British National Party
The British National Party (BNP) is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is the largest far-right party in British politics.
History and overview
The party was founded in 1982 by John Tyndall, a former chairman of the National Front. The current National Chairman, Nick Griffin, joined the BNP in 1995, and replaced Tyndall after a leadership election to become leader in 1999. He was also a previous chairman of the National Front and spent time as an activist whilst reading law at Cambridge University.
Tyndall was expelled from the Party in 2003. The reasons for this mainly related to articles published in his magazine, Spearhead, which were highly critical of the BNP leadership. It was also believed that his often 'extremist' views did not tally with contemporary party policies. Opponents claim that this episode has left the party in crisis, with Tyndall commenting that he may take Griffin to court although there is no outward evidence of this.
In 1998, before he was chairman of the Party, Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to incitement of racial hatred. He received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was fined £2,300. Griffin vehemently denied the charge and represented himself in court. He believed that the charge, which followed a single complaint made to the police (in 1986) by the then Liberal Democrat MP, Alex Carlisle QC, was politically motivated. At the trial, one of the arresting police officers said he agreed with this belief.
Almost all commentators class the BNP as a far-right Nationalist party. A common perception among the opponents of the BNP is that it is racist, fascist and/or "neo-Nazi", although these accusations are generally based on the party's earlier stance under the more right-wing leadership of Tyndall. The BNP however denies these labels categorically, and draws attention to its current policies, which the majority of commentators agree cannot fairly be portrayed as in any way similar to nazism.
Since Nick Griffin took over the party, the BNP has attempted to move away from the racist and neo-nazi image it attained during the Tyndall years, and has invoked many policy changes in order to present itself as a more moderate mainstream and respectable right-wing party.
An example of this say BNP supporters is the party's stance on repatriation; under the leadership of Mr. Tyndall, the party campaigned for the compulsory repatriation of all foreigners. However, since the election of Mr. Griffin to national chairmanship, this policy has been greatly moderated and modernised to the far less hard-line suggestion that those foreigners who wish to return to their own countries should be asisted in doing so by the provision of what the BNP describes as "generous homeward-bound grants".
However given the openly racist and/or violent history of many BNP members. Critics of the BNP have claimed that the changes made by Griffin are a superficial attempt to hide the BNP's real character. The BNP strongly refutes these claims and states that many questionable characters have been expelled from the party, which publically condemns both violence and racism.
In recent years the BNP has reflected many aspects of a concept known as Euronationalism. This is a pattern of emphasis and presentation of policies that has been adopted by a number of far-right parties in Europe. It is often cited as a factor in their increased electoral successes of the 1990s.
Is the BNP a neo-Nazi organisation?
Opponents, primarily those on the far left of the political spectrum, have claimed that the BNP are neo-Nazis and, by implication, racist and fascist.
When Tyndall was still chairman, the BNP's 1995 national rally was addressed by American neo-Nazi Dr. William Pierce. Mr. Tyndall has since been expelled from the party for his extremist views. Dr. Pierce is now dead.
Nick Griffin has appeared on the same platform as Louisiana politician David Duke, a member of the United States House of Representatives and former member of the Ku Klux Klan.
It has been alleged that the BNP retains links to openly pro-violence neo-Nazi organisations such as Combat 18 which opponents claim was formed as a sub-organisation of the BNP in 1992. According to the BNP, they ended all associations with them shortly after they were created in 1992, John Tyndall telling BNP members that they could not be members of both organisations simultaneously. Under Mr. Griffin, "C18" has been a proscribed organisation for party members for many years and any BNP member found to be connected with it will face swift expulsion, according to current BNP policy.
The London nailbomber David Copeland was very briefly a member of the BNP for about two months before moving to the extremist National Socialist Movement. Copeland says he left the party because it was "too democratic" and did not support his extrememist views and desire to use violence and terrorism.
A number of members of the BNP leadership have been reported [1] as:
- having been convicted of a wide range of offences, including assault, inciting racial hatred, and offences under the Explosives act.
- having had previous connections with other extremist or neo-Nazi groups, or with football violence
However, the BNP dismisses these instances since all occured many years ago - mostly long before the individual concerned were party members - and state that if they were to occur in the future the perpetrator would be immediately expelled from the BNP. It is estimated that 20% of the working population has a criminal record, and many individuals from the established parties also sport such long-ago convictions.
Nick Grffin has stated his views on race [2]:
- "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".
Electoral strategy
The BNP aims to appeal to those members of the population who consider immigration to be a threat to their 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, say in the small print it endorses considering "forcible repatriation" for those foreigners who refuse to return, although no reference can be found to this on the BNP's website or in any other party literature.
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 deny - indeed, it states that if any individuals responsible for inflaming racial tensions have any connection with the BNP, such connections would swiftly be ended. An example of this is the party's statement that all members must stay out of volatile areas at times of high racial tension, or face expulsion from the party. Opponents view this statement as hypocrisy on the part of the BNP, stating that the BNP has regularly marched in areas where their presence would be considered to be a provocation. However, the BNP has made no marches since Nick Griffin took up its leadership. Marches were a favourite tactic of John Tyndall, but one from which today's BNP is anxious to distace itself, in favour of more sophisticated Public and Media relations manoevering.
In the case of Burnley, BNP election canvasers handed out leaflets accusing the town's Asian population of receiving preferential treatment from the local council, which critics claim as an example of the BNP's efforts to incite racial division. The party, however, simply claim that their goal is equal treatment and funding for all groups within the town - something they allege is not happening under the Labour-run coouncil.
The BNP does still hold protests at specific events, however - 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 T-shirts bearing the words "Gagged for telling the truth" in protest at 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 the asylum-seeker influx was another probable factor contributing to this increased electoral success.
Electoral performance
The BNP currently has 18 elected local councillors, out of the many thousands of local councillors across the UK. This is not supprising considering the size of the party, and the fact that it receives comparitively very little funding. Nick Griffin light-heartedly described the Party's PR department (one of its most important strata) as being "basically made with shoestring, ceiling wax and bits of orange peel".
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 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 their Burnley total by five seats, thus becoming the second-largest party and official opposition on that council. 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 Metrapolitan Council.
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 left-wing Independent newspaper 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 has also stated that it believes it can win "between one and three seats" in the European Parliament election, one of which is almost certainly in the "North west England" EU constituency.
As of October 2003, the Party has seventeen elected councillors, all in England. This number should have been 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 BNP believes it has a good chance of regaining it at the forthcoming by-election.
The BNP claims to be a UK-wide party and has contested seats in Wales and Scotland, as well as England. In the Scottish parliamentary elections of 2003, they only contested the Glasgow region (with one person on their list) and polled poorly. They failed to contest any Scottish seats in the 2001 elections, but did put up a candidate for Newport West in Wales.
The Party is also picking up an increasing share of the vote in the South West of England, where its strongly eurosceptic policies are believed to be popular.
Opposition to the BNP
The BNP's policies have thus far been rejected by a majority of the voters where their candidates have stood for election, although their share of the vote has increased considerably in recent years.
The BNP are strongly disliked by liberal/left-wing sections of the population and media, as well as by some who would consider themselves moderate right-wingers. Representatives of the three major mainstream political parties tend to demonstrate nothing but condemnation of and opposition to the BNP.
However, according to the BNP, an increasing number of former Conservative supporters are turning to the party. They also claim that their strong anti-EU policies strike a chord with many former Conservative voters.
Because of their lack of substantial electoral support across the country, but despite their high media profile, the BNP is still considered to be at the fringes of British politics by many people, primarily those in the mainstream media, from whom they receive no active support. However, some media comment some issues such as asylum seekers is very close to the BNP's position, and the party's chairman, Nick Griffin, has descibed 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 far right-wing groups are the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) and Anti Fascist Action (AFA). The ANL, along with Rock Against Racism (RAR) was originated during the late 1970s by the extreme left-wing British Socialist Workers Party. During the late 70s, the more radical and revolutionary "Red Action" camp broke away from the rest of the ANL due to ideological differences and formed the AFA.
The ANL is supported and part funded by Trade Union affiliations, and will usually heavily leaflet and counter-campaign in many of the right-wing party's target wards. Both groups have held frequent protests against BNP events, some of which have ended in violent confrontation between ANL and BNP members.
Searchlight magazine, edited by former communist party activist Gerry Gable, has monitored the activities of 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 "Monday Club".