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From The Times
April 19, 2007
The British National Party gains strength
As a Government minister warns of the dangers of immigration, Martin Fletcher finds a swath of middle England ready to vote for BNP leader Nick Griffin — a convicted racist who favours birching delinquent teenagers and paying immigrants to leave
It is, at first sight, a vision of rural bliss — a cream-coloured cottage high in the hills of Mid Wales and two miles from the nearest road. The daffodils are out. Lambs gambol in the fields. Chickens peck around the yard. In the side garden, beyond the rabbit hutch and fishpond, two blonde girls are playing in the sun. Look closer, however, and you spot the incongruities: the two rottweilers in their caged kennel, security cameras, the burglar alarm. You begin to suspect that the owner has chosen this house precisely for its inaccessibility. He has reason to.
Nick Griffin is leader of the whites-only British National Party and one of the most hated — and, to his many detractors, hateful — men in the country. He is a former National Front member, convicted of inciting racial hatred against Jews in 1998 and acquitted of similar charges against Muslims in two high-profile trials last year. He is a man who has called Britain a “multi-racial hellhole”, Islam a “wicked, vicious faith”, British Muslims “the most appalling, insufferable people to have to live with”, overt homosexuality “repulsive” and the Holocaust “the hoax of the 20th century”. He has declared that “nonwhites have no place here at all and [we] will not rest until every last one has left our land”.
I am about to spend two days with Griffin before next month’s local elections. Anti-fascist groups insist that the BNP should be denied the proverbial oxygen of publicity, but as the party gains strength with each successive election that stance becomes increasingly untenable. Nearly a quarter of a million people voted BNP in last May’s local elections and elected 49 councillors. The party is putting up 750 candidates on May 3, double last year’s tally, and may gain dozens more seats. The BNP is Britain’s fastest-growing party and it is absurd to hope that it will go away if ignored.
The self-styled champion of indigenous Britons greets me in a T-shirt and green wellies. He is a youthful-looking 48 with a plastic left eye (he lost the real one when a shotgun cartridge exploded in a fire) who has spent the morning working on his two acres. As he goes inside to change, I chat to his wife Jackie, a specialist nurse in Powys.
She and their four children — three daughters and a son, ages 14 to 21 — are BNP members, but she makes clear that she does not share all her husband’s views. “There’s some things you have common ground on and others you don’t agree on,” she says, refusing to elaborate. She clearly adores him, however. She frets about his safety. She calls him a “hopeless romantic” but merely giggles when I ask for examples. Griffin reappears in a purple shirt and suit — he disapproves of politicians dressing down, though he does wear a gold ear-stud. He poses for pictures in his tiny office. The wallpaper on his computer screen reads: “Haha, Dad you don’t know how to change this back!!” There are trophies from his days as a Cambridge boxing Blue. There is also a framed Kipling poem which starts: “It was not part of their blood/ It came to them very late/ With long arrears to make good/ When the English began to hate.”
Griffin kisses Jackie goodbye, reminds her to water his newly planted aubretia, and we head off in his Ford Mondeo estate for the fertile BNP territory of West Yorkshire, with its immigrant populations of 10, 20 or even 30 per cent. In the back is a book recording the Scottish National Party’s transformation from an extreme to a mainstream party.
Griffin’s inspiration, however, is Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front, who turned “a bunch of crazies into a serious political force”.
“You’re all lying scum,” he replies when I ask why he is letting a journalist accompany him. “It’s part of your job. But you can’t say you’re a normal party, then hide yourself away. There’s nothing to hide.” That, of course, is the question.
He tells me about a life spent mostly on the extreme right of British politics. His parents met while heckling a Communist Party meeting in North London in 1948. During the 1964 general election campaign, Griffin pedalled up and down the street outside his home in Barnet with Conservative posters on his tricycle. By 1974 his father, a Tory councillor and member of the right-wing Monday Club, was so dismayed by Britain’s leftward drift that he took his family to a National Front meeting. Griffin, then 15, joined immediately.
After graduating in law from Cambridge he worked for the NF in London, living on the dole. The party imploded during the Thatcher years. He quit in 1989. In the mid1990s John Tyndall, the neo-Nazi demagogue who founded the BNP in 1982, lured him back into Far-Right politics.
Griffin made statements condoning street violence. He received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for alleging the existence of a Jewish conspiracy to brainwash the British people. In 1999, however, he ousted Tyndall as BNP leader and set about turning a bunch of neo-Nazi skinheads into an electable party. The rhetoric was tempered, some of the worst rowdies left and suits replaced bomber jackets.
Griffin has earned his £1,800-a-month BNP salary. The party won three council seats in Burnley in 2002. It now has 49 nationwide, and on May 3 Griffin expects to win many more in what he sarcastically calls “enriched” areas such as inner Essex, the Black Country, West Yorkshire and Lancashire.
The party will also be contesting seats in blue-rinse towns such as Harrogate, Bath, Windsor and Torbay. One recent poll suggested that 7 per cent of the electorate would consider voting for it.
Griffin says that membership has risen from 1,300 in 1999 to 10,500, boosted by home-grown Islamic terrorist plots, globalisation and his dramatic acquittal in last year’s race-hate trials. Critics insist that the BNP’s move towards respectability is purely cosmetic. Griffin retorts, as we join the motorway, that it is “deep and sincere”. He admits “past stupidities”, and says that he regrets the way that the BNP used to provoke confrontations or to discuss race in a way that was “frankly crude, or cruelly and inaccurately supremacist”.
He is not racist, he argues. He does not believe that whites are superior. He believes that races are different and that multiculturalism is a recipe for disaster. He opposes miscegenation “because most people want their grandchildren to look basically like them”. If the liberal elite had its way, the world would become “a giant melting pot turning out coffee-coloured citizens by the million”.
The BNP no longer demands the recriminalisation of homosexuality, but Griffin still expresses disgust at the idea of two men “snogging in public”. His revised views on the Holocaust are striking, too. He says that he derided the Holocaust only because the Left used it as “a huge moral club” with which to beat opponents of multiculturalism. He now accepts that millions of Jews were killed, but claims that some historians (he cites David Irving) still question whether it was deliberate genocide.
The rules of warfare on the Eastern Front allowed 50 civilian hostages to be shot for each soldier killed in a partisan attack, Griffin states without trace of irony. “When you consider that the communists claim the partisans killed at least 10,000 German soldiers, that would account for five million people being shot to death.” Near Halifax we pick up Martin — Griffin’s hulking, 21st, shaven-headed bodyguard who bench-presses 500lb (227kg) but assures me that he is a “nice pussycat really”. Martin drives us to an evening meeting in Ripon. As we pass through Bradford he points to a mosque which, he claims, has a firing range beneath it. “That’s why we have a car with tinted windows,” Griffin adds. The BNP leader says that he can no longer visit Indian restaurants because “I wouldn’t know what’s in the curry” and within 15 minutes there would be a crowd outside “with iron bars and knives”.
In pockets of Britain the BNP is almost a mainstream party now, with ever more people daring to run for office or to put posters in windows. But it still prints its newspaper in Eastern Europe because British plants refuse to, has trouble renting halls and cannot advertise its meetings because they would be picketed. Potential supporters are instead instructed to gather at “redirection points” and told where to go.
In Ripon the meeting point is the town square, where the local BBC radio station interviews Griffin. Ripon and Harrogate are “lovely English towns and we believe they should stay that way. They can’t if there are high levels of immigration,” he says. On our way to the meeting we pass a painting of a black inmate outside the Workhouse Museum. Griffin splutters. It was poor whites who suffered in workhouses, he says.
About 70 people are packed into a back room of the Golden Lion pub, with not a skinhead or pair of Doc Martens in sight and more tweeds than T-shirts. They are male and female, young and old, working class and middle class, ex-Labour and ex-Tory, several of them Daily Telegraph readers. They are mostly solid Yorkshire folk who have watched immigrants transform areas in which they grew up and believe — rightly or wrongly — that their way of life is under threat. They are bewildered more than hate-filled. They are fearful more than fear-inspiring, and feel gagged by political correctness. They do not come from sink estates. They are stakeholders, people with something to lose. “We’re being overwhelmed,” laments a retired Latin teacher. “I’ve nothing against other races. It’s just that they keep flooding into the country to breaking point,” says a lorry driver. “We can’t invite the whole world to live in England,” says a former merchant marine officer. Few will give their names.
Griffin and his fellow speakers do nothing to calm their fears. Quite the opposite. In a promotional video he decries the alleged banning of the cross of St George, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and even Piglet because the character offends Muslims. Against a background of soft music and beautiful scenery, a woman’s voice decries the millions of foreigners of all races settling in Britain: “The one thing they have in common is there are too many of them.”
Michelle Shrubb, a candidate who lived in South Africa, says that a black crimewave is coming to Britain. Nick Cass, the BNP’s Yorkshire organiser, declares that “decent British people are fed up to the back teeth with seeing the country fall apart and being called racist when they want to do something about it”. The merchandise table offers “It’s Cool to be White” T-shirts and “I vote BNP because they look after me” bumper stickers. BNP candidates are presented with rosettes for daring to stand up and be counted. Griffin humorously coaxes about £500 in donations from the audience, then answers questions for an hour. He puts on no airs and graces. He has a pint on the table beside him. He presents himself as an ordinary bloke, like his audience, who is fighting a corrupt elite that bleeds taxpayers for its disastrous social engineering projects and treats them with contempt.
He is a shameless populist. He calls the rise of the BNP “a peasants’ revolt”. He talks of “our people”, meaning whites. He mocks those who regard criminals as victims, advocates “damn good thrashings” for wayward teenagers, and says of drug-dealers: “Hang the bastards.”
The audience loves it, but this is more than knockabout political rhetoric. Griffin firmly believes all this. Party policy — which he sets — is draconian and xenophobic. The BNP would deport all illegal immigrants, asylum-seekers and subversive foreigners, and offer existing immigrants money to return home. “It’s clearly worth talking in terms of six-figure sums to persuade families to go,” Griffin says.
He would create civilian anti-crime patrols. Anyone who has done National Service would be allowed to keep guns to shoot burglars, and as “a last resort against a tyrannical government”. He would restore hanging for the worst murderers, paedophiles, rapists and drug-dealers, and bring back the birch.
He would abolish affirmative action programmes and hate-crime legislation, ban the promotion of homosexuality, prevent the NHS from recruiting foreign workers and stop women soldiers serving on the front line. State schools would restore mandatory (nonhalal) lunches and morning assemblies with Christian worship (minorities should “either accept our ways or go somewhere else”). A BNP government would take Britain out of the EU and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Remove the BNP label, Griffin claims, and most Brits would support these policies.
The next day we go to Dewsbury (“It’s like living in Rorke’s Drift,” says a local BNP councillor), where The Dewsbury Reporter refuses to interview Griffin. Some people greet him on the street but no one heckles. “The English are very polite. If they don’t like you they walk away,” he says.
From a studio in Leeds he does a phone-in show for BBC Radio Wales, on which successive callers denounce him as a racist and fascist and he snarls back (“the usual Searchlight ambush”, he says later, referring to an antifascist group). We visit Heckmondwike, where David Exley, a soft-spoken and rather impressive BNP Councillor, has persuaded Kirklees council to restore a run-down park (wards that vote BNP find shocked councils suddenly chucking money at them).
We then visit an old factory near Leeds that houses the BNP’s recording studio, Great White Records. Griffin has written the lyrics for its first in-house album, The West Wind. One song begins: “I wandered through my native land/ And stood aghast at what I saw/ As she wept under foreign hands/ No justice, truth or rule of law.”
I suggest that Griffin’s one good eye sees only the worst aspects of Britain. “It’s already a divided, sad, overtaxed, fearful place,” he replies. “And it’s going to be too unpleasant to put into words.”
Between umpteen calls on his mobile phone — one is about ways to use Simone Clarke, the ballet dancer identified as a BNP member — I ask if Griffin sees any advantages to multiculturalism. Chicken tikka masala, he replies. And some good sportsmen, though he thinks that England’s all-white 1966 World Cup footballers outperformed today’s team because they had “common values and identity”.
Then he lists the downsides — a catastrophic loss of social cohesion, racial harassment and violence, spreading knife and gun cultures and old folk dying in nursing homes surrounded by staff who do not speak their language and feeling “totally alone, alienated and in a foreign place”.
He warms to the theme, claiming that some Muslims deliberately use heroin — “Paki poison” — to undermine nonMuslim communities around them. “It’s narco-terrorism.” Even worse, he says, is the way that hardline Muslim males deliberately seduce and corrupt “thousands” of young white girls in a practice called “grooming” that the authorities downplay for fear of being labelled racist.
But surely the vast majority of Muslims in this country are good, law-abiding citizens? Griffin disagrees: “The vast majority are entirely decent Muslims, but the better Muslims they are, the less good they are as British citizens.” The Koran orders them to obey the word of God, he says, not infidel governments: “Democracy and Islam are absolutely incompatible.” A Gallup poll this week suggested that 81 per cent of London-Muslims were “loyal to Britain” compared with just 45 per cent of nonMuslims.
In public Griffin appears personable and plausible. Talking in his car, he verges on the paranoid. Many British Muslims subscribe to a form of Islam that preaches a “ruthless, aggressive imperialism”, he says. Its goal is a world-wide caliphate. “It’s a takeover attempt,” he says, and it will end — literally — in civil war. Wherever an Islamic population establishes itself “you get all sorts of bloodshed and horrors and there’s no reason to think that this little part of the world will buck the trends of world history”.
I ask, mischievously, if Griffin can see himself as Prime Minister. It’s possible, he replies, though he says that he and Jackie have agreed that they don’t want to live in London. He then spells out how: the US economy collapses, decades of Western economic growth come to “a grinding, shuddering halt” and the people turn on the liberal elite. The only question, he says, is what will replace it — a “nativist backlash” or Islam. If the crash comes later than 2030 or 2040 “the likely winners will be the Islamists purely because of demographics”.
The 60 people at that night’s BNP meeting in a Batley pub are not thinking in such apocalyptic terms. They have more immediate and prosaic fears about the consequences of immigration — their children being squeezed out of jobs and council housing, the emergence of no-go areas, the undermining of their rights and culture.
“We’re frightened to be British,” says Ann Nailor, who runs five Age Concern shops. “I feel alienated in my own community,” says Neil Feeney, a water company employee. “People who read your paper have no idea about places like this,” said Marjorie Shaw, a former policewoman now in a wheelchair. “The BNP are the only ones standing up for this country,” adds Lynn Winfield, a pub dishwasher. Griffin fans the flames. He calls the English “one of the most oppressed peoples on earth”. He says that when people like him try to speak out about real problems “they try to throw them in jail”. He says that bad laws should be broken. He calls global warming “an excuse to say that we, the international elite, have to interfere with every sovereign state in the world, and if we don’t you will sink by Thursday”.
When I take my leave, Griffin asks what I will write. That he is both the BNP’s greatest asset and its greatest liability, I reply. He does not protest. He recalls something that he said earlier: “I perhaps have too much baggage that won’t be allowed to stay in the lost baggage office. I can take the BNP to a certain level, but to make the final push someone else may have to take over . . . I can go back to Wales and keep pigs. Tremendous.”
Here is a timeless (edited) gem from Winston Churchill, in the 1945 Conservative Party Manifesto:
"Ours is a great nation.... It has its roots in the character, the
ability, and the independence of our people and the magic of this wonderful island. British virtues have been developed under the free institutions which our fathers and forefathers struggled through the centuries to win and to keep. We of this generation are trustees for posterity, and the duty lies upon us to hand down to our children unimpaired the unique heritage that was bequeathed to us."
Ron, Cape Town, South Africa
Lets face it, the world is full of people who think they are born better than others, then do nothing to make society better, just fill it with hate and fear. These people often have a criminal past, and would happily hurt their spouse and family, never mind someone of different race.
Alan Jones, Harrogate, UK
life is valuable, one man should not be inticed to act on actions of another. the BNP is a reaction to immigration, where their policies might seem universally true now, in the future they may destroy us, look at Hitler and communism
Ahmet Hussein, london,
I dont want to be multi cultarul.I am British as my ancestors before me...I wont be voting as in my area mylocal politician is asian and I do not want to be represented by anyone who is not British. How do we get Britain back to the country to be proud of. lets be GREAT BRITAIN,
pam, leeds, Britain
You have got my vote Nick....
CHRISTOR, YORK, ENGLAND
Mr Griffin and the BNP are Britain's last hope.
David, Nottingham, Notts
I come from a typical working class, dismally multi-cultural area. I certainly agree that the BNP should be allowed a say in politics. I would vote for them, and probably join if things got that bad - and I fear they will.
John (West Bromwich)
John, West Bromwich, England
George Duberry was my grandad, he died 6 months ago and I have just read his response to the said article and I am proud he took on board my fears and it is true to say that over the last few years I ave changed my view on this subject. I am a white girl living with her long term partner in a village in Derbyshire - probably shielded from problems in urban areas however it is true I myself have gone from alive and let live attitude to one resentment and a wonder of what the world is coming to. I endorse everything my grandad said and would even go further as to say that many of my friend's too have changed their attitudes as to one of Great Britain was is that??!!
Interestingly I know of a number of teenagers in surrounding areas who have taken great offence to the polish in our area who have caused such terrible problems for local businessmen and locals alike. Resentment is growing and I think that trouble is instore. Perhaps and I've heard it said vigilanties are afoot!!
B. Knowles, Matlock, Derbyshire
It is strange that those who say the BNP should not be allowed their say because of their supposed intolerance feel that they can make these statements. Are they not being intolerant?
Stuart, Glasgow,
Good isn't it .. sitting here, all cosy and warm, expressing our opinions re the BNP and national issues. With this comment it will be a total of 366 comments. 366 people who sit and write here. Would it not be a better idea to all get together and lobby someone about it. We are good at sitting back and moaning in places like this or to someone else and doing nothing about it. Perhaps that's part of the reason Britain is becoming overcome with immigrants. Yeah vote BNP, let someone else do it for us, how good we are at that!!!!
The BNP may perhaps achieve one thing for us, a strenthening of our other parties, they may JUST make them sit up and listen. I think you all know what I am talking about.
Sue, Sheffield, Yorks
I left the UK because of the mass immigration and the problems it has caused. It will also get a hell of a lot worse.
My wife is a Malawian (coloured), so am i a racist for saying this.
The BNP are the only party who tell the truth.
Phil Mcracking, Zomba, Malawi
Im a sikh and I'm voting BNP!
David Singh, Slough, England
Keep up the good work Nick! England is now full up, it seems that all you liberals in influential job positions have totally mucked up this couuntry (because of the im alright Jack mentality,not in my backyard ) England is sleepwalking into a disaster they even build new council houses in Newcastle just for Muslim families with 4-5 bedrooms the reason being they like to have large families - any body ever wondered why oh why? Any you lot even read the BNP manifesto before you start shouting your big lefty mouths off?
Jane,, Sussex,
i am a british sikh who was born here and my uncle fought 4 this country..if nick griffin were to be mp would he send home sikhs..or what about asians who are christians? we havnt done anything wrong!
priya, london, middlesex
darryn, do you care much about the native Maori population of New Zealand which has been hugely marginalised by an uninvited influx of Brits? Or is that ok?
......elitist ideology that nick griffin speaks of, is not simply that there are groups of newcomers who look a wee bit different, rather, it is the destruction of the native culture to make way for the incoming foreign culture and the ethnocide of the native population by way of race-mixing, which will result in the loss of the native ethnic and national identity. clearly martin fletcher cares nothing for his own ethnic identity and culture, but that does not mean he has the right to deny others the right to care, and fight for a future for their own civilization in their own land. if the english don't stand up for themselfs that future will not exist.
darryn, dunedin, new zealand
pico, London,
...what I meant is...if you feel british culture is under attack, think about what british culture is to you and take part in it. Cultures change but only get lost, when noone participates anymore. Britain is changing and I am nostalgic for the Britain of my childhood, but not because of other cultures sharing the country, more because it seemed like a safer, more family orientated place back then, with common sense values. I always relished meeting people who had moved to Britain from other exotic places, or 2nd/3rd generation immigrants, and found them mostly to be an enrichment to my life and the culture. In contrast, the most criminal people I ever met in England were all english white middle class males (serial benefit fraud, drug dealing, theft, etc.). When I hear that the BNP is gaining ground it saddens me, as it indicates even more loss of traditional British values. The BNP are bigots and that to me is the exact opposite of everything I ever loved about Britain
Nerina Wilter, munich, germany
I am really surprised at the number of people who think the BNP is 'spot on'. In the article above Nick Griffin has expressed homophobea and presumably would ban homosexuality like Robert Mugabe has. He is xenophobic. He would bring back hanging and take us back half a century. He would re-introduce birching. He would [presumably] ban mixed marriages judging by his comments on miscegenation. He would take away all the freedoms we have fought for in the last hundred years.
The reason why many of us are against the BNP is not because we want unlimited immigration; it's because they are extremists. The article above clearly shows this. Britain quite clearly benefits from immigration of people who have something to offer, like the engineer who comes over to work for this country and we didn't have to pay for his training. What is bad is immigration of unskillful people who come here to go on the dole.
Chuck, Bristol, UK
The whole argument about "eroding Britishness" is a crock. I am British everyday. I drink many cups of tea a day, have my Sunday Dinner each week and drive a Rover Mini. I will celebrate Christmas in true traditional style. I don't feel that I have to conceal my Britishness or scale it back to get on with my (very nice) muslim neighbours (or colleaues from other cultures)! I also do not feel anyone has a plot to take over the work via re-production (my neighbours have never offered me Heroin either). I do find it rather interesting that many of those adopting a "Pro-BNP, preserve our British Culture" stance are actually unable to construct their comments using correct English grammar and spelling Maybe indiginous Brits should make more of an active effort to ignore the nonsense and demonstrate their Britishness with more vigour, instead of worrying about what others may say. This would achieve more than placing a cross in a questionable box on a ballot paper.
Leigh, Birmingham, UK
Griffin's fears don't sound like "paranoia" to me. From reading articles here and from other news agencies, I'd say the BNP is the only one making any sense and who has the backbone to stand up to the politically correct crowd. Hell, clone him and send a copy to the States. We could use him to!
Dave, Phonenix, AZ , USA
the most important addition to the ballot paper would be "none of the above".
jem, london, uk
BNP voters beware. Terry Palmer was quite right to compare the situation with Germany in the twenties before the Nazis were voted in. I too feel sad that Britain has lost a lot of it’s identity over the last 40 years. But if you vote BNP you are not thinking of where they will take their power. The BNP are using common sense arguments to win people who would never normally call themselves racist.
This should be a warning to con/lab/lib. The warm hearted english are being pushed to the end of their tether and are turning Nazi. Offer a valid alternative to these people who want to uphold Britains britishness and common sense values and are feeling alienated in their own country. Political Correctness seems to work for everyones rights except the indigenous Briton. But PLEASE - the BNP is not the answer. Start a new party. Lobby parliament. Decide what it is you want that you feel has been lost, but don’t give Nazis the vote!
Nerina Wilter, munich, germany
I accept Shankar's point about the dubious use of the term 'paki poison' for the selling of heroin (basically as a weapon). But I assume that the same islamists groups who detonate bombs on busses would have no hesitation is using it that way - it must generate much cash for their jihad. The terminology may be grating, but the point Griffin was making was probably correct.
It will be interesting to see how the mainstream parties respond to the BNP vote threat though - I assume it will be with platitudes and promises, as they will not want to alienate the crucial muslim vote in key labour seats like jack straw's blackburn, or bradford, oldham, etc.?
I believe both of the above points to be true, and that lab/con will deny them or ignore them (and other of griffen's gripes), and in doing so will drive more voters to the BNP.
paul, sheffield, england
Historically, the far-right parties have usually thrived during periods of Labour governments because of Labour's recklessness with immigration matters. That is what we're seeing now. The Tory party usually then assumes some of their [BNP and NF] policies, without the labels, win an election, and the far-right parties experience decline.
Mr Griffin has some points which are exaggerated to absurdity. Some further refinement would be required before they can win power, but by that time they will be indistinguishable from the Conservative Party and therefore redundant.
Chuck, Bristol, UK
Goodluck with that David from Hemel Hempstead! because there are other countries int he world that only have british people eh? great logic!
Kiran, London,
The Labour party has made British people feel like second class citizens who have no voice, politician can afford to up and leave the country once they've destroyed it.
I've started donating a small amount of money to migration watch each month, I'm hoping that they will put pressure on the government to consider how frightened many Britons feel when they see the rampant changes in their communities. Everyone has a different viewpoint based on their surroundings and life experiences, some wear rose colored spectacles - I don't.
VeeJay, London,
"I am a legal immigrant; a white-collar tax payer. Also, I am not Muslim, Indian, Pakistani or Black. I am ethnically Chinese and I am a Christian.
Can I stay?
Chee, Coventry"
Well, i'd like you to stay...but, what if a small percentage of your 1.3 billion brothers and sisters back home followed you over here? You'd most likely breed us out of existence. There are already thousands of unemployed east asians selling illigal copies of pirated dvd films on the streets/markets of London.
J Rotten, brixton, uk
"Delinquents"? If I wrote down what these "delinquents" do to their victims it probably would not get printed. This kind of self-righteous sanctimony about condign punishment simply endangers people.
Kevin, London,
Ben, York
You preach the politics of white middle class guilt that saddles this country with political correctness and shackles its decision makers from making tough but fair decisions.
Controlled immigration is essential for this country. Controlled being the optimum word.
An open door policy because the middle class have guilt issues over a previous empire will destroy the country and is quickly doing so. Forget the millions in economic aid we poor into former countries, just open the door.
We need to wake up before it's too late.
Salty, Reading,
The fact is politicians are not listening to what English people are saying, that is, we have had enough. Our tolerance is gone because there are too many immigrants. Its tipped over and something really needs to be done, otherwise people will feel there is no where to go apart from the BNP.
Torchy, Romford,
After reading the comments so far I would only like to say this: I hope all of those who have expressed your open support for Mr Griffin's party policies, have the decency to NEVER AGAIN take the moral high ground against Germany. Your comments exactly mirror the feeling pervading the German people in 1932 before Hitler came to power. After your years of feeling morally superior against countries like Germany and South Africa you are now showing that actually, if you were there, you would have done the same!
anglophile, London,
I voted Labour and they've got out of their way to destroy my countries culture.
BNP get my vote
Phill, Caldy, England
European arrogance will never cease to amaze me. However, the problem is minorities (2nd generation and all) are less likely to go back anywhere, so beside the populist rants what do you pride pure blood Britons (whatever that means) propose....the ovens?? sure.......it worked so well the last time...
Clay , New york , NY
A succession of inept governments are more responsible for the rise and rise of the BNP than any other factor . They will reap the rewards before they see the error of their ways .
Benzo, Nr Chelmsford,
All people that agree with Nick Griffin are very narrow minded people. I like the way all british people have got the a..s now that the UK is multicultural. whilst i agree with the comments by NG regarding Islam, it doesnt mean that all cultures(aside from British) are like that.
I think most people are ignorant agreeing with his comments, as some of you need to read up on history, on how the British wanted to take over certain countries and they did succeed in doing so. India was one of those country's and the Indians were treated like slaves in their own country!
A quote i strongly believe in 'WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND'!
perhaps you people should blame this country's government...and the Scots that are running it!!!
Kiran, London,
"Nobody who honestly supports the BNP has, in my opinion, the right to call themselves human."
This is a classic technique of totalitarianism. First dehumanise those who disagree with you. Having established to your own satisfaction that they are in fact inhuman, there need be no restraint in eliminating them. This is psychologically paradigmatic of the proponents of immigration, and shows, sadly, how their sheer bigoted ruthlessness has so far prevailed despite their weak arguments and low numbers.
S.G., London,
Stamp out intolerance.
Kidd Garrett, Bristol, UK
I might vote for these guys, Britain needs to be back in the hands of the British, like it or not, 'multiculturalism' damages our identity as a people. Now I am not preaching hatred or intolerace to any race or nationality, I just think that we should look after our own people before concerning ourselves with the needs of others.
Rob, Wallasey,
Where else exactly should people turn to at least START to put this country back together again?
Too hot a potato for the other political parties, who are so scared of being labelled racist for even daring to suggest unlimited, unregulated immigration might not be in the best interests of the nation.
Me, I'm actively looking for somewhere better to live than so-called 'multicultural' Britain
David, Hemel Hempstead, UK
I am a legal immigrant; a white-collar tax payer. Also, I am not Muslim, Indian, Pakistani or Black. I am ethnically Chinese and I am a Christian.
Can I stay?
Chee, Coventry,
I want MY country back. The end justify the means. If it means a shooting war then give me the tools.
mike mines, london,
I agree 100% with MR.Griffin,and I wish we have him in Canada.He is just simply says : (1) Please WAKE UP and stop Muslem immigrants to protect your country and its vaues .(2) What is it more important : To protect your country and its values OR: To be accused of racism .
Any country MUST GAIN from other cultures and MUST NOT loose . UK IS LOOSING and it is a fact.
Mr. Griffin Read the history,the others do not , nd if the others read the history ,they do not have the guts to announce it .
Z.B., Montreal, Canada
The problem is the main parties are not alloweed to debat imagrants becuse they fear being called racist. If they stoped worry about it and spoke commen sense and stop trying to force on the British people there ideas of what the ethnic minorities want but insteead listened to what they wanted IE to live like us not to be singled out because of their religion and colour by the goverment. Yes the goverment. They cause the biggest problem then the BNP would not have such a big following and support. I suggest everyone votes for a different party this time aroudn but not the big 3 then maybe the big 3 will listen and get on with it. I will not vote for the BNP though i do agree with some there views. People vote for monster raving loney party any one but the big 3 and BNP.
Lawrence Scott, Norwich, Norfolk
A policy of repatriating all illegal immigrants is perfectly reasonable and logical - anything else allows illegality to prevail. As for offering legal immigrants payments in order to build new lives in their countries of origin, such a scheme has existed for a number of years but is little publicised. It is therefore an overreaction, at least, to characterise such policies as "draconian and xenophobic". The article also suggests that some of Griffin's fears verge on the paranoid. Yet it seems to very many people, at every level of society, that immigration is now so dangerously out of control that the future is chaotic and uncertain and, while inherently unpredicatable, it is now impossible and indeed unwise to rule out the prospect of catastrophic developments which once seemed vanishingly remote. It is thus wrong to confuse this perfectly realistic sense of foreboding with paranoia.
S.G., London,
"Nick Griffin -- a convicted racist who favours birching delinquent teenagers and paying immigrants to leave"
Paying me? hummm....okay then, how much ? CI:-D>
I might vote fo BNP, now they're talking business. (kidding)
From radicals to racists, everyone gets their say on the Timesonline. It's the worlds best paper. Comments are even published from every ethnicity/country.
Mohammed, London, UK
I dont agree with every thing he said I do agree that we are
now a minority as regards our rights thankyou for showing
them in an unbiased way that is true journalism
Mark Wiltshire England
Mark Deville, Chippenham, England
Well done to The Times for allowing a leader from one of the less rich, smaller political parties of the United Kingdom to have his say!
I actually do not agree with four or five of the British National Party's policies and I will not be voting for them at the next general election.
However, the British National Party are a non-violent, perfectly legal political party and should be allowed to voice their opinions just like Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are all allowed to.
John Curd, Southport, England
my parents are english and moved to Gibraltar about 25 years ago because of high taxes etc. im one for live and let live, but it gets to the point when you go back to uk to see ur family and no one speaks english.... i mean whats with that.
those who come to uk to live, if they have a skill thats needed i say come on in, get a job have a family. it those who end up living off the system that should be kicked out. also its the ones who start um-ing and r-ing about how they want their own culture. well why come to england if you want ur own culture go back to where you came from.
if you come to england to live you give up your other nationality and become british, you learn english and up hold english culture thats what i say ..simple.
war.... this county the world infact is so hung up on what is happening outside its own borders its lost sight of whats happening within them. who cares whats happening on the other side of the planet. deal with internal issues first.
Chris, Gibraltar,
The BNP have my vote!
lab/lib/con only have them selfs to blame!
tom , london, england
I take the anti immigration/ multi-cultural comments made here with a 'pinch of salt', becuse so many white Britons from all social classes have chosen to be with non-European partners. The U.K has the highest number of mixed-race relationships in the West. And such relationships are steadily increasing.
Jacob, London, U.K
i value much of what you have to say, but i can't agree on the Jewish issue. I my opinion, studies, and experiences, the Jewish population in all countries has always brought progress and good citizentry. They follow the rules, work hard, not on the public dole and don't cause trouble. I want to see a reemergence of a judeo-christian ethic that supercedes the islamic invasion.
anna chrisoff, toronto, canada
i agree with everything you say and want to know more about what i can do to help
amanda kelly, liverpool merseyside, united kingdom
You people are seeing the results of allowing too,too many migrants to come here plus denying those illegals here even existed.
All migrants have one aim in mind and that is to improve their lot in life and that of their families.With that aim in mind they do not care one jot about the rights of the people here as can be seen by the over balanced numbers who have entered politics courtesy of the welfare and free education system nurtured for us by our own ancestors.
We must do the same and ensure our schools and colleges are for us and our children and not some group of people from around the world.
The appalling attitudes that have crept in here are indicative of the communistic enforcement laws so beloved these last ten years.
Little wonder that our people are leaving when they are overtaxed and over burdened by laws and discrimination in favour of foreigners.
Taking control of us and our country is the first on the list.
Nothing else matters until then.
David Albion, Worthing, England
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Sorry, did you not really read my points? What goes around comes around. No Danes have died from being protested at. The last two posts make about as much sense as eachother ;-)
Ben, York,
Ben
Denmark not really suffering? Where have you been? What about the Mohammed Cartoons? I only wish that all pro-immigrationists were as uninformed as you. Immigrants from countries such as Somalia, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon are causing huge problems in Denmark, prompting the Danes (quite rightly) to introduce some of the strictest immigration rules in Europe. But my case is made. The real reason many people defend mass immigration into Northern Europe isn't because they think it's beneficial to the ‘host’ nations. It's because they think the 'host' deserves to be punished for whatever reason.
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Reza
Holland - colonising the West Indies and Indonesia.
Germany - World Wars, colonies in Africa, partitions of Poland.
Denmark - not really suffering, but where were the Vikings that pillaged England, Ireland etc from.
Wat goes around, comes around.
Ben, York,
Ben’s arguments are so typical of those spouted by the multiculturalists. Once their first argument which espouses the utterly bogus benefits of mass, uncontrolled, third world immigration have been totally discredited they resort to argument B. That is that somehow the West ‘deserves’ mass, uncontrolled, third world immigration as a ‘punishment’ for slavery, imperialism, being rich and successful etc. Well Ben, what about Denmark, Holland and Germany? They are suffering from mass immigration. What did they do to deserve it?
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No political party has the 100% agreement of the electorate on all its policies and the BNP is no exception. To squeeze a political party out of the media because of some of its policies is plainly wrong. The extreme left have no such gag. They are allowed to spout their appeasement based agenda ad nauseum with no fear of a media backlash because the anti-racist bull is broadly in line with their politics.
I am not a racist - I am a patriot. The BNP are far from perfect but they are the only patriotic party on the political agenda.
Tim Keating, Slough, England
We owe the people from the old colonies. How would you feel if, say, China invaded us, took our raw materials, imposed their way of life on us, took some of our population back as slaves - and then kicked out their grandchildren after eventually letting us free? I am only glad the local election showed the BNP supporters to be a small, if vocal, minority.
Ben, York,
Helen, Stirling... I understand you are a little bit away from the pointed end of the 'multi-culti experiment' foisted on the good British peoples by a succession of Lab Con governments over the last 50 years. However look at a snap-shot of the inner city slums of England, go to third 'asian' hell-hole of Pollockshaws, a little closer to you, in Glasgow. I and the BNP do not blame the disparate ihhabitants of those poor areas. The blame must be laid squarley on insane immigration policies... What you and people like 'Ben' have GOT to realise is that creating such ghettos in OUR small country is NOT doing those poor people from all corners of the planet a favour. If, and I believe you WOULD want to help poorer people, the last thing to do is transplant them into an alien mish-mash in the middle of Britain. Not good for THEM and not good for US. END OF STORY!
Scot, Edinburgh, UK
Ben,try and get real,you keep posting about America wanting the poor and huddled masses,but this was when USA was an empty continent,but rest assured Nu-Lab are on board and are going to try and put the worlds poor and huddled masses into this tiny island all with a house and income,but reality is that all these houses being built are sitting on a time bomb whereby the water supply,gas,electric,wont meet the demand.there will be literally nowhere left to bury the rubbish,etc.I am liberal and compassionate for humanity, but these policies will be the end of a liberal democracy and a disaster for all,I fail to see how this agenda can be more extreme, in comparison the bnp manifesto is moderation verses extremism,it is the fascist left driving these policies who have been completly wrong on evry isseu they have touched,
sidney, ashford,
People like the BNP who display such hostile attitudes towards other fellow humans make me ashamed to be British.
Helen, Stirling, Scotland
Nobody who honestly supports the BNP has, in my opinion, the right to call themselves human. It is the oxygen of publicity that keeps them alive. They prey on very basic fears and instincts, understandable but exaggerated. This can only lead to a fascist state, where like Hitler or a Dalek (fictional but a metaphor for fascists) anything different is wiped out. Welcome to Griffin's Final Solution - if you vote for him.
Ben, York,
I will continue to vote bnp as it is a party for the British People, and they speak out for the British, I am so not happy with all this political correctness, which is always in favour of the ethnic minorities, well, I feel like a minority in England. You have my vote BNP and thousands more like me...keep up the good work.
Dianne Catley , luton, england
nick griffin has a point ,,keep up the good work ,your a true Englishman.
chris, weollingborough, n/hants
You seriously trust the BNP and Griffin's hollow words? They will kick out every Muslim and millions of others if elected. Of course a minority (20%? 30%?) of Muslims are dangerous or frightening. But not everybody foreign is. We owe something to Pakistan, Africa, the Caribbean islands and all the other people we have subjugated in history. I will repeat something I posted earlier, but it proves my point: see the economic power of the USA, and immigrant nation, and remember the poem on the Statue of LIberty "Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breath free".
Ben, York,
Well done to the Times, I applaud you for being so brave as to write this article. I am myself a Conservative voter and have always been so. This time I intend to destroy my vote, I feel that not one of the political parties is worth a vote and unfortunately we do not have the BNP in my area. I do not trust the voting system which is why I will go to the polling station to destroy my paper.
So all of you out there who do have the BNP in your area you are very lucky, don't let this chance slip away. This country cannot go on the way it is, tax, crime, war, this is your chance to help start the process to stop these terrible things from happening but most of all pave the first steps towards saying goodbye to the EU (the thorn in our side).
Peggy, buckinghamshire,
Most people are now openly suggesting that the BNP are the only party that is bothered about the British indigenous way of life. In 1926 the Nazi's could only muster around 3% of the German vote, ten years later they had over 95% of the German people with them, why? Because they promised to give the German people their country back which was being erroded, wrongly or rightly by an immigrant race.
Terry Palmer, Barnsley., England.
As an inter-racial couple (my wife is Chinese) we have everything to fear from the BNP. However, having experienced the true meaning of Islam first hand, we are a million times more fearful of the Islamic takover of this country than we are of the BNP. For this reason we have voted BNP at every opportunity for the last five years.
Oh, and by the way, the BNP will not send my wife back to China. We have checked. The only thing the BNP will do to my wife is give her back the country she fell in love with all those years ago.
David Cooke, Warwickshire, England
The British National Party will indeed gain power in the not too distant future. I believe this totally. Without it, Britain will rot beyond repair and all that we take for granted such as freedom, culture and a country for our children to inherit will expire. I back the BNP without reservations, it is THE Party for our future. Once my fellow countrymen no longer have their 'ivory towers' to hide away in, the party will sweep through this country like a great brush and we will ask ourselves how we got into this mess with disbelief. Look beyond your noses my British family, try to think what may come of our great land if we allow it to continue. Act now, our time is running out!
DEBORAH NORTH, Cambridge, Great Britian
I am a Christian with serious concerns about Multiculturalism. Multiculturalism has become the driving force of British life, ruthlessly policed by a state-financed army of local and national bureaucrats enforcing a doctrine of state-minded virtue to promote racial, ethnic and cultural difference and stamp out majority values. British nationhood is being disembowelled by mass immigration, multiculturalism and the onslaught mounted by secular nihilists against the country's Christian values.
Consequently, we can no longer afford to be the naïve, decadent, muddling-along, apologetic old British establishment. The indigenous population of our great country are at crisis point. Britain is currently locked into such a spiral of decadence, self-loathing and sentimentality that it is incapable of seeing that it is setting itself up for cultural immolation.
Long Live the British National Party!!!
Vincent McKenzie, Conwy, Wales
Elizabeth, I come from South Africa which has third world slums, for many years I lived on the edge of one and let me tell you there are parts of Britain today which look the same! Dirving through Stratford, London is like driving through a ghetto in South Africa called Umtata - it looks the same! And don't for one minute tell me that living in fear of your life everyday is fun!!! Its not! And remember the immigrand population is still quite small - imagine what it is going to be like when it is twice its current rate!? The probelm is people like you don't do any maths and therefore because the situation isnt utterly dire right now - in your eyes that means its not happening.
Hilton, Wimbledon, UK
How refreshing to read an article about the BNP which has not been polluted by the usual claptrap. I've looked, but can't find much in their manifesto that I disagree with. The people who complain about the BNP need to remember that we live in a democracy, which means I get to choose who I vote for - not them.
Robert, Boston, England
Nick Griffin.
You Sir are spot on.
You have my vote
kevin, Swansea, Wales
I really do believe the whole issue of excessive immigration is being swept under the carpet by the main parties - and voters think it is Tony Blairs biggest failure. So do I. If only there were a BNP candidate in my area. I am NOT racist and do enjoy other cultures, but there should be far fewer in my own country.
Patrick, Hedge End, UK
I was born in London in 1937.I lived in London until I was called up for military service inj 1955.I had NEVER seen a black or asian person until I was called up and I lived in West london.How the scene has changed
robert cherrie, London E14, United Kingdom
i was born in london and was a white flight family of the 1970s,i want to return to my capital city,when the english get it back,as i cant believe the english have a capital with no english in it,as for the labour and the torys,they are in a big club getting all the perks,and using the voters when thye need them.They have destroyed this country,and are trying to destroy the english peolpe by wave after wave of immigration,till there is no england anymore.
paul, southend,
Ben, Market day is Friday in my town and as we have a very good market, parking is at a premium, sometimes requiring leaving one's car some distance away, or walking from the bus station--surely a perfectly legitimate activity! It should be possible to walk in any part of my home town on any afternoon, without being subject to abuse.
Yes I have seen football crowds, but never had the same reaction.
No, I am neither xenophobic nor racist, just saddened that parts of my town are turning into ghettoes.
Jean, radcliffe, Manchester, UK
I live in one of those so called 'sink' estates that nick griffin was mentioning in the interview,and i have to say everything he said was correct!
steven horn, watford,
"YOU and your ilk are the reason that this country is in the mess it is (many areas of our inner cities looking like third world slums (don't suppose you happen to live in one)."
I live in an inner city area and Maria I don't think you've ever been to a third world slum. In fact I've never heard as much nonsense about this first world country, which is a bloody joy to live in as is evident in these comments. I live in a high crime area but I've never experienced any problems, that means that even our high crime areas aren't as dangerous as in other parts of the world. Nick Griffin whips up fear of people because they look different, he makes out that white middle class people have more problems than everyone else but that's just not true. If you vote for the BNP it's because you're scared, maybe you should deal with your own fear instead of blaming everyone else for it.
Elizabeth, Streatham, UK
Jean, you pick up on the one comment of mine that is merely an observation or even opinion and ignore the facts. Nobody forces you to walk past a mosque at a certain time, and you will get jostling and abuse in any busy place with people on high spirits. Ever been to a football match? Plus, even if you are afraid of Muslims, fair enough. What about every other race?
Ben, York,
I would like to thank the Times for printing this article. I would also like to say : Nick Griffin, thy time is nigh!
James, Harrogate,
As The Times writer seemed to suggest, there is something of the "natural politician" about Nick Griffin. If Griffin was only interested in a safe seat, a good salary and all the perks that go along with it he could no doubt have fitted into one of the establishment parties. That he has chosen not to go down that route - and followed his conscience - puts him head and shoulders above Blair, Cameron and the rest of the Westminster "careerists".
Myles, Glasgow,
To all those that keep stating we are historically muticultural, that may be correct but all those who came over in the past did a number of things, learnt English and contributed to the country through skill sets, not by scrounging, undercutting local wages, denouncing this very country and its democratic system, threatening its religous groups and basically demanding all that they can get. I for one am a convert to the BNP i don't agree with all that Nick Griffin says but i agree with enough they are the only party prepared to say what people think. Well done to this publication for not sticking its head in the sand and ignoring what s happening country wide. The media blackout on the BNP only gives them more voters. Have the BBC and tabloid comics never heard of the Internet. The truth is definitely out there
Richard, coventry, GB whats left of it
Ben of York asks why there are more xenophobic women than men; I had not noticed that there are, but maybe it is because they have been unfortunate enough to be walking alone close to a Mosque at the end of Friday prayers.
The abuse and jostling is enough to make anyone xenophobic--even you Ben
Jean, manchester, UK
good luck nick ...... youve got my vote mate !
jason, HULL, ENGLAND
I despair. This is not what humanity is about. There was a recent poll suggesting 85% of Muslims here are loyal to Britain - double the number of whites. Britain is made up of immigrants. Trace your ancestry back 3000 years. You will be surprised. Also, why are there so many xenophobic women compared to men?
Ben, York,
Whilst being single, self sufficient and with no children, I feel my 'group' of like persons are penalised for being so and taxed to the hilt on absolutely everything with no remission for not being dependant. Also, watching with sadness the way our country and human society has become so fragmented and segregrated (subsequent to the Enoch Powell's warnings), BNP and much of its truth and philosophy seems sensible to me and a way forward and is something, as mentioned in another comment, that no other party is actively or has any inclination to approach or initiate in any way for fear of upsetting anybody. Something's got to give, pussyfooting around the issues does not work and is very dangerous to society. I hope the BNP grows and develops clout to what is currently 'head in the bucket of sand' politics.
J, cornwall,
We cant blame the immigrants for trying to improve their standard of living by coming here. Im a builder ,I was able to work in Germany during the last recession.However ,i didnt ask for a council house when was there, and I learned German to get by .Im deeply concerned by the change in our society,and I see no prospect of a solution coming from the other 3 parties, who ignore the fears people like me.Our only chance is to vote for change, if we dont change ,we,ll have civil war. Im so worried about our future , ive enrolled in Spanish classes , and like thousands of other white taxpayers , im ready to leave at the drop of a hat.
phil jackson, brighton, england
Alice Y... YOU and your ilk are the reason that this country is in the mess it is (many areas of our inner cities looking like third world slums (don't suppose you happen to live in one). Never in the history of the planet has such drastic change been made to the demographic of this Country or indeed ANY country. Yes! the British, and in particular the English, are reknowned for thier tolerance and sense of fair play, BUT this is the feature that will end up with YOU being an Infidel (non-muslim) minority in your own land. Do a little research into how the Kuffars are treated in a swathe of countries world-wide and just hope that at least some of the inhabitants of the 'culturally enriched' areas have seen the light and will vote for the BNP on your behalf. (Not sure if you deserve it), but perhaps if you have grand/children they may live to appreciate in the future that the PC multi-culturalists were out-numbered by a percentage of the populus COULD see the wood for the trees..
Maria, Edinburgh, Scotland
The really worying thing of many of these posts are people blindly saying how awful and nasty it is for other people to tell the truth,how nasty is it going to be when the fascist left are faced with the reality that on current policies will mean millions of houses that will have no water supply,rubbish where there will be literaly no where left to bury it,no road space left,the tipping point reached where this island ceaces to be a nation state, followed by the collapse of democracy and politics, the outcome of these mad policies is plainly evil.
sidney, ashford,
Replying to these comments and report in any meaningful way is impossible, but I'll just say this:
Please please please don't vote BNP. Please.
Peter, Corby, Northants, UK
People like Nick Griffin and the BNP claiming indigenous status in these islands is a joke, I wish we could sen. If there ever was a people of mixed heritage, Britons are it. Intelligent and motivated people have joined these islands every generation over the thousands of years since the last ice age.
Britain's best when we acknowedge how multicultural we are and seek ways together to care for each other and these marvellous islands we share. Being indigenous here deamnds a respect for the gifts all people have to offer. The British heritage to be proud of is our dissent and intolerance of bigotry. Where did British manners come from? Well maybe from a thousand generations of immigrants learning the land and how to get along with each other.
I'm proud to be British - and people like the BNP are disgracefully antisocial. My fondest hope is that the hatred they peddle helps the majority of us make it clear they belong to a past age and their hate speech and bullying are not welcome.
Alice Y., Coventry, UK
I never in a million years thought I would read an article from the BNP and find myself agreeing with what was written. I have been brought up in a very middle class left wing family - i was sent to school in a council estate to broaden my horizons - and i truly believed i was left wing, a real believer in 'the people' i am in no way racist, homophobic, classist yet i am actually finding myself reading a BNP manifesto and taking it seriously. Now if someone like me can read it then what about those less open minded... we are demonised for daring to critizise the fact that we're scared to get off the bus. I have every sympathy for those unfortunate enough to live in the sink estate environments that the government ignores. yet i don't see why i should suffer and feel afraid to walk home when young 'children' folow me wearing hoods.
rosie moss, London,
It’s incongruous that the reporter should report the bile coming out of BNP members in Ripon and at the same time we have Cpl Bryan Budd, also from Ripon- a Yorkshire man and paratrooper, who gave the ultimate sacrifice fighting for Britain and was awarded the VICTORIA CROSS POSTHUMOUSLY. If BNP have their way, his non-white wife and mix race children would be regarded as second class citizens and be expected to “Go home”.
Those people who attended the Ripon meeting should hang their heads in SHAME.
kate, Harrogate,
Reza's story is a terrible indication of what the BNP does. Remember the inscription on the base of the statue of liberty,
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free".
Surely a greater virtue than "Kick them out"?
Ben, York,
If you are a Christian, have a White face are Working class (not able to fleece the immigrants, in fact are in competition with them for work) you would have to be nuts NOT to vote BNP...
Mary, Pollockshaws, Scotland
If the conservatives significantly toughened their stance on immigration there would be no need for the BNP
Why don't they? I havn't got a clue.
They could surely guarantee a win in the next election if they did?
Mark, Peterborough,
I can understand why, people in this country are angry. There is no control over immigration. The hate and the vengeance should not be directed at the 'established' ethnic minorities in this country. They have no say over the politics in this country. It was labour that allowed in millions of eastern europeans in over the last 3 years.
But they can blend in somewhat, cause they are white. But it is the ethnic minorities who are part of Britain who will feel the brunt of this.
Sam , London, UK
Ok its SIMPLE we have two main parties trying to win at the poles both using silly marketing yuppies in London to portray a false image talking about green issues and cleaning up streets etc. Well NO ONE is interested anymore! The Problem is we have no one else to vote for about immigration issues and crime! So who do we turn to? yep you have got it the BNP WE SIMPLY HAVE NO ONE ELSE TO VOTE FOR ! lets stop over analysing If the labour goverment took some of the ideas from BNP they would probably win !
Lee harrison, London , UK Baghdad
I came to Britain aged 8 and obtained British Citizenship at 16.
Yet now I am looking at selling up and leaving. The Britain I loved is disappearing before my eyes, and the third-world country my parents and I left is rapidly taking its place. All I see is uncontrolled immigration, the rise of parallel societies, ghettoisation, the pandering to and promotion of foreign cultures to the determent of the indigenous population and culture.
Being “British” is not about getting a passport and access to free education and healthcare. It’s about understanding and embracing British values, culture and history.
I loathe the racism of the BNP and their Apartheid-style vision, but I can’t blame some people for turning to them. Who else offers an alternative to the current irrational nonsense being spouted by the multiculturalist zeolots?
Reza Mirsadeghi, London, England
“Immigration in the UK has increased the size of the economy and has made us all richer as a consequence”, so says James Docherty… Well James if that’s your opinion you must be wallowing in a priviledged situation. My friends in Construction, Transport, Health etc who have been confined to benefit culture, through inability to compete with Third World wage rates worked for by hot-bunking immigrants would beg to differ. You are in good company Blair, Cameron, Campbell et al would agree (they are possibly living in a similar cosseted lifestyle to your own). As someone who has teenaged children, relatives and young friends who will be in the job-market in the next 20 years or so, I would like to think It would be nice if life came back and bit you in the bum for your short-sighted greed. Roll on the BNP, the only party with the guts to tell the truth as WE the ordinary people of the country see it!
Macca, Edinburgh, Scotland
Very interesting reading, I think my vote is with the BNP, i do not agree with all of there policies but then again, I have never agreed with all of the policies of the conservatives I used to vote for.
The country is going to change, either politically or violently I pray God its not the latter but at the present time it looks increasingly likely.
Anthony Clarke, Manchester, Englnad
>>Wonder how Griffin is labeled "a racist" when your average Joe in >>Holland and Germany speak exactly the same words and are >>labeled as honest citizens
>>keylogger times , keyloggersville, uk
I wish it were so. Over here they don`t have to call you a racist. It suffices to call you "auslaenderfeindlich" (xenophobic) to yell everybody into submission. Another eyample for new speak is islamophobic, which is used to silence anybody who opposes islamic infiltration.
Isent it funny that Islam translates >submission<?!?
Germandude, Dresden, Germany
The longer unrealistic levels of immigration are tolerated, encouraged and engineered by a Nation such as Britain a few facts must be noted. Peoples of different Races, Religions, Cultures etc will tend to gravitate to, or flee from, areas to be with their own kind. This is a self-propagating slide which, as percentages get more polarised, this desire to be in your own community ferments into a fear (perceived no-go areas). All OK! NO need for immigrants to assimilate, NO need for learning the host language, NO need to deal anyone other than your own people. This can proceed quite happily until the immigrant population begin to think they are getting a raw deal OR the host community feels that the percentage of immigrants is becoming a threat, or is not a beneficial part of the overall picture. When its YOUR mother, father, son, daughter who cannot get work, cannot get health treatment, is confined to the human scrap heap this is when a scapegoat is hunted. This is happening in a
Scot, Edinburgh, Scotland
If immigration is a negative force, then we are only reaping what we have sown, and if immigrants are exploiting British society, it is only becuase we exploited them first. Just payback for imperialism.
betty , london, UK
Most so-called English are descended frrom Romans (Italy), Normans (France), Anglo-Saxons (Germany) or Vikings (Scandinavia), or else more recently Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe. No real difference.
Ben, York,
How kind of A K of Birmingham to permit us to teach our culture to our children in private! I would remind him/her that this is Britain--or more specifically England, where the official language is English and the public celebrations should be of things English.
It is the newcomers who should teach their culture at home and not demand that their languages and celebrations should take preference in our schools and public life.
Earlier immigrants understood and respected this; more recent ones do not. Hence the constant protests at Christmas and Easter celebrations and at flying the English flag, or even speaking English.
Jean, Manchester, England
Nick Griffin calls Mohammedanism a "wicked, vicious faith". Matthew Parris writes in "The Times", "Listen instead to Nietzsche. 'This eternal indictment of Christianity,' he said, 'I will write on walls, wherever there are walls.'" Will that quote follow Matthew Parris wherever he goes?
Kevin, London,
Ian Payne asks: "If the BNP gain ground in this country then why the hell did billions of brave men and women die in a 5 year bloody war between 1939 - 1945 ?'
Well, Ian, my mum (God rest her soul) helped the war effort by joining the Red Cross in World War 2. But she wouldn't have had any problem with the BNP's manifesto - and neither would most of her generation. Their views are deeply conservative by today''s standards. But Nazi? No.
Mum was always friendly and respecftul to members of ethnic minorities, but horrified when large-scale Commonwealth immigration started. If she had lived to see the recent colonisation of large swathes of her native land, she might well have wondered why she (and Dad and millions of others) fought that war that was supposed to keep us free from foreign control. What a betrayal of their courage and sacrifice.
JD, Sydney, Australia
"Whites will be an ethnic minority in Britain by the end of the century”- The Guardian.
The writer mentions about assumptions, qualifications and back-of-the-envelope calculations. The article had not foreseen the expansion of EU to East European countries, the 600,000 white Christian poles coming to Britain and the discriminate immigration policy, where non EU immigrants have to meet strict criterias.
If the BNP is not racist, then why should the descendants of Johnson Beharry -the black soldier who fought bravery for Britain, who saved the lives of white comrades and was awarded a VC, be less British than a BNP member? If Nick Griffin’s descendant was to marry Johnson Beharry’s descendant, would their offspring be foreigners?
keith, Bristol,
I think it is great that the times has had the decency to place a debate like this in its paper , and hope all the other papers and the bbc follow suit .
No longer will decent british people be ashamed of voting for the only party that is answering the questions that need answering the most , for too long we have all been labeled racists for anything we have to say on immigration , muslim culture , e.t.c, but finally the tide is turning , Nick griffin is no racist even though the typical 40 plus year old do- gooder has him labeled as one .
I can tell you now that i know of 30 - 40 people alone down my street that will be marking there papers with a BNP cross even though there is no candidate here this year , doesnt that say anything about how much support the party is getting.!
GOOD LUCK NICK , BRING BRITAIN BACK
JASON, HULL, ENGLAND
Reading these comments about the rise of the BNP an old saying about the English come to mind,
"Slow to anger, quick to fight."
We English take so much then people start getting angry about unfair decisions taken by a remote political elite.
But also, what happened to the other Engish saying,
"I disagree with what you say, but I would fight to the death to allow you to say it."
The BNP is almost exclusively ignored by the mass media despite being the fastest grownig poltical party? Mmm..
steve, northants, uk
Nick Griffin is a breath of fresh air compared to B-liar in power today and the want-to-be Cameron.Posh spoil't brats with no idea about real people, two public school boys that have been fortunate not have been exposed or been a victim of this multi-cult society in its raw form, that most working indigenous British people have to endure on a daily basis, assault,violence rape,vitriolic hate,loss of identity,druggies,robbery,fear to venture out in our own land. All because of immigration by those who have nothing but resentment of us commie greedy cor-prats one and the same.Then when we verbally fight back we are landed with some hate speech crime by our own! First off FREE SPEECH for Britain should be without question. If we don't like what some say ignore it turn the box off or whatever. Next we need to get out of the EU skam for for lazy traitors to earn big money for nothing out of our pockets. Vote BNP your only option they may not go far but the message will be clear.
Roger, Oslo, Norge
Immigration in the UK has increased the size of the economy and has made us all richer as a consequence. So says James Docherty... I wonder who he thinks is encompassed by 'ALL'. Not the people I know in the Construction Industry, Transport (drivers), my children, young relatives and friends who aspire to go to Uni but have no option but to fund part of thier own costs. All of them are suffering and will continue to do so to a greater extent, as they compete with hot-bunkers who will work for third word wage rates. I would guess that he is fortunate enough to have quite a comfortable lifestyle, but I would be suprised if at some time in the future short term greed will not come back to bite him. Life has a habit of doing just that. Sorry James!
Macca, Edinburgh,
Dear Editor:
recently the Telegraph invited Billy Bragg to post his opinion on 'Englishness' then answer questions posted by readers.(Needless to say he hand picked the ones that suited him best and what he wrote was 'Blairite' populist tripe,)
Would it be possible to ask Mr Griffin to answer some of these questions? NOW THAT WOULD BE INTERESTING!
Ben, London,
"Whites will be an ethnic minority in Britain by the end of the century…it would be the first time in history that a major indigenous population has voluntarily become a minority, rather than through war, famine or disease."
The Guardian, Sunday September 3 , 2000
This is the reason increasing numbers of people are supporting the BNP. It has nothing to do with 'blaming immigrants' or 'hatred'. It is simply a matter of wishing to survive as a people and a nation.
David, Southend,
Dear Syed, London, England
Good god!! is that what you think?
And you wonder why the BNP is gaining support?
Ben, London,
Immigration in the UK has increased the size of the economy and has made us all richer as a consequence. Immigrants come to the UK to work hard to make a better life. Many have escaped not only crippling poverty, but intense and all pervading repression from controlling and corrupt governments. On arrival here they see a better life, and the UK, being one of the most advanced countries in the world, can take advantage of this new and stronger influx and lead in the inevitable spread of multiculturalism. The introduction of a diversity of ideas and perspectives not only improves our domestic situation but would help generate a populous with a more international mindset.
Besides, the UK has always been a country of an immigrant population and this is evident in our language and our history of invention. There are problems, but they are not impossible to solve.
ML King said, "either we learn to be brothers and sisters or we die next to each other like fools." Too true.
Don't fear.
James Docherty, Southampton, Hampshire
We owe the people the hateful BNP wants to kick out. Troops from the Empire fought and died for our freedom, we plundered their riches and left them in a total mess when we withdrew.
Ben, York,
As a soon to be graduating history student, allow me to offer a history lesson to the historically unaware. For many hundreds of years, England has run riot around the world, benefiting immensely from numerous different lands and people, does the slave triangle or india, 'the jewel in the crown,' mean anything? Those are just two examples of England benefiting unconditionally and inhumanly from far off lands. Today, some of the people from those far off lands have chosen and in some cases been invited to settle in England and the rest of the UK, surely, as the descendants of peoples who have been exploited deeply for centuries by England, they are entitled to take something back. Be allowed to live in England and peacefully experience some benefits in return for the centuries of oppressiona and exploitation they suffered at the hands of England. Let us not forget, this great country would not be so great without having used the resources, material and human, of the whole world.
Syed, London, England
I wish people would stop BULLYING refugees as they are the most vulnerable and the least able to defend themselves. Refugees are fleeing from CONFLICT and PERSECUTION. UK is home to just 3% of 9 million refugees world-wide. In 2005, UK ranked 14th in the league table of EU countries for the number of asylum applications per head of population and only 11% applications are accepted. Asylum applications are at the lowest level since 1993. The UK is outperforming other European nations, which collectively saw their own asylum applications rise by 14%. It’s so hard to claim asylum now that the only acceptable route is via airports. The benefits refugees receive are one third less than basic income support (30% below poverty line).
There are 1,000 refugee doctors.11 noble prize winners and17 noble laureates were refugees or children of refugees.
If people just come here for the benefits and to sponge, then there won’t be any illegal immigrants, i.e. they have
no welfare rights.
david wilkes, manchester, uk
You can blame immigrants for the breakdown of British culture until you turn blue. It takes two to tango. Like other observant posters have noted, the British have had extensive influence over many foreign territiories. Are you so arrogant to assume parts of their culture have not sustained irrevocable damage?
No one is stopping you passing on your culture and values to your children. No one can induce sudden amnesia of your culture. If you've failed to pass on your culture to your children, don't even think of blaming others for your failure.
My enthusiasm and fascination for Britain and its culture far surpasses that of my 'native' friends, even though I have only ever suffered from the alleged prioritisation of minorities.
The Sikhs have spilled so much blood fighting for this country. Unlike Muslim countries, within the one sovereign Sikh kingdom which existed, all cultures were welcome. The British were welcome in our court. We ask only for the favour to be returned.
A K, Birmingham, UK
Don't be taken in by these lies about nazism, racism and fascism. It's childish propaganda to put people off voting for or joining the BNP. As they are the only party that truly opposes globalisation, and as the mass media is largely foreign-owned and pro-globalisation, the media go to great lengths to scare the electorate by quoting the party leadership on things they said or did many years ago (no matter how trivial it was).
The BNP may well have had some idiots in it's ranks during the days of John Tyndall, but Nick Griffin has turned the party into what it should have been 20 or 30 years ago - a respectable and electable party that represents the interests of all British people.
Warning: Not electing a future BNP government will cause irreversible damage to your grandchildren.
Andy, Brighton, Sussex
If you want to know why I shall be voting BNP, come and spend a bit of time in Bradford!
City Boy, Bradford, West Yorkshire
I Notice that on the Guardian Website they refuse to acknowledge that the BNP exist. Every other party is listed.
This is foolish in the extreme. Whatever the rights and wrongs we must have FREE speech.
While it can be admirable to have principles, subverting free speech and perverting democracy, smacks of the very thing the Guardian accuse of the BNP. This is tantamount to propaganda. In behaving in this fashion the Guardian show they cannot be trusted.
Well done to the Times for your responsible and more importantly HONEST approach to this journalism.
Ben, London,
I would have thought voting for candidates from the British National Party would have been beneath Middle England, or is it now called Middle Earth? I always thought that Oppressed of Orpington and Apoplectic of Appleford were simply English eccentrics!
Have they finally lost their marbles?
Mr Lachie Todd, Edinb urgh, Scotland, U.K.
"I will go "home" tommorrow if the BNP gives me £100,000. Plus, I want £10m compensation for my two grandfathers' who both fought and died in WW2 whilst serving in the British Army."
Sam Iqbal, Glasgow,
Sir, when you have agreed to pay £10.000,000 (FROM YOUR TAXES) compensation to all the other MILLIONS of descendents whose grand parents died in the last war, only then can you demand this sum for your own relatives.
Ben, London,
This quote is interesting because it accurately reflects the views of about 90 per cent (and I sense I do not exaggerate) of the population where I live :- "He would abolish affirmative action programmes and hate-crime legislation, ban the promotion of homosexuality, prevent the NHS from recruiting foreign workers and stop women soldiers serving on the front line. State schools would restore mandatory (nonhalal) lunches and morning assemblies with Christian worship (minorities should “either accept our ways or go somewhere else”). A BNP government would take Britain out of the EU and the European Convention on Human Rights."
clive, NW Surrey,
Why, given the enourmous geographical distance that so called refugees have to travel to reach this safe haven, should we even consider offering sanctuary to anyone from outside of the countries immidiatly bordering our own? Surely refugees should stop fleeing as soon as they get to a "safe" country, and not continue across the whole of Europe to get to this one.
Clearly our generous benefits system is the carrott. It's high time we introduced a system like those that operate in Austrailia, New Zealand and heaven forbid even France, which insists on 5 years residence before qualifying for any benefits and insists that you have a job to go to before you're allowed in. Implement those changes and just watch the tide of grasping spongers dry up.
I have always consideered myself to be a tollerent moderate, but after 50 years of living in a free and democratic society I beleive the time has come to stand fast against the overwhelming waves of imigrants - and I intend to vote BNP
Andrew , Birmingham, West Midlands
I think issues like the one raised here are very difficult to get your head round - there are so many facts, assertions and worries it's hard to know what to think. Yes there are immigrants with decent and hard-working values - working in restaurants I've met a range of, on the whole, pretty fab people from all over the globe, and not one would I think "you're a threat to Britain - get out", on the one hand,my partner and I can't afford to buy a house, so we rent privately with my daughter, and coupled with water shortages and congestion I think it would be sensible to, at least, match immigration to emigration.
My main concern over immigration isn't that "there's a lot of brown people around" I don't give a hoot what epidermal pigmentation people have - it's the cultural values of some of them. In this country, women worked hard (and died) for equal rights, as did gay people, and I find it quite distressing that we are taking in people en masse to whom that means nothing.
Anna Bowman, Birmingham, UK
God Bless Nick Griffin and the BNP. I have many friends -Chrisian and Jewish- who will all be voting BNP. Why can't the politicians and the media -The Times excepted - have the guts and honesty of Mr.Griffin and tell the truth about what is happening to this country of ours.
Dr. R Cook, London,
I will go "home" tommorrow if the BNP gives me £100,000. Plus, I want £10m compensation for my