Right or wrong? - The British National Party and Ulster
They say they are concerned with law and order, yet dozens of their members, including their leader, have criminal records. They say they are not racist, yet they dream of an all-white Britain. Is the BNP the most dangerous political party in Britain and how much of a threat does it pose to Ulster politics?
Burly men with red, white and blue rosettes pinned to their chests stand proudly, some swigging on cans of beer. Women give two-fingered salutes. Inside, party leader Nick Griffin is in jubilant mood. The BNP has won 13 seats in this year's British council elections after fielding 220 candidates. More importantly, it has pushed beyond its traditional support base in the depressed sink estates of northern England and made inroads into the Tory heartland of the south. Griffin already has his eye on next year's European elections.
It appears a far cry from the BNP of the past. Indeed the party is trying hard to shrug off its old image of a rag-bag of the far-Right, made up of cranks, racists, thugs and aging Oswald Mosley sympathisers. Gone are the skinheads, bovver boots and public displays of Union flags fluttering alongside swastikas. The party's new guard is smooth-tongued and smartly dressed. The fiery street rhetoric of old has been watered down and its politics are now couched in the language of moderation. Taking its cue from Le Pen's National Front in France, the BNP now talks about crime and fear and "our country's future". And, judging from the small but significant electoral gains, their strategy seems to be working.
So who is joining the BNP in Northern Ireland? Meet David, an earnest-looking man in his late 40s who works in retail management. David (not his real name) is a Christian and quotes liberally from the Bible when challenged on his prejudices against Muslims. He comes from a unionist background. Thrusting forward a folder of newspaper cuttings - the majority from the Daily Mail and the Daily Express - he says: "This is why I joined the BNP".
The articles deal mostly with the asylum seeker issue, illegal immigrants and racist attacks - but only those carried out on white people. A few are of the hysterical political correctness-gone-mad ilk. "I want the great put back into Great Britain," David says, his index finger stabbing the air for emphasis. "It's not a colour issue but it is an immigration issue, there are too many getting in. All I'm saying is we have to look after our own. Somebody has to draw a line. I want to see this country a Christian country with Christian ethics where we look after our own people - British people. We need to turn around and say enough is enough".
In many ways David typifies the card-carrying BNP member, toeing the party line on most issues. He is anti-Europe, anti-globalisation, against the war on Iraq, pro capital and corporal punishment, anti-gay and, of course, anti-immigration.
He buttresses his arguments with anecdotes and statistics gleaned from BNP literature and his newspapers of choice. Some of the theories and ideas he trots out appear half-baked, others the stuff of urban myth. David talks passionately about what he sees as a breakdown in law and order, indeed at times he seems on the verge of tears.
The BNP puts much emphasis on cracking down on crime. One party pamphlet stresses the need to 'free the police and courts from the politically correct straitjacket that is stopping them from doing their job properly'.
But the party's boast that it is tough on crime rings hollow when you consider dozens of BNP representatives, activists and supporters have criminal pasts. Thirteen of the party's 28 regional or branch organisers last year had criminal records for offences that included assault, fraud, theft, racist abuse and possession of drugs and weapons.
Party leader Nick Griffin, who in 1995 wrote about the need to defend "rights for whites" with "well-directed boots and fists" was given a suspended sentence in 1998 after he was convicted of inciting racial hatred.
Soho bomber David Copeland was a former BNP member. The party's organiser in Northern Ireland, Andy McLorie, was jailed for two years for his part in a 1986 National Front petrol bomb attack on the home of an RUC officer.
McLorie, a small, wiry man in his late 40s, smiles when his conviction is brought up. "It was a long time ago. I should have given better direction to the kids that carried it out, but it happened a long time ago," he says.
McLorie was then heavily involved with the National Front, a part of the BNP's inglorious heritage it would rather new supporters didn't know about.
The National Front openly flirted with Nazi regalia and deliberately ratcheted up racial tensions through street violence and racist attacks. Many in the BNP, including Nick Griffin, are former National Front members.
The BNP now bristles at being labelled racist. Both David and John, a quiet sixty-something man who works in the civil service, insist race is not the reason they joined the BNP.
The conversation of all three men is peppered, however, with 'they', 'non-whites', 'our British identity'. A few times they come out with the old chestnut "We're not racists, but..."
At one stage David talks about his "wee Indian friend". "He is the loveliest fella. He had a bit of bother with people painting NF (National Front) and things like that outside his door which is a shame". When asked if his Indian friend knows David is a member of a party that wants people like him to leave the country, he retorts: "He's never asked me".
The BNP's stated policy is now voluntary repatriation for non-whites rather than the forced repatriation it previously advocated. Instead of the crudely racist stance of the past, the party has pounced on the asylum-seeker issue, tapping into people's fears by linking it with local issues such as poverty, unemployment and crime. For the BNP the 'asylum-seekers crisis' is the race card in a new guise and the party is only too aware how well they can play it.
"I would say the asylum issue has pushed us forward quite a bit in terms of support and in terms of people sitting up and taking notice of what we are saying," Andy says.
So how would they feel if their son or daughter had a black or Asian partner? David insists he wouldn't have a problem "as long as they don't take our Christian beliefs off us". John says he would disagree with it "if they were anti-British". Andy is more blunt, saying it doesn't seem likely as his children are being brought up to be "racially aware". When pressed as to what exactly he means by this, he says: "I would like to think my children are racially aware enough to know that perhaps they shouldn't go down that path. I wouldn't like them to.
"What concerns me is the survival of the white race and that is not in a supremacist way. We are not supreme to any non-whites, we are simply different and what is wrong with us wanting to live with our own kith and kin and our own type of culture? If I feel that I should try to save the white race in this country then I don't see how that is racist, or wrong or bigoted".
Andy later claims, somewhat ingenuously, that the emergence of the BNP has resulted in fewer racist attacks. Seemingly unaware that he is contradicting his earlier insistence that the party doesn't tolerate 'extremists', expelling such elements as soon as they become aware of them, he says: "The BNP has stopped a lot of racial incidents. The very fact that the BNP is pulling in people who are supporting them shows this. They are being educated to be tolerant and to work politically towards change. "There is no doubt that if the BNP didn't exist people would be venting their frustration and anger in a personal way, in a racist way".
For Gerry Gable, publisher of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, the BNP's attempt at window dressing is full of holes. "Don't be fooled," he says. "Ask yourself who these people are and what they represent. Look at their criminal records when it comes to the party's claims on law and order. "Look between the lines when it comes to their stance on asylum-seekers and race. They haven't changed, they are still the same".
The Northern Ireland debate
As the dust settles on the BNP's victories in this year's English council elections, the Northern Ireland branch of the far-Right party is again examining the possibility of running candidates in Northern Ireland.
"We are going to stand in future elections - there is no doubt about that," says regional organiser Andy McLorie. "There is internal debate within the BNP here about the best way forward - some favour the idea of going for council elections quite rapidly, others want to build up for the European elections and yet others are saying let's hold firm, build up our support and come out when the time is right".
Anti-fascist campaigners have accused the BNP of announcing plans to contest seats in electoral areas purely as a means of gaining publicity. A trawl through local news archives would appear to support this.
The BNP has floated its intention to run candidates on numerous occasions dating back to 1994 - but no candidates have stood for election thus far, most likely because of lack of funds.
The party devotes a paragraph to Northern Ireland in its campaign literature in which it puts forward its own, somewhat unorthodox, solution. "In the long run," it states, "we wish to end the conflict in Ireland by welcoming Eire as well as Ulster as equal partners in a federation of the nations of the British Isles".
McLorie is coy when pressed on the issue of membership in Northern Ireland and refuses to be pinned down on the amount of support the party has in the province. "We don't as policy give out figures on that," he says, somewhat unconvincingly.
He is more forthcoming, however, when it comes to describing the kind of people in the Ulster branch. We are attracting a broad cross section of people - young, old, male and female, from the unemployed to people in the civil service and management. One of our members is a senior figure in a local football club," he says.
McLorie claims between 10 and 15% of members are Catholic.
The links between loyalist paramiltaries and far-Right groups such as the National Front and Combat 18 are well documented and raise the question of possible paramilitary support for the BNP. McLorie is adamant such support is not welcome. "We don't trade in any way with paramilitaries from either side and our members are definitely not sectarian. We don't have people like that and we don't want people like that," he says.
Gerry Gable, publisher of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight isn't so sure.
"There has always been a strong loyalist connection with the BNP and it is still there today, no matter what they say. There is a constant flow of movement between the two," he says.
Belfast Telegraph - 24th June 2003
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