BNP candidate sends abusive email to LGBT group

A Leicestershire LGBT support group is seeking advice from police after receiving an abusive email from a BNP candidate

A Leicestershire LGBT support group is seeking advice from police after receiving an abusive email from a BNP candidate. Candidate Reverend West, who hoped to win the Lincoln City seat for the British National Party, responded to a questionnaire which was sent to a number of candidates by the Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre by stating that gays are “dirty and disgusting”.

The questionnaire asked about views and party policies on issues such as civil partnerships, sex education in schools and “fair and compassionate assessment” of those seeking asylum on the grounds of their sexual orientation. West’s response stated that minority sexual groups were “perverse” and “wicked”. He also labelled the questioner a “complete and utter pervert”, telling him to “get a life and get it cleaned up”.

The LGBT Centre Support Officer, Dennis Bradley, commented on the fact that the BNP candidate had received the questionnaire in the first place, saying: “Unfortunately, as the candidate is neither in Leicester, Leicestershire or Rutland. [He] had had our questions forwarded to him from another candidate, most likely in the same political party”

Bradley said that ultimately he was appalled at the response from West, saying: “I laughed and worried at the same time. If he were to win a seat in the General Election or his party were to win nationally and his views were taken up then we could see discrimination against about 25% of the population.

He added: “And if we were to take out the words gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender from the questions and replace them with ‘black’ there would be far worse recriminations.”

West said that when he received the email questionnaire he: “was deeply shocked and offended by its perversity.”

West, who founded the Christian Council of Britain, replied to the survey with a sermon entitled “In condemnation of sodomy”. He wrote: “It is well-known that homosexuals prey on the young, dependent, and impressionable; and that there is a significant overlap between homosexuality and paedophilia.”

Bradley believes the replies go way beyond acceptability and could constitute a hate campaign which, if substantiated, he has vowed to take “to the full extent of the law”. Bradley commented: “I do know he holds these views personally, but when he says them as a political party’s candidate that’s quite a different matter to a belief you are quite entitled to have in your own home.”

Bradley said a satisfactory and speedy outcome to the exchange would be for Rev West to immediately retract his comments. But West told the Spalding Guardian this week there was no chance of that. He said: “If they didn’t want my answers they shouldn’t send me the questions. I’m outraged – how dare they send them out.”

And in a thinly-veiled reference to the popularity of the BNP, he added: “Let’s see how much we have the right to oppose what they stand for.”

Pink Paper

Cheshire clergyman says BNP vote opposes Christian values

A rector has accused the British National Party of positioning itself as the Christian party of the country.

As reported in the Guardian last week, the BNP held a secret meeting in Winsford Lifestyle Centre. It was booked under the name of the Christian Council of Britain, although the BNP admitted there was no affiliation between the two groups.

The Rev Ian Bishop, of St Michael and All Angels Church, in Hightown, Middlewich, says many churches are opposed to the BNP manifesto. He said: “In my opinion to vote BNP is to oppose Christian values and the Christian Church. I have made it abundantly clear that I cannot see how it is possible to call yourself Christian and vote BNP. The Archbishop of York was recently quoted saying: ‘A vote for the BNP is like spitting in the face of God’.”

Northwich Guardian

BNP to launch advertising campaign featuring Jesus Christ

The extremist British National Party (BNP) is to launch an advertising campaign featuring Jesus Christ. The Far Right party will use the advert which features a bible verse quoting Jesus' words about persecution, in the run up to the European Elections in June. It comes after the Church of England passed a resolution at its General Synod last month banning clergy from being members of the party.

The thinktank Ekklesia has monitored attempts by the BNP since 2003 to present itself as a ‘Christian Party’. It has also warned that misleading stories about ‘Christian persecution’ in the UK, as well as appeals by church leaders to recover the idea of 'Christian Britain', have played into the Far Right’s hands.

In recent years the BNP has used religious rhetoric with increasing frequency. In recent local elections, the party's literature included copies of the controversial Mohammed cartoons. It also helped establish a 'Christian Council of Britain'. The goal is to appeal to those in the population who identify with Christianity, but feel panicked both by 'liberal secularism' and the growth of Islam.

An analysis of the BNP membership list by the thinktank Ekklesia highlighted a number of members who were identified as Christian, taking part in Bible studies, running Christian businesses including bookshops or who were active in their churches.

In an email sent yesterday to BNP supporters, BNP leader Nick Griffin said: “The British National Party is the only political party which genuinely supports Britain's Christian heritage. It is the only party which will defend our ancient faith and nation from the threat of Islamification. What has become of the Christian church in this country? Instead of inclusively ‘embracing all’ which the church claims is its basis, certain groups within that body have banned people from their ranks simply because of their membership in the British National Party.

“Surely if God calls a man to his service, no church has the right to contradict HIS holy will! For many years, the churches in this country scrupulously avoided being politically biased. Nowadays however we see a small number of clerics and bishops openly preaching hatred towards the BNP. Church leaders actively shun the word of God on issues like sodomy, abortion and social justice. With this in mind I invite you to preview our European election billboard (pictured above) aimed at attracting even more Christian voters.

“Jesus was viewed as a revolutionary figure, hated and hounded to death, not by 'evil men' but by the corrupt hypocrites who ran the church. Has nothing changed in two thousand years? On June 4th, the leaders of Britain's churches will find out that millions of good decent people support the British National Party. It's not racist to support British jobs for British workers or to be opposed to militant Islam, it's just common sense and in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

But Jonathan Bartley, co-director of the thinktank Ekklesia said: “This is clearly a gross misrepresentation of both Jesus Christ and Christianity. Jesus was completely opposed to bigotry. He is recorded in the Gospels as challenging those who didn’t welcome foreigners - not as working for their exclusion.

“But the church must critically reflect on how it is aiding the Far Right. Leading figures within the Church of England have become far more vocal recently in their calls to ‘stem the tide of secularism’, and to defend the predominant 'Christian culture' of Britain. The uncomfortable fact is that this puts the Church into the position of arguing the same political point about national identity as the BNP.

“Of course the rationales of these messages are very different. The agenda behind the BNP's claims is essentially a cultural one - partly in opposition to an alleged liberal elite, and partly in an attempt to whip up fear of minority faiths. In contrast, few would question the commitment of the Church of England to combating racism. But the time has come to face the fact that when it uses 'Christian nation' rhetoric, it risks encouraging support for right-wing extremists.

“Church figures should also exercise caution in their uncritical backing for high-profile cases of ‘Christian persecution’ which have featured most prominently in the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail. These stories have often been misreported, but used nevertheless by church leaders as examples of a wider move of discrimination against Christians. This is creating a victim mentality which will only serve to drive people into the BNP’s hands.

“But the latest advert from the BNP which quotes Jesus Christ should be seen by the church as an opportunity for a new approach. Instead of adopting a defensive stance which pleases those seeking to make political capital out of civic 'de-Christianization', the Church should refocus on the vocation of Jesus, who clearly challenged bigotry in all its forms. Whilst 'Christian nation' rhetoric will only create more BNP support, a focus on Jesus Christ will undermine the party's ideology completely.”

Ekklesia

British Wildcats Exposed

[Ministry of Truth] reveals that the operator of the British Wildcats website, which featured on tonight’s Newsnight, is actually BNP ‘web guru’, Simon Bennett.

Infantile buffoon Simon Bennett and friends

Bennett, who lives in Cornwall and is listed on the leaked BNP membership list as an activist, also operates a number of other BNP front websites, including those of the ‘Association of British Ex-Servicemen’, the BNP’s fake ex-forces organisation and that of its religious front operation, the ‘Christian Council of Britain’. He is also the designer/webmaster behind the website of BNP London Assembly member, Richard Barnbrook, and the BNP’s main national website.

The proof?

A WHOIS search on britishwildcats.com gives an IP address of 87.117.239.65 and DNS records hosted by nameservers registered to copperflash.com.

Bennett is the owner of copperflash.com, which he registered under his real name, giving the domain name, simonbennett.co.uk as its administrative contact, leading us back to Bennett’s personal site - www.simonbennett.co.uk - and to his ‘featured sites’, including Barnbrook’s and those of ABEX, CCOB, The ‘National Liberal Party’ (yep, another fascist front) and the BNP’s ‘Great White Records’.

Of these sites, all but the ABEX and Great White Records sites operate from the same reseller account and IP address - 87.117.239.65 - the same IP address and account as the British Wildcats site.

And, to clinch the deal, the BNP’s own national website, which credits Bennett as its designer, operates from the same hosting service/account, albeit under its own IP address of 87.117.239.66, just one address away from that of Bennett’s site, Barnbrook’s site and the British Wildcats site.

All of which confirms this to be an official/semi-offical BNP front operation.

Ministry of Truth

The BNP makes its play for young blood

Take a look at the shiny new Young BNP page and the first thing that strikes you is the sub-heading, 'the British Nationalist Youth Movement', a bunch of young people (mostly, it has to be said, female), an ad for daily news updates at £1 a minute (which appears twice on each page) and the image of the 'odel' rune, that the BNP intends to use as its logo for the British Nationalist Youth Movement, the YBNP and the Student BNP.

This rune seems to be a recurring motif in the BNP and one has to say that it seems a most peculiar symbol to use in an organisation that purports a) to espouse Christian values (to the extent of having its own sub-group, the Christian Council of Britain, run by well-known loon and fake vicar Robert West) and b) to not be, in any way, shape or form, racist. Why is that peculiar? Because the rune is acknowledged as Odinist and is used by white supremacists as representative of Aryan heritage and cultural pride. As an interesting aside, the Odal rune (the same thing) was the emblem of ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen operating during World War II in the National Socialist Germany-sponsored Independent State of Croatia. Yes, Croatia.

Bearing in mind that the site is targeted at 13-18 year-olds, it seems odd that clicking on the Membership link takes one to a page that includes a poll on capital punishment, though in mitigation it has to be said that the jokes page is probably at about the right level for a low-teen and low-IQ BNP supporter.

Given the history of certain officers of the BNP and their penchant for sexual shenanigans, we took a look at the Organisation Structure, just to see who was running the BNP for young people, only to discover a large empty space under the heading 'Contact details of adults involved in the organisation...' But while there may be no named personnel responsible for the youth section of the party, there is a Child Protection Policy (CPP). God only knows who it's aimed at but here it is:

As an adult involved in the YBNP you have a responsibility to ensure that young people are protected from harm. It is the responsibility of each adult in the YBNP to ensure that:

• their behaviour is appropriate at all times
• they observe the rules established for the safety and security of young people
• they follow the procedures following suspicion, disclosure or allegation of child abuse
• they recognise the position of trust in which they have been placed; and
• in every respect, the relationships they form with young people on their care are appropriate

All Adults in the YBNP must agree to put the party’s policy on child protection into practice.

Meeting your responsibilities:

• the welfare of the young people for whom you have a duty of care is safeguarded
• you avoid compromising situations or opportunities for misunderstandings or allegations

Interesting that the BNP should use that phrase 'you avoid compromising situations or opportunities for misunderstandings or allegations'. Possibly it refers indirectly to last year's BNP conference in Blackpool where the nazi Mark Collett and Dave Hannam, a married man, allegedly picked up two underage girls and brought them back to the conference hotel, the dire New Kimberley. Though it seems very odd that the CPP also includes the line '[that] they follow the procedures following suspicion, disclosure or allegation of child abuse'. Which procedures would they be, exactly? And were they adhered to at last year's conference?

There clearly isn't much to laugh at on the BNP website for youngsters, particularly on the jokes page, but there was one thing that made me chuckle. On the page in the student's section dealing with its policies, there is a question; 'What are the SBNP Policies?' The answer?

'The Student BNP is run for students. Therefore we need policies...'

No change there, then.

Anti-gay researcher speaks to racist BNP

Last month the Christian Council of Britain (CCB), a religion-based front group for the whites-only British National Party, began hosting a series of “public debates on morality and family values.”

The keynote speaker at the inaugural CCB conference in London was none other than Dr. Paul Cameron, the infamous anti-gay crackpot psychologist based in Colorado Springs, Colo. Under the guise of the Family Research Institute, his one-man statistical chop shop, Cameron churns out reams of pseudo-scientific “studies” invariably concluding that homosexuals are menaces to society. Cameron’s Oct. 26 lecture in London focused on his oft repeated, though thoroughly discredited “findings” that homosexuals are more likely to rape and murder children than are heterosexuals.

“For some reason homosexuals’ involvement in this horrid crime is especially high in Britain,” Cameron said.

Cameron used his appearance at the Christian Council of Britain event to promote a new Family Research Institute study based on “668 stories about the rape and murder of children in the major newspapers in the USA, Australia, Great Britain, Canada, etc.” The study concludes that 49% of British perpetrators were homosexual, versus an average of 28% in other Western countries.

This new study is similar in its deeply flawed methodology to Cameron’s infamous 1983 study claiming that homosexuals are “10-20 times more likely than heterosexuals to molest children,” a figure that is still frequently appears in anti-gay propaganda

A thorough debunking of Cameron’s various studies is available here.

Cameron based that finding on a 1978 study by Nicholas Groth, the highly respected director of the Sex Offender Program at the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Groth had interviewed 175 convicted child molesters and found that more of them had molested boys than girls. Cameron’s statistic is derived from the false assumption that men who molest boys are gay, despite the fact that Groth’s original study found that none of the men identified himself as homosexual. Instead, the pedophiles were either heterosexual outside of their criminal behavior or were what Groth termed “fixated pedophiles with no interest in sex with adults.”

Groth was outraged and filed a formal complaint with the American Psychological Association that led to Cameron losing his professional accreditation. “Dr. Cameron misrepresents my findings and distorts them to advance his homophobic views,” Groth wrote the APA. “He disgraces his profession.”

Hatewatch

Silver Ring Secrets

When 16-year-old Lydia Playfoot went to the High Court in a battle to wear a chastity ring to school, she won a wave of support among those concerned about the growing tide of underage sex and teen pregnancies.

The pretty teenager who turned up at court each day appeared articulate, independent and committed in her opposition to sex before marriage - as symbolised by the special silver ring on her finger. But now it appears that she may be little more than a pawn in a desperate publicity campaign driven by her parents.

Lydia, who has since left the school in West Sussex that refused to allow her to wear the ring, happens to be the daughter of Phil and Heather Playfoot, the founders of a chastity campaign called the Silver Ring Thing, or SRT.

They present themselves as wholesome defenders of the nation's teenagers - blaming the "bombardment of sexual images" for rising rates of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy. But the Daily Mirror can reveal that one senior member of their organisation - which promotes "sexual purity" - is actually a lingerie model and ex-jailbird who lives with a man who is not her husband.

More disturbingly, the live-in boyfriend of SRT co-founder Denise Pfeiffer is a leading British National Party activist.

Pfeiffer is listed on the SRT website as a "media consultant" but she has also been described as its "assistant national director". The 37-year-old - who claims she's 27 - is a part-time model and bit-part TV actress who posted pictures of herself modeling underwear on a website. The Daily Mirror tracked her down to the home in Leicester she shares with 46-year-old Clive Potter. He was the local BNP's parliamentary candidate in the last two elections. He is also president of the BNP's trade union Solidarity and the Christian Council Of Britain.

The right-wing CCB says it is "a front-line ministry for men only and not for women nor for the effeminate or sodomites". And though it claims to be open to all races, the council "especially" welcomes white British Christians.

Pfeiffer, meanwhile, has appeared as an extra in TV shows including Emmerdale, Crossroads and Dream Team, and claims her "playing age" is 18 to 35. She also works as a freelance journalist and has previously published articles in a number of national newspapers, including the Daily Mirror. Her own website, celibrate.org, "celebrates celibacy". A self-confessed obsessive Michael Jackson fan, she was jailed in 1994 for harassing the family of Jordy Chandler after he accused the singer of sexual abuse.

Pfeiffer was freed on £10,000 bail, paid by actress Lynn Redgrave, before receiving a suspended prison sentence. She said at the time: "If it weren't for Michael, I'd be asexual. Nobody else could compare."

Describing her experience in jail, the model, who was happy to pose in her bra and knickers, said: "I was strip-searched. To me, this was worse than a vicious beating because I have always been shy and self-conscious."

In 2001, Pfeiffer, then aged 31 but describing herself as a 25-year-old virgin, said: "Sex seems to be thrown at me everywhere I turn - whether it's in the magazines that I read, the films that I see or in the conversations I have with my friends. I'm just someone devoid of sexual desire and incapable of enjoying sensuous contact. I do worry about whether it will one day destroy my relationship with Clive."

She said the couple, who moved in together shortly after they met in 1999, shared a bed but did not have sex. "Clive does try to go further than kissing sometimes but I can't bear it and we invariably end up arguing," she added.

Three years later, but still insisting she was 25, Pfeiffer became involved in the Silver Ring Thing and said: "I made a personal decision to abstain from sex before marriage 10 years ago, when I was 15."

Pfeiffer was among a group of "volunteers" who established the Silver Ring Thing in the UK in 2004. In America, the sexual abstinence movement is linked to the conservative right and received a boost in government funding under the Bush administration. The American Silver Ring Thing claims to have won pledges from 25,000 teenagers and hopes to sign up two million by 2010. Here, the UK version recently set up a company charging youngsters to attend abstinence courses.

The SRT decribes itself as "not-for-profit" on its website and insists that all profits will be re-invested into its abstinence programme. But Silver Ring Thing (UK) Ltd is not registered at companies' house as a "company limited by guarantee". That is the normal way for a "not-for-profit" company to register, with trustees instead of directors and no shareholders. Instead, Silver Ring Thing (UK) Ltd is a normal "public limited company" and states as one of its objectives: "To carry on as a general commercial company."

The firm's sexual abstinence courses are run at seven locations around the UK and involve DVDs, study bibles, journals and charts. After completing the four-week course, youngsters are charged £10 for their rings, with a replacement costing £13. Organisers also offer to put on special courses but ask for payment of at least £350, plus travel and accommodation expenses. Alternatively, parents can buy the course pack for £40, plus £20 for each student. So far, Silver Ring Thing (UK) hasn't filed accounts, so it's unclear how much the firm has made from the operation.

Tellingly, the company was formed three days after the Playfoots announced they were considering legal action against Millais School, near their home in Horsham, West Sussex.

Their daughter Lydia, 16, began wearing her silver "purity ring" to school in 2004 but it declared that the rings were pieces of jewellery and breached its uniform policy. Lydia and 11 schoolmates were banned from wearing them. She, in turn, claimed that she was being denied her right to express her faith and won the backing of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship to take her case to court.

Despite the fact that Lydia left the school after completing her GCSEs several weeks ago, the Playfoots pressed ahead with the case - one that generated international publicity for their company. This week, deputy High Court judge Michael Supperstone QC ruled against Lydia and in favour of the school. He rejected the idea that the baubles are Christian symbols, saying: "Whatever the ring is intended to symbolise, it is a piece of jewellery." Lydia said it was a matter of deep regret that "I could not persuade the court to consider upholding the religious liberty of Christian people in the United Kingdom".

Her father Phil was ordered to pay £12,000 towards the school's legal costs and Lydia said that she's considering an appeal. But Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, praised the court's decision, saying: "The case was a manipulative attempt to impose a particular religious viewpoint on this school and, presumably, on other schools if this case had been won. Lydia's parents run the British chapter of the Silver Ring Thing and had a vested interest in being able to spread its message. Lydia had left the school and it did not infringe her freedom of religion."

When contacted by the Daily Mirror, Silver Ring Thing spokesman Andy Robinson said yesterday: "I don't wish to comment until I have seen the evidence. But I have spoken to Denise Pfeiffer and she denies that Clive Potter is her boyfriend."

He did not comment on her past as a lingerie model or on the time spent in a US jail, or on Potter's BNP links. Ms Pfeiffer herself was unavailable for comment.

Lydia may have been a pawn in the drive to boost her parents' chastity company.

Mirror

Turning right - a review of last week's Radio 4 documentary on the far-right

[In fact, a review of all bar the last few minutes which was missed because the tape ran out. We weren't going to bother using this because of the damn tape but a few people have asked what the programme was like so this is for them.]

A most peculiar programme, as most who listened to it would surely agree. It never quite managed to get to any particular point - something that might possibly be blamed on the constant attacks on the BBC's alleged bias towards the political left or right, depending on who is claiming bias at the time.

It begins in a Hampshire village, complete with duck pond and ex-Tory, ex-UKIP, now BNP organiser Roger Robertson. Robertson's political acumen is astounding. He blames immigrants for all Hampshire's ills (whatever they are), particularly last year's hosepipe ban. As we've pointed out before, the BNP chooses not to look at poor investment by the profit-fixated water companies nor the huge changes that are becoming apparent because of global warming - but immigration as the sole cause of water shortages.

The interviewer asked Robertson to take him to meet a typical BNP-supporter in the village. Robertson, a foot-shooting buffoon surely destined to lead the party in the future, took him to an elderly female supporter who promptly and helpfully announced; 'I suppose in a way I'm racist'.

A Cllr Haffey, who lives in the village next door, is an outspoken opponent of the BNP, pointing out how much damage has been caused by nationalism over the last century or so and how the BNP's leader and most of the officers that surround him have criminal records.

Robertson's unnamed acolyte, when asked about the BNP's reputation for thuggery, said that we had that completely wrong, going on to claim, oddly, that what we must be thinking of is Mosley's Blackshirts. After all, she pointed out, a lot of BNP supporters are Christian. So there.

The 2004 State of the Nation poll, which was the basis of the Joseph Rowntree Trust's assertion that 20-25% of the voting public would consider voting BNP in a future election, which led to Margaret Hodge's highly-damaging statement before last year's local elections, has recently been updated with the 2006 results, showing that the figure has dropped to around 10.3%, which bodes a bit for the BNP.

This ties in rather neatly with the dismal results of the most recent local elections where the BNP's optimistic dream of gaining a further 50-60 seats turned into a gain of just one (now lost thanks to a BNP councillor defection) despite a record-breaking 750 candidates.

The programme then moved to Barking and Dagenham where the leader of the BNP contingent on the council, pornmeister Richard (Dickie to his friends, believe it or not) Barnbrook, was interviewed. Curiously the interviewer chose not to ask Barnbrook about the lies told by the BNP to gain its seats (Africans for Essex, for example) nor to pick him up on his odd assertion that the BNP was there to represent the 'indigenous' population including first and second generation Africans and Asians, nor for his bizarre and unlikely claim that 1 in 5 first and second generation minority groups voted for the racist BNP. Rather the interviewer, in a brief spasm of interviewing prowess, mentioned the poor performance of Barking and Dagenham's BNP councillors.

According to the leader of the council, Charles Fairbrass, the BNP's attendance record is appalling - around 51% - which Fairbrass suggests is a direct result of the fact that they simply didn't expect to win. He also criticised the BNP contingent for not turning up to the training sessions for new councillors.

Barnbrook had no hesitation in accepting the attendance figure of 51% and the non-attendance at training sessions but blamed that on the fact that many of the BNP councillors work and, the training sessions being held during working hours, they simply couldn't get the time off. Curiously, though unsurprisingly, the interviewer allowed this to slide, though he should have pointed out that councillors are legally entitled to time off work to attend to council business (including training sessions) and receive generous payments to make up for any shortfall in wages. Besides that, if anyone has stood for council without checking with their employer first, they're an idiot.

Barnbrook also supervises the councillors for the BNP nationally. Strangely he appeared completely ignorant of all the serious convictions of the councillors he's supposed to be supervising. When asked about a BNP councillor convicted of assaulting his wife and a police officer, racially abusing a group of Asians and being banned from every football ground in the country, Barnbrook claimed to be unaware of him. Also James Lloyd, who left the tenancy of the Blue Lagoon pub at Tipton after a shooting and various other violent incidents and amid police claims that he failed to co-operate with the subsequent investigations. And what about the BNP councillor convicted of three assaults on members of his wife's family (David Enderby)? Again and again, Barnbrook claimed not to know anything of these individuals and, sadly, the interviewer gave up.

The programme then moved to the cosmetic changes that have been made to the BNP. Nick Griffin, busily re-writing history, stated that the BNP evolved out of the old National Front, where there had been a 'neo-fascist strain', a 'racist strain' but not, according to him, a 'thuggish strain', describing any suggestion as 'massively over-exaggerated'. When asked if all this was behind the party, Griffin said yes, but it all takes a long time. It certainly does - the BNP moved away from the NF in 1982, a quarter of a century ago.

Griffin 'accepted' that anti-semitism had been a part of the party ethos but was no longer. When asked if he still believed the Holocaust was the hoax of the 20th Century, he responded;

'No, I do not.'
'What made you change your mind?'
'Primarily European law. If I say that now or believe that now, I'm liable to be extradited to France...I believe what the law says I must believe.'

Startlingly, the interviewer didn't take this any further.

Moving on to the BNP's attempted exploitation of Christianity for its own ends, the programme interviewed former BNP councillor (deservedly ousted in May this year) and fake-vicar Robert West, the leader of the BNP front-group, the Christian Council of Britain.

West, sounding uncannily like Andy Hamilton, was allowed to sermonise on what he perceived to be the evils of multiculturalism, claiming the purity of races as 'God's will', a phrase that certainly made me nervous. Picking selected chunks from the Bible, he spoke against race-mixing, claiming that God's command is that nations should live apart.

The Anglican Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, rejected this outright, stating that the claims made by West were similar to those made in South Africa to justify apartheid.

'It's nonsense, it's wrong and it's not at all in the spirit of the Gospel... I think what the BNP is doing is making use of a flag of convenience, namely the Christian heritage of the country. In the past they've spoken about the 'real' religion of the country being pagan worship of the Norse gods.'

From there, the programme went off to Griffin and West's bizarre ideas on Islam, neatly and concisely demolished by Inayat Bunglawala, spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, then drifted into apocalypse-mode with a discussion about the possibility of civil war.

Griffin quoted the arguably-insane Rear-Admiral Parry, who claimed last year that Britain would be in the grip of civil war within five years. While acknowledging this and stating that he believed this to be true, Griffin also stated that he expected the BNP to be in government (by which we assume he means would have enough MPs to control the government) by 2040, indicating that he at least has a rich fantasy life.

Finally, the programme wondered if, after its dismal performance in the recent local elections, the BNP can still hope to become a serious political force. Professor Peter John of Manchester University responded:

'I don't think so...Local campaigns maybe - nationally, no.'

Is 'Christian nation' rhetoric aiding the far-right?

Christian denominations and church groups have been falling over themselves to denounce the British National Party (BNP) in the last few weeks, ahead of the impending local elections.

During the last European elections, I was taking part in a BBC phone-in on political extremism when the BNP's press officer called the programme. Not only was the BNP a Christian party, he claimed, but the institutional church had let the country down. His party would defend British culture because churches had failed to do so.

Since then there have been two noticeable changes. First, the BNP has stepped up its religious rhetoric. In recent local elections, the party's literature included copies of the controversial Mohammed cartoons. It also helped establish a 'Christian Council of Britain'. The goal is apparently to appeal to those in the population who identify with Christianity, but feel panicked both by 'liberal secularism' and the growth of Islam.

At the same time, leading figures within the Church of England have also become far more vocal in their calls to stem the tide of secularism, and to defend the predominant 'Christian culture' of Britain. The uncomfortable fact is that this puts the Church into the position of arguing the same political point about national identity as the BNP.

Of course the rationales of these messages are very different. The agenda behind the BNP's claims is essentially a cultural one - partly in opposition to an alleged liberal elite, and partly in an attempt to whip up fear of minority faiths. In contrast, few would question the commitment of the Church of England to combating racism. But the time has come to face the fact that when it uses 'Christian nation' rhetoric, it risks encouraging support for right-wing extremists.

It may be no coincidence that it has been the Church's two most senior black leaders, Archbishop Sentamu and Bishop Nazir Ali, who have made the most prominent pronouncements against 'the secular tide'. The Church must surely be aware of the dangers of its arguments. But it is doubtful that this will limit the damage, with the BNP also now claiming (no doubt disingenuously) some non-white members.

These problems look likely to get more uncomfortable. The BNP now has 47 councillors in the UK, and church schools could face BNP representatives appointed to their governing bodies. Local authorities, after all, have a duty to nominate some governors from different local political parties. If this happens, they may find these representatives wholeheartedly endorsing the admissions policies that many church schools run, favouring Christians over others in local communities, as a strategy for encouraging social division.

But the terrain is changing. A recent Tearfund survey found that just 53% of the population identified in some way with Christianity. That is a colossal drop compared to the last national census, when 72% did so.

This is tough news for a Church that wants to rely on 'cultural capital'. But there is another way. Instead of adopting a defensive stance which pleases those seeking to make political capital out of civic 'de-Christianization', the Church has an opportunity to refocus on the vocation of Jesus - which means costly discipleship, not cultural dominance.

It is easy to make a claim to speak for the sentiments of an, albeit dwindling, majority of the population. It is far harder to mount a practical stand for justice, and base one's political authority on the quality of one's actions in the here and now. But in an increasingly religiously plural society, it will be the quality of contemporary political witness, not appeals to a bygone age, which will sort the sheep from the old goats.

Ekklesia

BNP vicar "seeks asylum"

THE CHURCH and fascism do not normally mix, but one Reverend has clearly rejected the command to "love thy neighbour" in favour of racial hatred.

Former Conservative Party councillor Rev'd Robert West is standing for the British National Party for the first time after defecting to the neo-Nazis in protest at David Cameron's "A-list."

His candidature, in the east Midlands district of South Holland, is one of several eyeraising choices as council candidates made by Nick Griffin's party.

Rev'd West claimed his action was sparked by a desire to "seek "refuge from political correctness by applying for asylum with the British National Party - Britain's finest and most decent party - in our country's hour of need."

Ironically Rev'd West taught political philosophy and equal opportunities law at the universities of Nottingham and East Anglia, was also a member of the Lincolnshire Council for Racial Equality.

But, switching to the BNP, he claimed Cameron's A-list, an attempt to boost numbers of women and black candidates, was "discrimination of the worst kind."

The part time supply teacher is the only name publicly associated with the Christian Council of Britain, a front organisation set up by the BNP to "Christianise" its message.

The CCB attempted to forge links with Christian Voice at the height of the Jerry Springer - The Opera controversy, in a coalition of right-wing Christian fundamentalists.

Rev'd West, 53, has reportedly been spotted among BNP supporters outside Leeds Crown Court during the trial, on racial hatred charges, of BNP leader Nick Griffin and youth leader Mark Collett, who is also standing for election to his council in Yorkshire.

Rev'd West has set up his own church, based in a house in Holbeach, to preach "traditional bible beliefs" after leaving the Anglican church.

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