The BNP’s “poison” has no place in British communities, Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman said yesterday. Home affairs select committee chairman Keith Vaz also attacked the far-right party from the conference platform, saying it would “destroy” British society.
Ms Harman said: “The BNP pretend they’ve changed, pretend they’re respectable. They are no such thing. They’re still the same party that wanted the Nazis to win the war. They’re still the same party whose constitution excludes from membership anyone who is not ‘indigenous Caucasian’. It’s right that the new Equality Bill will ban that clause. There can be no place in our democracy for an apartheid party.”
Mr Vaz told delegates: “Those who seek to destroy the world’s most sophisticated and diverse society – Britain, mirror of the world – are on the attack once again. And they are even getting elected, politically laundering their racism into legitimacy.”
Councillor Mahroof Hussain, of Rotherham, said: “I stand before you as a proud British citizen, a proud Yorkshireman and a proud Labour activist. Let me tell the BNP: my father worked in the steelworks for 30 years, he helped to build our great country.”
Labour’s treasurer Jack Dromey said the party still needed to raise large sums of money for the election “to beat the BNP – the bullies and the boot boys in suits who disgrace Britain”.
The Press and Journal
Showing posts with label Equality Bill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Equality Bill. Show all posts
October 01, 2009
June 14, 2009
BNP in European Parliament is no laughing matter
There's an old Groucho Marx joke about how he’d never join a club that would have someone like him as a member. It’s a shame more white people don’t feel that way about the British National Party.
Groucho’s self-deprecating one-liner was funny and clever, but if the BNP were the club in question, no one would be laughing. How can any political party that bans blacks, Asians and Jews – like Groucho – be taken seriously in a democracy, let alone garner enough votes to win two seats in the European Parliament?
But surely no non-white person in their right mind would want to join the BNP anyway, I hear you say, so what’s the problem? To which my answer is this . . . whether they want to or not is irrelevant. What’s important is that they should be able to.
Turning a blind eye to institutional racism is unacceptable in a civilised society. And you can’t get more “institutional” than writing a racist clause into your constitution. The fact that no one of ethnic origin would wish to associate themselves with the BNP is beside the point.
The Government’s new Equalities Bill will make it illegal for any organisation to insist – as the BNP does – on an “indigenous Caucasian” membership. We’ve waited too long for such legislation. Meanwhile, the BNP has been allowed to grow like a tumour by convincing disaffected Brits that it is benign. People concerned about immigration – not necessarily racists, perhaps even realists – have been suckered into supporting these fascists either through a misplaced sense of patriotism or as a consequence of giving Labour a good kicking.
Blinded by the glaring shortcomings of the Government and its main rivals, some view the BNP as a viable alternative instead of seeing the party for what it really is . . . a watered-down Ku Klux Klan. And if you think that’s going too far, let me remind you that during the BNP’s Euro campaign, photographs emerged of its leader Nick Griffin with the Klan’s grand wizard Stephen “Don” Black.
Black – who has an unfortunate surname for a white supremacist – famously defended a BNP leaflet that said black and Asian Britons should be referred to as “racial foreigners”. It also emerged on Friday that James Von Brunn, the crazed anti-semite who shot and killed a security guard at Washington’s Holocaust Memorial Museum, had close ties with the American Friends of the British National Party. That’s the calibre of “friends” they attract.
In all probability, the Equality Bill will not change the way people think about the BNP. The hardliners who support it will continue to do so. And the enforced change to the party’s constitution is unlikely to result in blacks beating a path to its door. But even if the new law turns out to be purely academic and the BNP’s odious membership rules are never tested, it’s important to have a legal sledgehammer with which to smash this apartheid constitution should the situation arise.
I sullied myself by looking on the official BNP website before writing this. On it, the party’s leader, Nick Griffin, claims its membership qualifications are “wholly within the law as dictated by the Race Relations Act”. He adds: “Nothing the Government does will change the party’s commitment to serving the interests of the indigenous population of our country.”
I don’t doubt that. An Equality Bill will not change what the BNP stands for. It won’t even clarify what is meant by the term “indigenous population”, which can be interpreted in a number of ways. What it will do is open up the BNP to greater scrutiny, and lay bare the myth that it serves the interests of anyone other than bigots and thugs.
Sunday Sun
Groucho’s self-deprecating one-liner was funny and clever, but if the BNP were the club in question, no one would be laughing. How can any political party that bans blacks, Asians and Jews – like Groucho – be taken seriously in a democracy, let alone garner enough votes to win two seats in the European Parliament?
But surely no non-white person in their right mind would want to join the BNP anyway, I hear you say, so what’s the problem? To which my answer is this . . . whether they want to or not is irrelevant. What’s important is that they should be able to.
Turning a blind eye to institutional racism is unacceptable in a civilised society. And you can’t get more “institutional” than writing a racist clause into your constitution. The fact that no one of ethnic origin would wish to associate themselves with the BNP is beside the point.
The Government’s new Equalities Bill will make it illegal for any organisation to insist – as the BNP does – on an “indigenous Caucasian” membership. We’ve waited too long for such legislation. Meanwhile, the BNP has been allowed to grow like a tumour by convincing disaffected Brits that it is benign. People concerned about immigration – not necessarily racists, perhaps even realists – have been suckered into supporting these fascists either through a misplaced sense of patriotism or as a consequence of giving Labour a good kicking.
Blinded by the glaring shortcomings of the Government and its main rivals, some view the BNP as a viable alternative instead of seeing the party for what it really is . . . a watered-down Ku Klux Klan. And if you think that’s going too far, let me remind you that during the BNP’s Euro campaign, photographs emerged of its leader Nick Griffin with the Klan’s grand wizard Stephen “Don” Black.
Black – who has an unfortunate surname for a white supremacist – famously defended a BNP leaflet that said black and Asian Britons should be referred to as “racial foreigners”. It also emerged on Friday that James Von Brunn, the crazed anti-semite who shot and killed a security guard at Washington’s Holocaust Memorial Museum, had close ties with the American Friends of the British National Party. That’s the calibre of “friends” they attract.
In all probability, the Equality Bill will not change the way people think about the BNP. The hardliners who support it will continue to do so. And the enforced change to the party’s constitution is unlikely to result in blacks beating a path to its door. But even if the new law turns out to be purely academic and the BNP’s odious membership rules are never tested, it’s important to have a legal sledgehammer with which to smash this apartheid constitution should the situation arise.
I sullied myself by looking on the official BNP website before writing this. On it, the party’s leader, Nick Griffin, claims its membership qualifications are “wholly within the law as dictated by the Race Relations Act”. He adds: “Nothing the Government does will change the party’s commitment to serving the interests of the indigenous population of our country.”
I don’t doubt that. An Equality Bill will not change what the BNP stands for. It won’t even clarify what is meant by the term “indigenous population”, which can be interpreted in a number of ways. What it will do is open up the BNP to greater scrutiny, and lay bare the myth that it serves the interests of anyone other than bigots and thugs.
Sunday Sun
Labels:
BNP,
Don Black,
Equality Bill,
James von Brunn,
Ku Klux Klan,
Nick Griffin
June 11, 2009
Equality bill 'will make BNP illegal'
The upcoming equality bill will make the British National party's (BNP) membership criteria illegal, Harriet Harman has confirmed.
Speaking during business questions opposite Alan Duncan, Ms Harman responded to concerns about the election of two BNP MEPs last week in the European elections. Ms Harman said she was "shocked and horrified" by their success but went on to say its constitution - which bars non-whites from membership – would become illegal once the equality bill was passed.
"There is no place for a political party in this country to have an apartheid constitution and the equality bill will prevent this from being the case," she said.
Andrew Brons and party leader Nick Griffin were elected as MEPs for the Yorkshire and the Humber and north-west regions with 9.8 per cent and eight per cent respectively in European elections held last week.
Later in the session a Conservative MP suggested to Ms Harman the reason voters in these two "great regions" had turned to the BNP was because of widespread frustration with mainstream parties' ability to deal with the issues of the day.
Ms Harman said that "throughout history" when there had been fear for people's jobs and standards of living "that always provides opportunities for stirring up of apprehension and fear by far-right parties". She added: "There is no place in British national life and democracy for a party that excludes people on the basis of the colour of their skin".
Ms Harman has a strong record on equality issues and is currently minister for women, beyond her roles as deputy Labour leader and leader of the House.
The equality bill consolidates all the UK's disparate equality laws into one piece of legislation, including laws related to the provision of goods and services, although it is unclear if it will be these sections which affect the party.
politics.co.uk
Speaking during business questions opposite Alan Duncan, Ms Harman responded to concerns about the election of two BNP MEPs last week in the European elections. Ms Harman said she was "shocked and horrified" by their success but went on to say its constitution - which bars non-whites from membership – would become illegal once the equality bill was passed.
"There is no place for a political party in this country to have an apartheid constitution and the equality bill will prevent this from being the case," she said.
Andrew Brons and party leader Nick Griffin were elected as MEPs for the Yorkshire and the Humber and north-west regions with 9.8 per cent and eight per cent respectively in European elections held last week.
Later in the session a Conservative MP suggested to Ms Harman the reason voters in these two "great regions" had turned to the BNP was because of widespread frustration with mainstream parties' ability to deal with the issues of the day.
Ms Harman said that "throughout history" when there had been fear for people's jobs and standards of living "that always provides opportunities for stirring up of apprehension and fear by far-right parties". She added: "There is no place in British national life and democracy for a party that excludes people on the basis of the colour of their skin".
Ms Harman has a strong record on equality issues and is currently minister for women, beyond her roles as deputy Labour leader and leader of the House.
The equality bill consolidates all the UK's disparate equality laws into one piece of legislation, including laws related to the provision of goods and services, although it is unclear if it will be these sections which affect the party.
politics.co.uk
Labels:
BNP,
Equality Bill,
European elections,
Harriet harman,
Nick Griffin
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