BNP races to get membership list off the net

Democracy

Although I do not condone BNP's politics, it shocks me that in the UK, organizations (and public ones, moreover) may choose to prohibit their employees from joining a specific political party. I always thought that there was a democracy there... Guess I was wrong!

Jacqui's comment

From BBC news website: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith [...] told the BBC News Channel she did not mind people knowing she was a member of the Labour Party, adding: "I wonder why it is that BNP members are rather more ashamed of their membership."

Now I'm no friend of the BNP, and their members *should* be ashamed, but as usual she's missed the point of why publishing the names and addresses of members of minority political parties might be a Bad Thing.

Too late

The list is out there now in the public domain, try as it might the BNP is not going to stop distribution of this list. As much as part of me has sympathy for those members who's privacy has been breached, an equal part of me is laughing its ass off.

"Nick Griffin claimed the leak was good news for the extremist party because it showed its members were not "skinhead oiks""

Says it all really, well at least how narrow minded and limited in imagination Nick Griffin is.

A security breach is NEVER good news Nick, you prove yourself to be even less smart than I thought you were.

It appears to me that "skinhead oiks" are the only members of the BNP who take pride in their membership and boast of it. Whilst professionals and respected members of society (I use the term loosely) keep such affiliations very quiet indeed. This says more about the BNP than propaganda from either side of the fence ever could.

Aye, right

"He also said that some non-members had been maliciously added to the list." Of course, Nick. In fact, I'll bet that anyone who needs to now deny being a member will have been "maliciously added".

Quite impressive that there are more than 6,000 unique email addresses in the data (out of around 12,000 entries). And it's good to see that in reality there are hardly any BNP idiots in Scotland. But God help the midlands and the north west.

Oh, and what a range of organisations with racist nutters working for them! Email domains include mit.edu, mod.uk (oh dear), gov.uk (oh dear oh dear) and, delightfully, both Renault and Mercedes dealers. :-) Also, a surprising number of what must be ex-pats - Spanish and Australian emails addresses are quite common.

some non-members had been maliciously added to the list?

Glad to see even the BNP see themselves as a negative thing to be associated with.

Good luck on getting your list off the net ...

... now that it appears on Wikileaks.

urghh...

there's a member from the north west whose e-mail address is comeonmyglasses@[a certain free e-mail service that nearly became part of microsoft but didn't due to excessive use of the symbol ! by el reg].

Creepy!

End of the BNP

Quite simply, I think this will result in the BNP folding.

This is not necessarily a good thing - it provides a lightning conductor for a certain class of right wingers. Without the BNP, it is more likely that they will seek to redirect more mainstream parties of the right.

McCarthy must be spinning in his grave with envy

Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist ^h^h^h^h^h^h^h British National Party.

I have in my hand a list of people that I downloaded from a torrent as being members of the party...

Plenty of coppers

Quite a few retired or former police officers on that list, plus one who seems to be a serving officer. And they wonder why we think the police force is "institutionally racist".

Public Service par Excellence

I wonder when the MP expenses list will appear .... you know, the one that they would rather no one knows about because it is so incriminating/damaging/revealing.

Is anyone running a book on the likelihood .... and as for the Gravy train which pays for all those Campbell types to hide/massage/plagiarise the news rather than just share its novel invention/programmed course/Field Programmable Gate Array .... well now, that would also be educational.

EU Human rights

A few points. Human Rights legislation is UK Law, The Human Rights Act - not EU law. People talk of the European Convention on Human Rights which is a directive for member states to legislate, we already had the legislation long before this directive, and it was tweaked to comply.

The other point is that New Labour have made hate-filled legislation against non-trilateral political parties and uses their left-wing Union-funded lackies to carry out hate campaigns. This is why the BNP et al need to keep their membership lists private.

So . . .

. . . if Jaqui is so smug about why people who are members of the BNP should want to remain anonymous, would she be so good as to post a full and complete list of those people who donated money to NuLab ?

No ?? What, you mean that because that money has bought votes in government, thats fine, but heaven forbid that a person joins a party of their choice and doesn't want their name dragged through the mud.

Remember, we live in a country where a Paediatrician has been beaten up and had their house damaged, due to the lack of education and where someone else was beaten up due to having the same name as a leaked paedophile.

..."websites are full of angry BNP members"

BNP members are always angry. That's why they joined the BNP.

let's see what people read into this

Has anyone on here actually read any of the official BNP policies?

Just wondering, because most of the negative responses seem to have been lifted directly from the Daily Wankwad (this covers pretty much every hyped up newspaper in the country really).

BNP not just policemen

As exclusively revealed by The Daily Mash

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/bnp-not-just-policemen%2c-reveals-secret-list-200811191408/

wikileaks is having problems

"Wikileaks servers are currently overloaded by extreme popularity".

I suppose a DDOS attack is one way to stop the list from falling into anyone else's hands.

Human Rights Act

Strange they feel the need to use the Human Rights Act when the BNP officially opposes the introduction of the act into British Law.

I have no idea what the hoohar is about

well I suppose it is a breach of the data protection act, and it would appear computer system were compromised to get that list, so the miscreants should be bought to heel.

And it is bad day in British liberty when it gets so publicised that for your political affiliations you will be denied jobs, food and freedom, and somehow this is legal and accepted, it is certainly not moral.

But so what, if you are member of the tuffty club, the knights that go ni, or the masons, does it really matter, what matters is freedom and the rights of the individual. What we should be doing is ensuring the police have fewer powers, and more checks on them. If people are breaking the ethical laws when they are in a position of authority, there should be people checking up on it, and making sure they are suitably punished.

I would be kinda interested in a list of labour party membership, perhaps they have people on the police force, they could be selectively enforcing based on race and political affiliation, that would cast doubt on a lot of convictions, were they politically motivated, was a particular race more targeted by a labour policeman ?

It would be amusing if the BNP did get power next time, I am pretty sure labour party membership would find itself outlawed, who knows they might take the higher moral ground though.

'Of..

course policepersons shouldn't be allowed to be an active member of a group or society that keeps its practises and membership secret.

Its not saying they can't vote for whomever they want to, just that they can't be an active member.'

This is sort fo true, if your going to ban police from being an active member of The BNP then you have to ban police from being a active member of any political party.... That doesn't mean they cant vote for whoever they want to.

I always find it strange how nobody in the BNP doesn't just say 'you know what we are racist, so what, in a democracy you are allowed to think how you like.' Instead of lieing and using some sort of false intelligence and warped logic to justify their position.

@AC

"Its not saying they can't vote for whomever they want to, just that they can't be an active member."

The distinction is sufficient enough to imply that we should be able to impinge upon people's democratic rights just because we dislike their political opinions. It's still wrong.

Strange Bedfellows

I rather liked the one who is described as "Active Odinist" (probably a typo for Onanist, like the rest of them). In fact there are rather a lot of pagans on the list, perhaps once you take an interest in one redundant outmoded organisation you tend to join others?

Tough one.

Whereas I strenuously object to the goals and methods of the BNP, the *are* a legal, registered political party. The news that I'm hearing that certain companies and even government departments are thinking of making membership in this legal political party a firing offence is, to say the least, scary.

It's scary in its implications on a supposedly free society. Of course, the UK has been heading toward a police state for quite some years now, but it's always worrying when so many citizens are happy to jump on such an anti-freedom bandwagon. It's a very slippery slope from there to a truly fascist society.

Now, if they strengthened the anti-hate laws, and the BNP fell foul of them, I'd be first to cheer. But right now the BNP is a legal, registered party, albeit to the far right of the political spectrum. Let's not act like savages and give them an even stronger platform to stand on.

@Gianni Straniero - Re: Plenty of coppers

> Quite a few retired or former police officers on that list, plus one who seems to be a

> serving officer. And they wonder why we think the police force is "institutionally racist".

Quite a few plumbers and bricklayers on that list, and they wonder why we think the building trade is "institutionally racist"

Quite a few bus drivers on that list, and they wonder why we think the public transport industry is "institutionally racist"

etc etc

Members emigrated?

How come there are people on there who cancelled their membership because they emigrated? I thought the BNP was anti-imigration? Did these people not realise that if you emigrate to another country you become an imigrant?

Sad day

When people condone the highly illegal breaches of every data protection law we have, just because they disagree with a political stance.

This was marked as being an 'inside job', which means someone authorised to have the info simply walked off with it. It's not a security breach in "an external cracker got into our systems and lifted it".. It's a case of someone who was put in a position of trust decided to breach that trust.

Whatever the rationale, if that person is discovered, they should NEVER work in a sensitive data environment ever again. If you disagree with something, by all means, walk out, but don't screw over your organisation, and all the affiliates.

As to Jacqui Smith saying that she didn't mind people knowing she was a member of the Labour Party, would she mind everyone knowing her home address(es), email and telephone number? Her kids' details, and the rest of her family info? Don't think that would fly somehow.

Personally, I find it weird that you can be a member of a hard left organisation with nobody batting an eyelid, yet join a hard right, and you're automatically evil (both sides are pretty much nasty). And having non-terror parties on a membership blacklist for certain professions?

As long as it doesn't influence their day to day job then why the hell do people care (apart from creating a bogeyman for everyone to 'fear' and be 'protected from').

And of course 'respected members of the community' keep quiet largely about BNP membership. Everything that's ever said about it is in vilification. As soon as that's brought up, anything else someone may have done is automatically ignored, and that membership becomes the be all and end all; this is about the only political party I know of that this happens with. So much for freedom of political expression!

I don't really agree with the BNP (being very much middle of the road), but hey.. Just because I strongly disagree with their policy shouldn't mean I have an automatic right to censor them. And I certainly don't have the right to expose their details to their absolute extreme opposites, many of who will almost certainly not be above the use of violence and directed hate campaigns.

So, if anything, this release if details is pretty much an incitement to the commitment of hate crimes. Which is a Bad Thing(TM). Worse than the BNPs homegrown bigotry.

Torn

I must confess that in general I'm in favour of things which embarrass or hurt these idiots. (Personal opinion.)

However, I also believe in one rule for all. If it's OK to reveal BNP identities then it has to be OK to expose Falung Gong members in China, practicing christians in several islamic countries or atheists in bible-belt America; all of which could be hazardous to the economic, social and/or physical well being of the respective groups.

I can only hope that whatever the short term pain, greater openness and better education will lead to more enlightened social evolution.

2 scottish footballers?

Perhaps they were trying to join the SNP, and had trouble spelling it?

@AC

>>"And it's good to see that in reality there are hardly any BNP idiots in Scotland."

Is that really surprising?

Such idiots as do exist North of the border will just be a slightly different kind of idiot.

Nationalists in Scotland (and people who just want to blame someone else for any problems) are likely to draw their boundaries rather closer, and probably won't join an organisation with 'British' in the title.

BNPWatch?

Odd the BNP are up in arms about this... it's remarkably similar to the repugnant "Redwatch" site, apart from the fact that this list does not advocate violence or action, whereas Redwatch does... one rule for the Reds, another for the BNP, it seems.

Before I retired from the Civil Service,

I wasn't allowed to join any political party. Fair enough, They're supposed to perform their duties impartially.

You're free to vote for anyone you want, even the BNP. Taking an active part in politics, no.

Some very useful people there, come the revolution

Decorator (self-employed). Fully qualified, time-served. Hobbies: tennis, boxing, cycling. Matchbox label collector

Manager (building site). City & Guilds (plastering, floor laying). Hobbies: karate (2nd Dan instructor), clay pidgeon shooting. Lead singer/drummer with band

Civil servant. Previously a horticulturalist. Ex-serviceman (Army musician). Hobbies: member of local brass/dance bands (assists in teaching). Allotment gardening

Self employed builder/flat-roofer. City & Guilds (Construction). Hobbies: boating

Ex-serviceman (3rd Royal Tank Regiment). General assistant (supermarket). City & Guilds: roadwords/advanced driver (AFV tracked/wheeled). Hobbies: diecast military models, walking.

Mechanical engineer. City & Guilds (Mechnical Engineering). Hobbies: chess, guitar playing, wargaming. Activist

Just in time for xmas

It would, of course, be tragic if employers checked the application forms of those listed for errors and "inadvertently" omitted unspent convictions, summarily dismissed for gross misconduct and told the DWP so they don't get any JSA before xmas.

Anonymous Coward - because regardless of what Spode^WGriffin says, I suspect their rank and file are mostly violent thugs.

Sticky

I'm torn, on the one hand you have everyone's right to privacy, especially the innocent kids of affiliates and on the other you have the fact that if you join a rather nefarious organisation like the BNPm then you should be prepared to stand up for it when pushed.

Then knowing what "da web" is like, what about...

It's circulating like a bad smell. someone grabs it and plasters all the names of people they dislike on it and posts it back almost a black-market version of the list, if you like. Next your boss gets the list from somewhere and your called up and suspended pending investigation...

Another fine example of our wonderful, technology empowered society shooting itself in head!

Mmm...

So our fascist friends don't like their own tactics turned on themselves hey?

They have been using Redwatch for years naming union activists and anti-fascists for their bully boys to exploit.

Left Wing danger

This is making the pages of many web forums. What I find quite ironic is that the far left - who spout on about the "violent BNP" - are the ones planning to put fireworks through letterboxes or start other levels of hate campaigns - daubing "BNP supporter" on front doors etc.

And Labour supporters seem to forget that the deputy PM actually punched someone during the election run-up of 1997.

There's free speech but....

The BNP is not a political party, they are a bunch of racist, sexist, anti gay, holocaust deniers, they would be illegal in some countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland).

If they did have any (real) power, do you think that their policies would reduce or increase racial tensions?

Take away the anti colour, anti jew, anti gay and they have nothing, no other policies (would you want them to decide the future of the UK? health, education, defence?).

So, their policies they have are counter-productive and they don't care about anything else, these are all facts why it make no common sense to listen to them, let alone vote for them.

On an emotional level, the party is all about hate, and that only breeds hate, they are a poison, if you embrace the hate it will destroy you, and you will not enjoy your life, much more is to be gained by being nice to (all) people, nice breeds nice, think about it, you know it makes sense.

Took me 30 seconds.....

..... to find an .xls version of the list. Another minute of searching (waiting really) and I had a txt version. Five minutes later and I completed the set with a .mdb version.

When you're in a hole then stop digging is my advice to the BNP tards. It makes interesting reading and I bet a frequent contributor to our local paper is going to be keeping his head down for a very long time :D

Re: EU Human rights

> Human Rights legislation is UK Law, The Human Rights Act - not EU law. People talk of

> the European Convention on Human Rights which is a directive for member states to

> legislate, we already had the legislation long before this directive, and it was tweaked

> to comply.

No. The ECHR is not an E.U. directive. Britain signed the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950. Between 1950 and 2000, someone who felt that their human rights were broken would need to go to the ECHR court in Strassbourg to argue their case. The Human Rights Act 1998 (which came into force in 2000) incorporated the ECHR directly into UK law, making trips to Strassbourg unnecessary. The ECHR is a product of the Council of Europe, not the E.U.; the E.U. has its own "Charter of Fundamental Rights", which may be what you're thinking of, but it is not an E.U. Directive" either, and Britain opted out of it.

Hypocrites

What a bunch of spineless hypocrites trying to invoke a breach of human rights when they wish to repel the laws that they are trying to invoke.

Perhaps a change in policy is due. Whilst their at it they can ditch all the xenophobic and racist nonsense that should be consigned to the dark ages.

Working on behalf of the State ?

I'd hoped the police were working for the people.

BNP racist membership list off the net

...is what the headline could read instead

Lets herd some cats

Or catch some clouds in a net.

Regretfully someone forgot to install the big red button which says "Delete Internets" when they made the thing.

To those who wonder why employers can control politcal allegiance

It's quite simple, really. If you're in a position of power, trust or have access to firearms then you need to be reasonably level headed. As the BNP is far-right, which means it has extremist leanings, then it's a safe assumption that those in it will not nessecarily see people of all races, creeds and colours as equal.

Freedom of political choice

I'm surprised at how many people commenting on this story here & elsewhere seem to be missing the point about the BNP. Whether these commenters begin by saying "well I'm no fan of the BNP" or not, they then go on to say that they can't believe that various public servants shouldn't have the choice to join any political party they choose because that's democracy/ freedom of speech etc. What they fail to grasp is that these people in positions of social responsibility to the whole community are not choosing to support the Lib Dems/ Greens or some other little party but a group who's stated aims were the repatriation (to where?) of non whites. Are you seriously telling me that people who not just privately hold these beliefs but choose to become politically involved in seeing them carried out should be teaching your children or policing your community or making decisions about spending your taxes? Just because they are a "political party" - all you have to do is stand for one by-election to graduate from hate group to political party - does that mean they, or anyone else, should be able to do or say whatever they like? Don't forget the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei was a political party too. Freedom of speech/ censorship is always a contentious issue, especially here at El Reg but some things are just clearly wrong.

Scottish Footballers

Nah, this is rubbish, there are a couple of matching names but all based in the wrong part of the country to be plying their trade in the SPHell. Didn't take too long to check, i'd guesstimate the same amount of time as it takes to upload a 1.6mb file to a wiki.

"...so people are to be pilloried in this "free" society for supporting/being a member of a political party? They are hounded out of jobs, ridiculed and generally abused."

party == 'BNP' ? true : false

Whats the problem

Whats the problem with the BNP? We have a Marxist Party in power, we have the SNP, WNP and Sinn Fein but thats ok. What are they if not racists? We have a Black Police Federation but no White Police Federation, an Asian Police Federation, but no non-Asian Police Federation. Why.

The attitude of British citizens to themselves and their right to hold certain beliefs is shameful. They cry out for ID cards and to arm fuckwitted coppers, and under no circumstances do they want to be allowed to express their point of view. No wonder we have a drooling idiot in power who stays there despite being despised.

Oh, and I don't vote BNP, I just don't vote. I do believe people have a right to free expression though and i'm not so naive as to believe the only racists are white British.

@EvilGav

Pretty sure the Paediatrician is urban myth inspired by the second example.

"Nick Griffin claimed the leak was good news for the extremist party because it showed its members were not "skinhead oiks". He's quite right, anyone can be an idiot racist.

While I don't condone anything the BNP believes in, I do respect their right to political freedom, and do find it sad that people can have their employment affected by their political leanings.

Also, I would imagine that quite a few of the names are fake, as it's a perfect way of calling the list into question if it ever does get leaked. I would expect that the people who are real and live at real addresses with associated e-mail addresses are quite probably members, where as any with discrepancies have been added before the leak as a security measure.

Jacqui Smith

Cannot pass a cheap shot by. The last time she left the safety of her net curtains was for some free publicity when everyone's favourite pedo was having trouble getting a flight. It's about the limit of her capacity to think for herself.

Relatively Funny

Excellent, I found my brother in law on the list as an Activist. You can never have enough information... now wonder what I can get him for Xmas this year....

Is it just me..

Or does anyone else see the irony in hating the BNP?

Now I'm not their biggest fan by any means, and while we can all sit back and have a laugh at Nick Griffin getting all uppity about it, why are we not more outraged about the whle data leakage aspcet of this. Regardless of what we may think of the political views of the people on said list, what do you think could happen to these people and their families if some idiot got an idea into his head? Nothing good thats for sure.

@Frederick Karno

>>"On a historical note : The Nazi party in Germany were actually socialist but then again i have never been able to tell the difference between Nazi ,Fascist and Communist the outcome for joe public was just the same......"

I think one difference is that Communists generally try to have the state take businesses over even in peacetime.

Though once they got full control, a fair amount of their time in power was in a war situation, where businesses in *any* country tend to be told what to make, in Nazi Germany, it was still private businesses making the products, and Adolf's rise to power was funded to a large extent by big business.

Oh the Irony

.

To all those celebrating the publication of the membership list.......................

Why do so as Anonymous Cowards?

.

Beware of hypocrisy

Was it Franklin who said, "I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"?

First reaction was "ha, these morons deserve everything they get", but on reflection, you have to concede their right to exist and to privacy else you are in dancer of hypocrisy. There's a reason why our laws grant the right to privacy over your personal beliefs - remember back when you didn't want your employer to know you were a member of a union?

I find myself in the unpleasant position of having to defend the BNP's rights, as to be guilty of hypocrisy would be worse.

jacqi

As a wacky jaucqi has said it's all right for everyone to know she is a member of the Labour Party and wonders why the BNP doesn't want their membership list published then logically doesn't this imply...the Home Secretary has just authorised the release of Labour's membership list?

Given such a stupid glib statement it would be interesting for someone to leak the Labour list just to see what she had to say then.

you can just imagine Paxman.....'but surely Home Secetary you yourself claimed.........'

@Shakje

"Pretty sure the Paediatrician is urban myth inspired by the second example."

actually no, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/901723.stm

googled it for ya.

Might be interesting to look at Newport on the Graudiad's fascist mashup.

Hmmmm

The way the TV news is playing this, you'd think that half the met were members.

From my quick look through the list, searching for the word "police", I found only one who might possibly still serving. The remaining ones, which I believe number under 20, are all retired or ex-police.

As for teachers, well they are entitled to their own private beliefs, just as long as they can perform their teaching roles fairly (if they couldn't then surely all the gov league tables and nanny state measurements would have found them by now).

So once again the news is over-hyped.

Re: Hypocrisy, hypocrites and irony...

The frequency of the words hypocrisy, hypocrites and irony lead me to believe that most of

the posters either cannot read and don't realize they are repeating what has previously been written, did not read any other posts and just decided to spurt forth or can read but are so brain dead they thought they would make the same humourous comment again in the hope they would get a big thumbs up from all the other cool, look at me, I'm da man ACs. I have never witnessed a larger group of people so similar to a cage full of budgies each with it's own mirror. Just to be clear, that's mirror as in looking glass, not the newspaper. I wouldn't want to stretch your intellectual powers of discrimination much further as it's obvious they're already beyond their elastic limit trying to see the difference between nationalist and racist.

The majority here have convinced me that this BNP cannot be such a bad thing.

As someone once said(*), "If you are doing the opposite of everyone else then you must be doing something right".

(*)If anyone knows the source of this I would appreciate a tip off, it might even have been me but I doubt it.

The ignorance is astounding

The anti-fascist mob seem far more aggressive and less tolerant than the BNP. I suggest you look up the word fascist and you will find your behaviour matches the description better than those you think you are so opposed to.

Then get educated or at least do some research before speaking/posting and have some idea about what you are talking about and then you might start sounding like someone who knows the issues and not the automatic daily mail hate generator.

RE There's free speech but

The BNP are a political party whether you like it or not. Illegal in other countries? Do some googling:

Austria: Jörg Haider, Austrian Freedom Party, Martin Graf, Olympia

Belgium: Jean-Marie Dedecker, Gezond Verstand Partij, Vlaams Belang

Czech Republic: Civic Democratic Party

France: UMP, FN, MNR

And so on and so on....

You think the BNP growing in popularity is confined to Britain. All over Europe right-wing parties are gaining ground as the local populations begin to resent the numbers of immigrants into their country. Most people who have turned to these parties are not racist or anti-anything but have reached a point that they feel their main political parties are not listening.

For example, I know a man wouldn't say a bad thing about anybody. Since the polish moved in en masse to our town he has since started saying things like 'there are too many, sick of hearing a british accent in 1 out of every 10 people you meet on the street, we have a housing shortage of around 1/2 million homes so how can we justify allowing over that number into the country, we have almost 2 million unemployed but can still find jobs for these foreign workers because most are happy working for minimum wage if not less'

He is just worried about his country, his future and that of his kids. it doesn't make him a fascist monster.

Look at the news it is happening all over the world. We have seen the riots in France. I myself have just come back from Cyprus where there is a growing resentment against the Russians and the Filipinos. In Spain there are the signs of hatred directed towards the 800000 ex-pat Brits as well as all the other immigrants.

Mass immigration has always been shown to generate resentment among the local populations and increase demand on resources. What is wrong with trying to defend your country and way of life? It used to be known as Patriotic.

Nationalist != racist

Member of a nationalist party != fascist (SNP currently control parliament in Scotland, are they a fascist dictatorship?)

@ Mike - 13:10 on the 19th Nov

"The BNP is not a political party, they are a bunch of racist, sexist, anti gay, holocaust deniers, they would be illegal in some countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland)."

but this isn't Austria, and it isn't illegal to do/be any of those things, and the BNP is a legal political party.

thate fact that you don't like their 'politics' does not give them less legal rights than you enjoy to express your more mainstream views.

7th Data Protection Principle

I do hope the BNP's complaint to the ICO backfires and they get prosecuted for failing to take "Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data. "

Nobody should lose their job for membership of a non-proscribed organisation, but OTOH if they lied about it on an application form, or "forgot" their criminal record for a light-hearted bit of paki-bashing or queer-bashing...

@REMF

>but this isn't Austria, and it isn't illegal to do/be any of those things, and the BNP is a legal political party.

You're right, the BNP is "legal" in the UK, but.....

Nick Griffin said "It is more important to control the streets of a city than its council chambers", he also advised people to use "traditional British methods of the brick, the boot and the fist.", he's also been found guilty of incitement to racial hatred. Joe Owens, Nick Griffins old bodyguard has been in prison for sending razor blades to Jewish people, carrying offensive weapons and he's also been charged with murder (dropped for lack of evidence).

Several organisers (e.g. Kevin Scott, Colin Smith, Tony Wentworth) have many convictions between them for crimes related and un-related to the party, also have a look at the cases of Robert Cottage and Tony Lecomber which makes interesting reading, look at who is attracted to the 'party'.

Do you want people like this running the county? (being in/controlling your police force?)

So yes, you're right, I don't agree with their 'politics', and to answer the AC 20th 9:58, the Holocaust Denial expounded by Nick Griffin is illegal in all these countries you mention.

I'll repeat what I said before, If they did have any (real) power, do you think that their policies would reduce or increase racial tensions? a vote for the BNP is a vote for more hatred.