Leave the BNP alone
Dear Nick Griffin,
My goodness me, you must be loving all this. Talk about free publicity. As if ‘Unite Against Fascism’ didn’t stimulate enough of a sympathy vote for your perfectly legitimate party, we now have the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) trying to change the law on race hate crimes just to make it easier to prosecute you – not anyone else, just you.
According to the Guardian, the threshold for securing a conviction is so high that evil far-right activists such as yourself (NB: we’ll ignore the ‘are they right-wing or left-wing’ debate for now) are able to evade prosecution for material that many people would consider to be threatening and racist. Prosecutors blame the lack of convictions on the strict legal test, which requires showing an intention to “stir up racial hatred” or a likelihood that racial tension would be stirred up. The offence, created under the Public Order Act, only applies to acts that take place or are witnessed in public so it does not cover leaflets that are pushed through letter boxes. It also offers no protection against the publication of inaccurate or false information. Several BNP leaflets have been referred to the CPS over the last five years by senior police officers and a judge but no further action has been taken. Peter Herbert, the chairman of the Society of Black Lawyers and a part-time judge, submitted a complaint last year over the following leaflet called The Changing Face of London:
“Under the law, it has been extremely difficult to mount a prosecution against extremism and hate speech,” said Herbert. “But with the rise of the BNP, and the subsequent rise in racist attacks and the fear the party’s leaflets can provoke, it is essential we are given the tools to deal effectively with this threat.” Herbert said the law should protect people from material that creates a fear of racist attacks as well as those that are deemed to incite racial hatred. “All the evidence suggests that it is people from minority communities and the faith communities that are put in fear of violence when racist leaflets are delivered in town centres or on estates. If someone handed out the same thing in the workplace, most employers would consider that gross misconduct; if someone does the same thing in the street, there is very little we can do.” Another complaint was submitted to the CPS by Lancashire police who expressed concern about a BNP leaflet which blamed Muslims for the heroin trade. Four people were arrested and released on police bail last year but detectives are still waiting to hear from the CPS about whether they have grounds to prosecute for “incitement to stir up racial hatred”. In another incident, Derbyshire police alerted the CPS about a BNP election leaflet claiming three asylum seekers had raped a woman. The police said the rape claims were “unfounded”, but the CPS said there were no grounds to prosecute under existing law. “Whilst those details in the leaflet regarding the alleged rape are factually incorrect, this in itself does not constitute a criminal offence,” said a CPS spokesman at the time.
You must be rolling about laughing when you hear this stuff. Last week, we had the Equality and Human Rights Commission giving you one month to remedy three alleged breaches of the Race Relations Act, including your whites-only membership policy, and now we have the CPS considering changing the law just to persecute your democratically elected party. Unbelievable. But, far more disturbingly, the CPS are claiming that having a high threshold of evidence to secure a conviction is somehow a bad thing!!! Actually, if they look closely at the last, say, few hundred years they will find that having a high threshold is a fundamental tenet of the entire British legal system – and thank god for that. Stirring up hatred should indeed be illegal, but how does the above poster meet this criteria? Yes, it’s clearly a biased representation but it’s hardly calling people to arms against Muslims. The fact that the law on hatred doesn’t apply to leaflets might need remedying, but the high threshold for proving that hatred was the objective is essential. If the BNP produce factually inaccurate material then your opponents are welcome to put out contradictory leaflets, call the local or national media or even take legal action if they wish – but it’s not the job of the CPS to start tampering with the law to make it easier to attack you. And this creating ‘fear’ in town centres by delivering leaflets is without doubt the most pathetic ruse I have heard of from the anti-BNP brigade in recent months. There are absolutely no grounds for them to be afraid of you in terms of personal safety, but yet again people claim to be offended or upset so Labour jump to the rescue of their core voters.
In his final remark, Herbert said a number of anti-racism and human rights bodies would back a change in the law. “I expect a strong coalition will form around this idea and put pressure on the government to instigate a change in primary legislation as soon as possible,” he said. He’s probably right. That said, for the first time ever, the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight said something useful on this issue: ”…the way we will defeat Nick Griffin and his party is street by street and estate by estate, not lawyer by lawyer and courtroom by courtroom.” He’s figured it out, but sadly no-one else has - so you’re safe for now.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
“In his final remark, Herbert said a number of anti-racism and human rights bodies would back a change in the law.”
To quote a more famous Mandy than the one currently slithering about on Brown’s watch: “Well, they would, wouldn’t they?”
Quite. They have jobs to justify, you know.
So we’d rather change the law than actually talk about the issues at hand?
The sting won’t be taken out of this particular nettle until the major parties deal with the underlying issues (and that means listening to people as part of the process).
The more people feel forced into a corner, the more polarised they will become. Creates the perfect breeding ground for BNP, Islamists, Left wing fascists and others of the same ilk.
And most of it is down to Labours ‘progressive’ policies.
~Former Labour Supporter
Well said, FLS. This is just trying to bandage up the symptoms to hope that no-one will notice the gushing wound underneath that Labour have created (yet refused to take responsibility for).
An unbelievably niave and cowardly act. This suggests to me that they are either too lazy or too frightened to get out on the streets and discuss the issue with real people – you know the voters!
Before all this BNP bashing started I thought no way would they ever get my vote. But now I want a General Election tomorrow so I can vote for them. Mainly becuse none of the other parties are willing to address one of the major problems we face in this country (apart from Climate Change) and that is immigration and social cohesion (or whatever fancy word they have for people rubbing along together and not wanting to bomb each other!)
The main parties need to look at these problems and why so any people are concerned about these issues and address them head on not shove them under the carpet, make it illegal and hope they’ll go away!
Has Cameron said anything about this yet? Or is he too scared to touch the immigration issue as well!
If the CPS do manage to change the law, they may want to go look up the definition of Pyrrhic Victory…
And this made me laugh:
Another complaint was submitted to the CPS by Lancashire police who expressed concern about a BNP leaflet which blamed Muslims for the heroin trade.
Given Asian gangs, from Muslim families, are responsible for the majority of the heroin trade in the North West, perhaps if Lancashire police spent more time investigating some of the money laundering and heroin import such leaflets would never get printed.
Amongst all the rubbish the BNP spouts, there are some genuine issues – and the various state apparatuses need to stop shooting the messenger.
“Society of Black Lawyers” – is that not racial discrimination? Given that the “Equality and Human Rights Commission” are allowing the BNP one month to remedy three alleged breaches of the Race Relations Act, including the whites-only membership policy – are they also investigating and taking action against Black and Muslim organisations who have similar membership restrictions – I think not!
This is just yet another recruiting campaign for the BNP generously funded by the Government and their opponents rather than tacking the real issues.
As Middle England points out it is one rule for the current majority – the ‘whites’ (maybe not for much longer!) and one for everyone else who can be as discriminatory as they like in their own groups. If people vote for a political pary then it is legitimate. Take that basic principle away and suddenly we are no longer part of a democracy. And blatantly changing the law to discriminate against a political party is one giant punch in the face for democracy. Labour have always been thinly veiled as democratic when really all they want is a ‘Heil Gordon’ communist party.
It’s anti-democratic Labour we should be making laws against not the BNP!
Oh forgot to say. I love that BNP picture, in your letter, with the burkha and niqab on the right trying to hide it’s (can’t be sure what is under there) identity by covering the tiny eye slot! He he. One would have thought the rest of the get-up would be enough for that!
Candid, it is very naive and very cowardly. Rather than tackling the BNP door to door, they want to destroy our legal system in order to make it easy to prosecute them. The picture is indeed hilarious.
Ob, I daresay that there might have been some truth in it – but it doesn’t sound like ‘collecting evidence’ is very high on the agenda of the CPS. They’d much rather lower the prosecution threshold instead.
ME, it depends on whether the Society of Black Lawyers bans non-whites from joining, which I suspect they don’t. They just assume that no white person would want to join!
Disgraceful sticking up for the BNP, you fascist scum…..
Only joking, difficult not to agree with what most of you have written here. The idea of the Government changing the law in order to prosecute an opposition party is ridiculous and cannot be entertained. It’s certainly not an occurrence I would expect to hear of in this country, but rather some other ridiculous place in the middle of Africa somewhere. Separation of powers my arse!
My opinion is echoed in the comments section quite frequently. We must engage the BNP in debate, and approach the issues that have won them such, albeit relatively minor, support and then defeat them as a result. Surely this is an opportunity to show that the adversarial system of British politics can still work.
In summary- The BNP are a legitimate elected party being shat on from a great height by the Government, the Opposition (disappointingly), the only few remaining Liberals, and various anti-fascist organisations who clearly have no appreciation of the irony of the situation they find themselves in.
And there is the BNP’s answer. Just allow anyone to join. The legislation against them becomes useless.
GK, a government changing the law to prosecute their opponents does such a bit Zimbabwe-esque for my liking. ‘Unite Against Fascism’ are indeed one of the most ironic organisations around these days.
GOH, errr, thanks?!
Bill, I agree. More members is surely a good thing, but maybe Nick Griffin isn’t ready to relinquish some hidden allegiances…..
@Candid –
When my kids first saw one of these people wearing a burkha they thought it was a nun.I have seen a few wearing them and i am certain it was a man beneath it all.A perfegt disguise id say.Now that should be illegal,how can they see to drive etc in all that clothing.
Every site you go on is BNP BNP. Why arent people talking about why havent the thieves in government been charged,why dont they listen to the voters.Immigration is a massive issue with people.The BNP are the only ones prepared to come out and say it.For me their policies make more sense than any of the 3 main parties.Why not have a go at the UAF and UKIP for once.Plenty of dodgey characters there to pick at.