The British National Party is building an alliance with radical anti-abortion activists in an attempt to reach out to Catholics and secure their votes in future elections
Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, and one of his close deputies confirmed yesterday that they held private talks last week with the UK co-ordinator of Life League, an anti-abortion lobby group. Griffin and Mark Collet spent two days with James Dowson, an Ulster-based businessman and the main force behind Life League.
The meeting has outraged other anti-abortion campaigners. A number of them, who wanted to remain anonymous, contacted The Observer this weekend. One, who described himself as a 'mainstream anti-abortion and anti-racist', condemned the BNP.
Griffin claimed that amplifying the party's 'pro-life' policies would win it new votes among Catholics. 'There used to be a perception in Northern Ireland and Scotland that we were an Orange party. This is not so,' he said. The BNP, like Dowson, wanted to reach across the sectarian divide.
'If there is any plus for us in meeting Life League and highlighting our opposition to abortion, it is that it chimes with the feelings of many working-class Scottish Catholics,' the BNP leader said. His main candidate in Glasgow would be stressing the BNP's opposition to abortion in the forthcoming Scottish elections.
Dowson said the league had a 'moral duty to engage with anyone who will listen in order to promote our pro-life agenda'.
Matthew Collins of Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine, said it was odd that the BNP 'welcomed Holocaust deniers' yet believed in the 'right to life of the unborn'.
Observer
March 04, 2007
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7 comments:
I'm sure the pro-UFF contingent wil be over the moon with them talking to Catholics.
There s nobody this bunch won't get into bed with to spread their filth
Just waiting for them to jump in with Giertych next...
It was the UFF who told Griffin to leave Belfast last time he was over there trying to win over catholic support to nazism.
I believe his shop in Belfast was closed and the NF political soldiers described as "wankers" for trying to sell Gadaffi's Green Book in Loyalist heartlands.
The BNP seem to have their eyes on the "religious right", who are not short of money (and can probably call on more from the States). Anyone remember the pseudo-referendum in Scotland on the repeal of Section 2A (Scottish equivalent of Section 28) which was funded by Brian Souter of Stagecoach?
Fortunately, despite their pathological homophobia, there are some on the religious right who have seen through the BNP, notably Steven Green, the leader of Christian Voice, who wrote a stinging criticism of the BNP's racism and "folk nationalism". We are now due for another scrap it seems, and may neither side win.
'...may neither side win'
Absolutely.
The problem with the religious right is indeed its pathological homophobia. Given Griffin's personal history (a la Martin Webster), one wonders why he wants to get into bed with them at all, if you'll pardon the expression.
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