British National Party

The British National Party (BNP) is a British political party. The BNP's current leader is Nick Griffin, who has been convicted of incitement to racial hatred in 1998, and is noted for holocaust denial, calling the extermination of the European Jews "the Holohoax". Though it is generally described as being on the right wing of politics, it espouses a number of fiscally left-wing policies. For example, although it is in favour of repatriating non-white people from the UK, it also favours substantial government involvement in the economy. In the words of the BNP leader, they will also "hang race traitors."

The BNP has strong ties to Neo-Nazi and anti-semitic groups. "The BNP claims not to be a "race supremacist" party but its publications report on the genetic superiority of the "white race". It claims not to have any connection with "race hate" yet many of its leading members have convictions for racist crimes." The party now also tries to "cash in on what it perceives to be the growth in Islamophobia" with its leader stating: "It stands to reason that adopting an 'Islamophobic' position that appeals to large numbers of ordinary people - including un-nudged journalists - is going to produce on average much better media coverage than siding with Iran and banging on about 'Jewish power', which is guaranteed to raise hackles of virtually every single journalist in the western world." This superficial repackaging of their party - without actually disavowing their neo-Nazi ideology - is simply an attempt commonly seen, particularly post-9/11, in politicians and movements of the ultra-right to make a strategic breakthrough by appealing to a more mainstream audience. The BNP try to present a more respectable image but they are the same extremists that they always were.

Griffin is known to have "forged alliances with representatives of Gaddafi's regime in Libya - a move no doubt inspired by a common disdain for Jews." In 1998 Griffin received a jail sentence, suspended for two years, for inciting racial hatred under the Public Order Act. The charge related to statements made in his publication The Rune. In Griffin's words, the Holocaust "is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter-day witch hysteria".

The BNP's representation in the UK is entirely at the local level. It has no representatives in Parliament, nor in any of Britain's regional legislatures or the European Parliament. In May 2008 Richard Barnbrook became the first BNP member to be elected to the London Assembly. Anti-nazi campaigners said a victory for the party meant "hatred, violence and stupidity".

Further reading

• Barton, Dale. Will The BNP Go Away If Christians Just Ignore Them?. Originally published in Searchlight Magazine April 2004. Full version online at stopthebnp.org.uk