UK: BNP party leader and two others appear in court
By Justin Oliver Zinda – The British National Party (BNP)’s leader, Nick Griffin, with 2 other members of his party appeared in court on 8th November 2010 accused of lying over the BNP’s constitution. They are facing charges pressed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which says the BNP is refusing to obey orders to remove a ‘non-white’ clause.
The Equality and Human Rights watchdog, acting for the Commission, is claiming that the BNP’s constitution is potentially discriminatory. Mr Walker – a BNP Staff Manager, however, seems to believe that the BNP has already altered its constitution to allow people from all different backgrounds to join. He said in an interview (in the clip below) that: ‘They demanded that we make some changes to our constitution and we did that. As a party, we changed our constitution and we now welcome people from all ethnic backgrounds.’
It must be said that there seemed to be nobody from ethnic minorities in the noisy, and at times aggressive, group of BNP supporters I saw throwing coffee at people passing by. In that respect, it is hard to believe that the BNP represents British people, as Mr Walker seemed to insinuate. British people are a loving and tolerant people. However, in Britain today racism still persists and no one is pretending that it will one day be completely eradicated.
In court yesterday, Nick Griffin was reported to have lied about the change in the BNP’s constitution, i.e. the removal of the clause banning non-white members. In any event, Nick Griffin’s lies (if they were) cannot be compared to George W. Bush’s embarrassing admission that he was not being straightforward with us on the matter concerning water boarding of terrorist suspects. If we take that into consideration, Nick deserves respect, as he – at least – speaks his mind. It takes courage for a man to do that. We might not agree with him, but that is totally a different matter!
