Tag: BNP

  • BNP debate ‘illegal’, Hain warns

    BNP debate ‘illegal’, Hain warns

    A4Cabinet minister Peter Hain has warned the BBC that it could face legal action unless it scraps the controversial appearance of far-right MEP Nick Griffin on Question Time.

    Peter Hain has written to BBC director general Mark Thompson demanding he suspend the “abhorrent” inclusion of the British National Party leader on the flagship political debate show.

    The Welsh Secretary argued that the BNP was at present “an unlawful body” after the party told a court last week it would amend its whites-only membership rules to meet discrimination legislation.

    The Equality and Human Rights Commission had issued county court proceedings over concerns the membership criteria were restrictive to those within certain ethnic groups.

    Mr Griffin is due to appear on Thursday’s edition of Question Time alongside Justice Secretary Jack Straw, representatives of the other main parties and black writer Bonnie Greer.

    But in his letter, Mr Hain said: “If you do not review the decision you may run the very serious risk of legal challenge in addition to the moral objections that I make. In my view, your approach is unreasonable, irrational and unlawful.”

    ITN

  • UK, Racism; From the streets to the courts

    UK, Racism; From the streets to the courts

    a6A mini-pogrom in Ulster has shocked Britain. But a legal battle with the far right is brewing on the mainland.

    RACIST bogeymen leered out of newspaper pages in both Britain and Northern Ireland this week. On the mainland, the far-right British National Party (BNP), which won its first two seats in the European Parliament earlier this month, was given an ultimatum by Britain’s equality watchdog to step in line with non-discrimination laws or face legal action. Separately, white thugs in Ulster hounded more than a hundred Romanian immigrants—mainly Roma gypsies—out of their homes and, in most cases it now seems, away from the province altogether.

    The attacks in south Belfast were of the sort that Northern Ireland hoped had died with the Troubles. Over several nights crowds stoned the homes of immigrant families, smashing windows and posting extracts of Mein Kampf through letterboxes. Tension between locals and east European immigrants had simmered since football hooligans clashed at a match between Poland and Northern Ireland in March. When the intimidation reached a peak on June 16th, the Romanians were moved to a church hall and then to a leisure centre. On June 23rd Northern Ireland’s government announced that most had decided to return to Romania.

    Northern Ireland elected no far-right politicians to the European Parliament in the polling on June 4th. Nonetheless, many in Britain reckon that their neighbours over the water are a more prejudiced bunch than they are themselves. Socially, Ulster leans to the right: civil partnerships, greeted with a shrug by most British Tories, attracted protests in Belfast when they were introduced in 2005; abortion is also more restricted than on the mainland.

    It may be that these conservative attitudes extend to scepticism about outsiders. A survey published on June 24th by Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission, a statutory watchdog, found that nearly a quarter of the population would be unhappy if a migrant worker moved in next-door. People were even more hostile to Irish travellers, sometimes called gypsies (and often confused with Roma). Just over half said they would mind having travellers living next to them.

    Comparing these results with the rest of Britain is hard because surveys produce different answers according to how a question is worded. Across the United Kingdom, less than a tenth of whites say they would mind having a black or Asian boss (though nearly a third admit to being at least “a little” racially prejudiced). But the trends on the mainland and in Ulster are in sharp contrast. British hang-ups about minorities have fallen pretty steadily over the past 20 years, according to the British Social Attitudes Survey, a big questionnaire. By contrast, Northern Irish dislike of travellers is up by a quarter from 2005.

    Yet sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland are relatively low. Only 6% now say they would mind having a neighbour of a different faith. One theory goes that the fizzling out of the old disputes has helped to stoke other ones. “The attitudes that facilitate sectarianism may find new outlets in new times,” suggested Bob Collins, the head of the commission. Immigrants are not the only victims: anti-gay sentiment, falling across Britain, has gone up by more than half in Northern Ireland since 2005.

    Glass houses

    The election of a man with a conviction for inciting race hatred to represent northern England in the European Parliament spoils any pretty notion that all is well on the mainland. But the selection of Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, and his colleague Andrew Brons, a former National Front chairman, has provoked a legal challenge from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a mega-watchdog.

    The EHRC wrote to Mr Griffin on June 23rd that it believed the BNP fell foul of the law in its race-based membership policy, its hiring (which appears to be restricted to party members) and what the EHRC interpreted as hints that the party would not provide an equal service to constituents of all races. Unless the BNP changes its ways by July 20th, the watchdog will seek a court order to force it to; if the party held that in contempt it could face fines, imprisonment—and publicity.

    Why pounce now? First, the EHRC was born only in 2007. Its predecessor, the Commission for Racial Equality, lacked the power to pursue this sort of independent legal challenge. Second, the law has been clarified: the law lords ruled in November 2007 that certain functions of political parties are indeed subject to the Race Relations Act of 1976, which had been in doubt.

    Most obviously, the action was triggered by the electoral success of the BNP which, coupled with talk in Westminster about voting reform likely to benefit small parties, has made it harder to dismiss as a sideshow. Others have moved against the BNP since the election: the Royal British Legion, a veterans’ group, publicly called on Mr Griffin to stop wearing its poppy emblem; the government is pondering banning BNP members from teaching, just as they are already banned from the police and prison services. A forthcoming bill on equal opportunities is expected to include a clause explicitly to stop the BNP and its ilk from insisting on race-based membership.

    If the EHRC’s complaint goes to court, it will not be the first time a case against a political party has tested race-relations laws. The 1976 act followed a House of Lords ruling in 1973 upholding the right of East Ham South Conservative Club to ban a Sikh because of his race. And the 2007 Lords’ ruling that has clarified the grounds for the EHRC’s current case was over a complaint by a Pakistani man—upheld by their lordships—against the Labour Party.

    Economist

  • DARK FAMILY SECRETS OF BNP LEADER NICK GRIFFIN

    DARK FAMILY SECRETS OF BNP LEADER NICK GRIFFIN

    By David Jarvis

    SURPRISE: The 1871 Census has Griffin’s great-grandfather George as a hawker living in a van
    SURPRISE: The 1871 Census has Griffin’s great-grandfather George as a hawker living in a van

    BNP leader Nick Griffin, who last week branded gypsies “anti social and criminal”, can trace his roots to travellers hawking cheap goods from a horse and cart.

    The controversial MEP’s great-grandfather George Griffin roamed from town to town in a horse-drawn caravan with his wife Esther and their children, selling china and crockery.

    Census reports show he spent years living the gypsy life, never settling in one place because as an impoverished traveller he was on the margins of society and never fully accepted anywhere.

    Last week Griffin, 50, who condemned attacks on Romanian gypsies in Northern Ireland, said: “We have to bear in mind that the gypsy community is notorious for its extremely high rate of criminality and antisocial behaviour.

    “Everyone in Romania and eastern Europe knows this and it is one reason why their governments are so keen to encourage them to come over here.”

    Yet between 1868 and 1874 records show his great-grandfather represented just such a minority. He travelled in one caravan with his  while his business partner, Mary Ann Hollis, travelled in another.

    George habitually lied about his age, describing himself as 25 in the 1871 Census, 41 a decade later, 47 in the 1891 Census and 58 in 1901. He plied his precarious trade in Devon and Cornwall and could often be found parked outside the London Inn pub in Liskeard.

    The 1871 Census shows the caravans were parked next to the Cornish pub, noting: “Six persons not in houses”. In the column marked “Houses” it reports them as living in vans.

    While George lived with Esther, 22, and his 10-month-old son George Junior in one, Mary Ann Hollis, 37, was in the second with George’s three-year-old daughter Mary Ann Griffi n and a William Huxham, 16.

    He is described as a servant but probably earned his keep selling wares. In the Census column marked “Rank, profession or occupation” George is a “licensed hawker dealing in china and crockery ware”.

    His lifestyle would not have fitted with the intolerant views of Mr Griffin and the British National Party which does not accept black people as members.

    “Griffin has called for an immediate halt to immigration, and voluntary resettlement of immigrants legally living in Britain.

    When told this week of Mr Griffin’s heritage, shocked BNP deputy leader Simon Darby said: “That will please him.” Genealogy expert Nick Barratt added: “George Griffin travelled around, scratching a living. His group will have roamed from street to street like ragtag travellers trying to survive on their wits and selling their wares.

    “And it is highly likely he spent many more years living the life of a traveller before he married.

    “Today we would call his group travellers and just like today they would have been marginalised on the edge of society and seen as outsiders.

    “They will have been treated with a degree of suspicion and as a minority.”

    Source:  www.express.co.uk, June 21, 2009

  • Equality bill will outlaw ‘apartheid’ constitution of the BNP

    Equality bill will outlaw ‘apartheid’ constitution of the BNP

    harrietharmanThe BNP’s “apartheid” constitution will be outlawed under legislation before parliament, Commons leader Harriet Harman told MPs yesterday.

    Ms Harman said she was “shocked and horrified” by the election of BNP leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons to the European Parliament last week.

    She said there was “no place” in Britain for having a political party that only accepted white people as members and that the Equality Bill would prevent this.

    During questions on future business she told MPs: “We have all been shocked and horrified by the fact that two regions of this country, the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside, are represented by the British National Party, a party who have in their constitution a provision that you cannot be a member of that party if you are not white.”

    She added: “All of us should agree that there is no place for a political party in this country to have an apartheid constitution and the Equality Bill will prevent that being the case.”

    According to the BNP’s constitution, members must be from the “indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of Indigenous Caucasian”‘.

    Tory Philip Davies said: “The reason why so many people voted for them the BNP wasn’t through an endorsement of their nasty creed of politics but out of frustration. The mainstream political parties don’t seem to be addressing their legitimate concerns in these areas.”

    A spokeswoman for the Government Equalities Office said: “The Equality Bill would give individuals a right to take legal action against the BNP, in respect of it excluding anyone from membership on grounds of race.”

    Source:  The Herald, Scotland, June 21 2009

  • Devils United

    Devils United

    nThe leader of the far-right British National Party wept as he saluted party members for helping win two seats in the European parliament.

    Nick Griffin was addressing delegates in a Blackpool hotel as part of the BNP’s “summer school” and Victory 09 celebrations.

    After listening to speeches by party bosses Mr Griffin was applauded to the stage.

    He managed just a “Thank you,” before he broke down. He thanked individuals and the collective membership for enabling two MEPs to be elected – himself in the North West and Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and the Humber.

    Speaking amid St George’s Cross bunting and sepia photographs of war veterans and impish little children, Mr Griffin applauded senior member Mark Collet, with whom he was cleared of inciting racial hatred in 2006.

    “The propaganda was exceptional,” he said of the BNP literature produced ahead of the local and Euro elections.

    Mr Griffin attacked the media for what he described as a smear campaign the likes of which he had never seen before. He attacked the three main parties for turning the country into a “multicultural bankrupt slum” and “organising and funding” the protesters against him.

    “Like a new boy at school,” was how he described visiting Brussels for the first time. But he said he had joined forces with other right-wing parties, forming “Devils United”.

    Outside The New Kimberley Hotel on the south promenade some 80 Unite Against Fascism members protested against the BNP.

    Four people were arrested near the protest, which police said was peaceful. The four were arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

    Press Association

  • Royal College of Midwives attacks BNP maternity claims

    Royal College of Midwives attacks BNP maternity claims

    rcmThe Royal College of Midwives has hit out at claims by the BNP that it blames immigration for increased pressure on maternity services.

    An article on the BNP website said: ‘According to a survey by the Royal College of Midwives issued in 2008, the quality of NHS care has plummeted because ministers failed to predict a massive rise in the birth rate among immigrant mothers.’

    According to the article, ‘several maternity wards at NHS hospitals in areas which serve largely white areas of the country, have been forced to shut their doors for months at a time because staff were needed elsewhere to deliver babies from foreign-born mothers in immigrant-dense areas.’

    But the RCM denied that it considered immigration to be a problem.

    General secretary Cathy Warwick pointed out that many midwives were born outside of the UK and without them, NHS maternity care would be ‘on its knees’.

    Instead, Ms Warwick said the pressure on maternity units was caused by increasing fertility rates in older women.

    Ms Warwick said: ‘We have seen an almost 50 percent rise in the fertility rate for women aged 40 or over, for example, and these women place more demands on the service than younger women. ‘Every year, the amount of medical intervention in maternity care increases and the number of babies delivered by caesarean section rises, both of which place extra demands on those providing maternity care.

    ‘The growing complexity and quality of maternity care are therefore the main reasons why pressures on the service are growing.

    ‘Thankfully, all mainstream parties recognise this and there is cross-party support for more resources for maternity care to deliver the first-class service we all want. That is the approach that responsible political parties should be taking, not scapegoating foreign-born mothers for a failure to invest in more midwives and better facilities and choice for all women.’

    Source:  www.nursingtimes.net, 17 June, 2009