst the Muslim community. Despite this, the BNP arguably has some overlapping ideological convergences with Islamist extremism. When current leader Nick Griffin was still a member of the National Front, he appealed to Ayotolla Khomeini and Colonel Gadaffi for funding, and both were praised in the NF's publications.[44]

Electoral performance

The BNP currently has 24 elected local councillors, out of the many thousands of local councillors across the UK. Nick Griffin light-heartedly described the Party's PR department (one of its most important strata) as being "basically made with shoestring, sealing wax and bits of orange peel". However, with the parties growth comes greater resources, so we can expect to see more work from BNPtv, their audio/visual wing.[45]

The BNP's first electoral success came in September 1993, when Derek Beackon was returned as councillor for Millwall (in London) on a low turnout. He lost his seat in further elections the next year, although his personal vote actually increased by 30% (on a turnout of 70%). The Millwall seat was the Party's only electoral victory in John Tyndall's seventeen year reign as leader.

In the council elections of May 2002, three BNP candidates gained seats on Burnley council. This was interpreted in some quarters as an indicator of the mood of the British electorate. The BNP had fielded 68 candidates nationwide.

In the council elections of May 2003, the BNP increased its Burnley total by five seats, thus briefly becoming the second-largest party and official opposition on that council, a position it narrowly lost soon afterwards to the Liberal Democrats, which beat the BNP by a margin of just 0.4% in a by-election. The five new Burnley seats were formerly held by a combination of all three mainstream political parties, suggesting that the BNP was winning votes from across the political spectrum. The Party contested a record 221 seats nationwide (just under 4% of the total available). They won eleven council seats in all, though Nick Griffin was unsuccessful in his attempt to gain a place on Oldham Metropolitan Council.

The BNP contested all 25 wards in Sunderland and ran an active campaign but failed to win any council seats, despite substantially increasing its Sunderland vote. In the general election of 2001, their candidate received 1,263 votes. In the May 2002 council election, the BNP fielded a candidate in just one ward, receiving slightly over 13% of the vote on a 22% turnout. In the 2003 elections, the party received an average of just under 14% of the votes across all 25 seats, on an increased average turnout of 46%. The party retained 24 of its 25 election deposits, narrowly losing the other one with a vote of 4.84% against the deposit retention benchmark of 5%. Of the other 24 seats, six gained between 5 and 10% of the vote, twelve between 10 and 20%, and six between 20 and 29.65%, the latter figure being the highest single percentage. The total vote gained was 13,652, more than ten times the general election figure of just two years previously. One of the most interesting points about the Sunderland elections was how the different news media reported the outcome. The BNP has also gained council seats in parts of the Black Country in the West Midlands and in Hertfordshire and Essex in the South East of England.

Local council election results in the second half of 2003 have proved encouraging for the party, winning three out of six seats contested and narrowly missing out on a fourth. In September 2003, the newspaper The Independent described the BNP as an "emerging" threat to the Labour Party, whilst a Labour MEP warned his party that the BNP could gain a seat in the 2004 elections to the European Parliament. The BNP had stated that it believed it could win "between one and three seats" in 2004 , almost certainly including the "North West England" European Parliamentary constituency. In fact, although their share of the vote increased to 4.9%, they failed to win a single seat.

As of October 2003, the Party has seventeen elected councillors, all in England. This was previously eighteen, but the BNP expelled one of its existing Burnley councillors from the Party after his alleged unruly behaviour at its annual 'Red, White and Blue' festival. At the Party's request, the councillor subsequently resigned his council seat. The former councillor in question had been hurriedly chosen after the party's first choice was unavailable to stand for election at very short notice. The BNP claimed it had no way of predicting the unsuitability of this last-minute choice due to the circumstances, and describes the incident as only a "minor setback." The party lost the subsequent by-election caused by the resignation.

The BNP is a UK-wide party and has contested seats in Wales and Scotland, as well as England. In the Scottish parliamentary elections of 2003, it contested only the Glasgow region (with only one person on their list) and polled poorly. It failed to contest any Scottish seats in the 2001 elections, but did put up a candidate for Newport West in Wales. It has now announced plans to contest elections in Northern Ireland and has already selected some candidates. On 18 December 2003, the party polled 14.7% in a by-election in Aston Ward for Flintshire County Council, north Wales.

The Party is also picking up an increasing share of the vote in the South West of England, where its strongly eurosceptic policies were believed to be most popular.

Many commentators have put the electoral successes of the BNP down to voters' casting a 'protest vote' against the perceived incompetence of local councils, and disillusionment with the mainstream parties, rather than as positive support for the BNP's policies. However, the BNP's consistent good polling in some areas has led some to question this analysis.

In December 2003, the BNP welcomed its first councillor defector - from the Conservatives - on Calderdale council [46], [47]. The move surprised many commentators, but the party has stated that it expects such events to become frequent occurrences:

"A number of councillors from other parties are reported to be awaiting the outcome of next June's Local Election results and where a BNP Group (two or more councillors) exists we expect quite widespread defection from the Tories in particular."

Since this statement was made, three further defections to the party have taken place (as of October 2004).

The party's most recent election success saw it gain its highest ever proportion of the vote - 51.9% (on a turnout of 28.8%), more than all the other parties put together, in the Goresbrook ward of Barking on 16 September 2004. However, less than ten months after his election, BNP Cllr. Daniel Kelley has, after complaining to the local press that other councillors treated him "like a leper" and on citing ill-health, resigned his seat. Kelley had also told the local newspaper, the Barking and Dagenham Recorder [48], that "There's meetings that go right over my head and there's little point in me being there". A new election was held on 23 June 2005, in which this time the Labour candidate gained 51% of the vote, and the BNP came second with 32%. [49]

In a subsequent by-election in the nearby Village Ward in Dagenham on 7 October, it polled 38.4% of the vote, coming second to Labour and gaining more than twice the vote of the Conservative candidate. No other parties stood.

In the 2005 General Election, the British National Party stood 119 candidates across England, Scotland and Wales. Between those candidates the BNP polled 192,850 votes, gaining an average of 4.2% across the seats they stood in, and 0.7% nationwide - a 0.5% rise from the 2001 election. In those seats which the BNP stood in they were the 4th largest party. However, they did not stand nationwide, meaning that their national share of the vote was substantially lower than other minor parties.

Opposition to the BNP

The BNP's policies have been rejected by a majority of the voters in most places where its candidates have stood for election, although its share of the vote has increased in recent years in many of the areas in which they have stood.

The BNP is condemned by all sections of the mainstream media, including right-wing newspapers, such as the Sun and Daily Mail, which share some of the party's concerns over immigration. Representatives of the three major mainstream political parties all condemn the BNP, although the party has taken council seats from them all in various areas. High-ranking politicians from each of the mainstream parties have, at various times, called for their own supporters to vote for anyone but the BNP. This message has confused many as, for instance, Conservative supporters are not sure whether their own party are asking them not to vote for their own candidate, but rather for whoever is most likely to defeat the BNP. Where the BNP has still proved successful, the mainstream parties have usually been quick to blame each other for the BNP's success. At the 2003 Conservative Party Conference, Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (and former Labour Party candidate), said that the BNP's success was partly due to lacklustre election campaigns by the Tories. He asked local Conservative branches to "raise their game when it comes to electioneering." This request was subsequently ignored when a local Conservative branch in Halifax refused to stand a candidate against the BNP in an election which they, themselves, had no chance of winning. This was in spite of their own Conservative Central Office's ordering them to do so.

According to the BNP, an increasing number of former Conservative supporters are also turning to the party. It is thought that their strong anti-EU policies strike a chord with many disenchanted Conservative voters; however, in the run up to the 2004 European elections this position was taken by the right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), resulting in them receiving the majority of the anti-Europe "protest vote", rather than the more hardline BNP.

Because of its lack of substantial electoral support across the country, but despite their high media profile, the BNP is still widely considered to be at the fringes of British politics. However, media comment on some issues such as asylum-seekers is often very close to the BNP's position, and the party's chairman, Nick Griffin, has described the tabloids as "one of the BNPs best recruiting agents" in the past.

Amongst the most visible and vocal opponents of the BNP and other right-wing groups at the present time are Unite Against Fascism and Searchlight. Unite Against Fascism, which aims to unite the broadest possible spectrum to oppose the BNP and the far-right, includes the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) The National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) The Student Assembly Against Racism (SAAR) as well as faith and community leaders and politicians from all major British political parties including the Labour Party, the Conservative Party (Including current party leader David Cameron, The Liberal Democrats, Green Party, and UKIP. The ANL, along with Rock Against Racism (RAR) originated during the late 1970s by the Socialist Workers Party. The ANL disappeared during the 1980s and was revived in the 1990s, again by members of the SWP. During the late 1970s, the more radical and revolutionary "Red Action" camp broke away from the rest of the ANL due to ideological differences and formed the AFA.

Searchlight magazine, edited by Gerry Gable, has monitored the activities of the BNP and its members for many years, and has published many articles highly critical of them and other organisations of the right, including UKIP and the Conservative Party's "Conservative Monday Club". One of the more effective campaigning resources available to anti-fascists has been Searchlight's "election special" tabloids - free eight-page newspapers written in the style of a red-top tabloid but with national and local stories critical of the BNP.

The UAF and Searchlight both obtain a significant proportion of their funding from trade union donations.[50] [51] There are also many local anti-fascist groups which draw on the resources of one or both of these organisations.[52]

A great deal of controversy has taken place regarding the values of free speech as opposed to hate speech in regard to the BNP. Griffin and the BNP have called for more open debate on racial/immigration issues within the public sphere.

Anti-fascist groups like the ANL call for no positive coverage to be given to groups or individuals enunciating what they describe as "hate speech". Such a tactic states that the BNP and similar parties should be ignored by both rival politicians and the media. The policy is most commonly associated with university student unions and debating societies, but has also resulted in BNP candidates being banned from speaking at various Hustings meetings around the country.

Examples of the "no platform" policy being operated include:

• Complaints directed at the Leeds Student newspaper after it published a full-page article/interview with Nick Griffin. The Leeds Unite Against Fascism (LUAF) group accused the publication of breaching Leeds University Students' Union 'No Platform' policy, whereby extremist organisations are prohibited from expressing their views on campus. [53]
• An invitation to Nick Griffin by the University of St Andrews Union Debating Society to participate in a debate on multiculturalism was condemned [54], then withdrawn after protests and threats against the organisers [55].

Examples of more direct action against the BNP include obstruction of BNP activists who set up stalls in shopping centres. For example, members of the Scottish Socialist Party in Edinburgh blockaded and forced a BNP publicity stall to close. [56]

Such cases are often used by the BNP to push their messages against "so-called political correctness", in their supposed support of "freedom of speech, and democracy".[57]

Due to campaigning from anti-fascist groups, the BNP has encountered difficulties finding a company prepared to print their monthly publication The Voice of Freedom [58]. At one point they had to resort to using a Saudi Arabian-owned firm which mainly employs Asians and Muslims [59].

The Party subsequently acquired a printing press in the run up to the 2005 general election, thereby removing its dependency on external printing houses. In September 2005, 60,000 copies of Voice of Freedom, which had been printed in Slovakia, were seized by British police at Dover.

A teacher who stood for the BNP in the 2004 European Elections was suspended. A Leeds careworker who stood for them in the 2005 General Election was sacked. Also dismissed was a disabled persons bus driver, elected as a BNP councillor in Bradford. The police have issued a directive banning BNP members and this policy has been discussed in the fire brigades and Civil Service.

The BNP argue that the 2005 European Elections were gerrymandered to keep them out and were rigged, and claim that they should have won the 2000 Stoke Mayoral Election, accusing the Returning Officer of refusing to count preference votes.

BNP front groups

The BNP has used various front organizations to give the impression of wider support for its activities, and in an attempt to access potential supporters. By their very nature, front groups are usually denied as such by both the organizations behind them and the groups themselves, so any attempt to identify them is a matter of judgement. Nevertheless, there is evidence (usually in the form of common organizers) that the following operate as BNP fronts:

• Solidarity – The Union for British Workers (denied to be a front by both the BNP and Solidarity's president, Patrick Harrington; see article for details)

• Civil Liberty (UK) (see article for details)

• The "Christian Council of Britain", whose support during the Griffin/Collett trial was cited by the BNP alongside that of Civil Liberty. There seems to be no evidence for the existence of this group outside discussions of the demonstrations during the trial, many of which speculate that it is a BNP front. It may be named to echo/oppose the Muslim Council of Britain, an idea floated on 'patriotic' bulletin boards as far back as 2004.[60]

Great White Records, a "patriotic record label" launched in January 2006, is not a BNP front, as it acknowleges its connection to the party.[61]

Affiliated parties

The BNP and the French Front National have co-operated on numerous occasions. Jean-Marie Le Pen visited the UK in 2004 to assist launching the BNP's European Parliament campaign [62], and Nick Griffin repaid the favour by sending a delegation of BNP officials to the FN's annual 'First of May Joan of Arc parade' in Paris last year [63].

The BNP also has links with Sweden's National Democrat Party (Nationaldemokraterna). In the run-up to the 2004 European Parliament election campaign, Nick Griffin visited Sweden to give that party his endorsement. Members of the Swedish National Democrats were present at the BNP's Red White and Blue rally which took place over the weekend of 20-21 August 2005.[64]

Previous British National Parties

The current use of the name British National Party is its third appearance in British politics. The original BNP emerged after the Second World War when a handful of former members of the British Union of Fascists took on the name. This party was absorbed quite quickly into the Union Movement.

A second British National Party also emerged in 1960 and went on to form a part of the NF.

Appendices

See also

• British Nationalism

References

• Hill, Ray. The Other Face of Terror, with Andrew Bell, Grafton 1988. ISBN 0586069356
• Tyndall, John (2003). "The Problem is Mr Griffin" in Spearhead, October 2003

External links

Official party sites

• Party Website Homepage
• Official BNP Forum (Party membership needed for access)
• BNP Internet TV

Opposition to the BNP

• Unite Against Fascism
• Anti-Nazi League

General press articles

• Assorted BBC news articles about the BNP
• BNP: A Party on the fringe (source: The BBC)
• BBC news story: Under the skin of the BNP
• Guardian Unlimited: Special Reports 'Race in the UK'
• Guardian Unlimited: Special Reports 'The Far Right in Britain'
• Guardian Unlimited: Special Reports 'Europe's Far Right'
• The Observer/Guardian story: Be afraid of the BNP
• Illingworth Tory defects to the BNP - Halifax Courier story on defecting Conservative councillor moving to the council's BNP group.
• Telegraph story, 20 August 2003: Councillor in fracas expelled by BNP
• BBC story, 5 September 2003: BNP wins another seat
• This is Worcestershire : It's no wonder the British National Party's on the move 22 September 2003 - This article argues that the mainstream parties have allowed social conditions in UK to deteriorate to the extent that people vote BNP to protest.
• Guardian story, 18 October 2003: Lib Dems trounce BNP in council byelections
• Liverpool Echo - BNP Man sent razor blades to city Jews - 2 April 2003
• BBC News: BNP leader defends Scottish visit to area where teenage murder victim was abducted (21 March 2004)
• BBC News: Le Pen to help BNP (21 April 2004)
• BBC News: Le Pen UK visit sparks protests (25 April 2004)
• The Observer/Guardian : Jennifer's journey to the front of the BNP (16 May 2004) - Story about Nick Griffin's daughter Jennifer who heads the Young BNP (now called Young Brits) Note: YBNP used to have a website but it seems to have closed.
• BBC News: Bus driver sacked over BNP membership (1 July 2004)
• BBC News: BNP activists admit to race crime (15 July 2004)
• BBC News: Going Undercover in the BNP (15 July 2004)
• BBC News: Barclays Bank bans BNP accounts (16 July 2004)
• BBC News: Comic banned for 'shoot BNP' joke (2 November 2004)
• Politics.co.uk : BNP take London council seat (17 September 2004)
• Mirror: He sounded white on the phone
• The Yorkshire Post: Shock over BNP woman with city care job (10 March 2005)
• The Yorkshire Post: BNP activist to keep job as community care worker (18 March 2005)
• BBC News: Race ruling against BNP official (27 March 2005) - BNP official loses compensation after he was expelled from a trade union (for promoting racism, rather than membership of the BNP as such).
• Scotsman.com : Racism 'Simmering' in British Schools (1 April 2005)
• Epping Forest Guardian : BNP attended awards without any incident (11 April 2005)
• Manchester Evening News - BNP pair fined for brawl on campus - June 17 2005
• The Sun Newspaper : BNP bomb leaflet storm (13 July 2005)
• The Weekend Australian : The streets where revenge brews Reports growing ethno-religious tensions in England, including the perspectives of local Muslims, as well as, BNP regional organiser Nick Cass and the BNP's national press officer Dr. Phil Edwwards. (16 July 2005)
• This Is London : Architect of BNP found dead at home Reports on the death of BNP founder John Tyndall (20 July 2005)
• The Guardian : BNP leader denies race hate charges Update on Trail of Nick Griffin and Mark Collet (21 July 2005)
• Yorkshire Post : BNP councillor wins fresh hearing in sacking fight Update on the sacking of bus driver Arthur Redfearn in 2004. (30 July 2005)
• BBC News : Bush 'promoted West-Muslim clash' Article on Ken Livingstone - blaming Bush and the "right-wing neo-con establishment" for the rise in BNP support. 12 September 2005
• Mirror : PAPER OF THE BNP IS SEIZED 12 September 2005
• BBC News : Police hand back seized BNP paper 12 September 2005
• News & Star : BNP Editor Condemns Newspapper Seizure 13 September 2005

Police press release

• Association of Chief Police Officers: News & Press releases Press Release(7 November 2003) Ban on Police Membership of the BNP.

Pro-BNP articles

• The BNP Goes Straight (source: Think-Israel)
• Third Way: Review by Pat Harrington: Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy written by Nigel Copsey