Public Interest
He should have been let off, as naming and shaming a bunch of nazi thugs is clearly in the public interest, although in this case it's highly likely it was a case of sour grapes.
A man has been fined £200, for data protection offences relating to publishing the British National Party's membership list last year. Mathew Single, 37, of Church Lane, Brinsley, Nottinghamshire was fined by Nottingham magistrates after he admitted disclosing data without consent. Charges against his wife, 30-year old Sadi …
The BNP aren't proud to be British, they are proud that they happened to be born with pale skin, and attribute to that skin colour many built-in superior traits that are not detectable genetically or culturally.
Sadly, these traits never seem to include honesty, courtesy, empathy, honour, integrity, humility.
They besmirch the word 'British' by confounding it with their own world-view: a world where they, very ordinary and inadequate men (and women) are effortlessly superior to all.
Seems harsh that you get dinged £300 for that, even if you are a permanent scrounger and only left the Nazis after you got booted out for a failed putsch. Surely someone should redress the balance. "On behalf of all British non-Aryans and their friends and loved ones (i.e. virtually the entire population of Britain), we present this certificate and cheque for £300 to Mr Singlet, for performing the only action of his entire life that has any value whatsoever."
Insist on the presentation ceremony being conducted by the local rabbi, and I think it's a safe bet the cheque would remain undrawn anyway.
Stop apologising for this moron. What he did was unacceptable, regardless of whose details it was. The fact that you like the outcome is irrelevant, unless of course you think the law should only apply when it suits YOU.
How about he publishes YOUR personal details if he doesn't like you? I wouldn't mind knowing where YOU live, so I can come round and explain why vigilantism is a VERY BAD THING.
What do you mean, you're not going to tell me? Why not?
I have no time for racists like the BNP, but the law applies to everybody equally, whether you like it or not.
@ AC 12:32 No its not in the public interest, it is in YOUR Interest. The Law is supposed to be blind, that is why the statue on the top of the law courts has the scales of justice in one hand and the sword in the other, but she is blindfolded, meaning the law applies to everyone, regardless of political persuasion , unless of course you belong to the "NueLabour" gang. The fact that a person can be denied employment if he/she belongs to a political party is the crowning shame of this regime. I won't called them an elected government, as no voted for Brown, Mandy, etc. and as AC 13:05 points out £200 more than the now legion of MOD/Civil Service/Politicians people who have "lost" laptops, DVDs, CD, you name it. So to say the judge was BNP friendly is not quite right, as if he had been, they would have just been taken to one side and told "Bad show old chap, please don't let them find out again"
Sorry, this was a confidential data list it should have been protected. To say "it's ok because it's a group we don't like" is as fascist as any of the BNP's policies.
Public interest? I can't remember the exact quote but a good saying is "just because something is of interest to the public, that doesn't mean it is in the public interest". Do you really want McCarthy style witchhunts for unpopular politics? Do you believe freedom of speech means "freedom to say anything I approve of"?
How many more draconian laws do we have to have introduced to protect the nation from such dangers as terrorists, pedophiles... couples who enjoy a bit of kinky sex, tall photographers. The attitude of 'it's ok because it's the BNP' is a prime example of why the country is in such a sorry state.
Thumbs up to the Judge, for coming to all the right conclusions - this pair should have been jailed (as well as a number of more main-stream politicians, but thats another story) and from the Judge's comments it sounds like he thinks the same thing.
Calling them scroungers doesn't really make it sound like he has much sympathy for them, and neither do I.
Secret ballots are essential, but secret political membership lists?
Surely we have kearnt enough from the BNP leak, the Parliamentary expenses leak and much more that only openness in this sphere will keep people honest. We had BNP members lying to get police and other sensitive posts.
We really need to know who owns political organisations and who pays for them. Trying to hide this behind DPA smokescreen is a disservice to democracy.
£200 for BNP, how much for NuLabour & the NeoCons?
"I won't called them an elected government, as no [one: sic?] voted for Brown"
You blew your well-reasoned argument about halfway through with that tripe. Unless you lived and voted in Sedgefield, you didn't vote for Blair either. Even if you did live and vote in Sedgefield, you didn't vote for Blair to be PM. Funny thing is, I don't recall this much outrage when John Major succeeded Thatcher.
This isn't America. We don't have a President.
"...than sitting at home on your arse all day complaining that all the Johnny Foreigners are coming over here steeling all our jobs?"
Even more "modern" British is making spelling mistakes, it's stealing, not steeling.
I don't know if that was intentional, but the irony is certainly brilliant.
I'm intrigued that his wife's name is Sadi. Assuming that it's not a misprint then, according to my search, Sadi is of Turkish origin; alternatively you may have meant Sadie which is of Jewish origin. In either case they're fascinating names for somebody who is a member of the BNP and the wife of a BNP member!
Exactly. Fining someone who is on benefits is just going to encourage them to commit crime in order to survive.
It'd be a much more fitting punishment to give him a job -- one of the jobs that "economic migrants" are "stealing from British workers", of course. See how he likes picking fruit for 12 hours a day, sharing a damp two-up, two-down terraced house with 19 other people, and working for a gangmaster who deducts so much of his minimum-wage earnings to pay for accommodation and sundry expenses that he will barely be able to afford the interest accruing on the fine.
The actions of this person have put many people in fear of their personal safety and well being, and there are documented cases of people having been directly injured as a result of this persons actions.
A sentence of 5 years, at a minimum, would have been much more appropriate.
The actions of the BNP have oput many people in fear of their personal safety and well being, and there are documented cases of people having been directly injured as a result of this gangs actions.
Turn about is fair play.
Anyone defending the BNP is a prick, and all that horseshit about blinded justice is absolute crap.
What about the people on the list who have never been members?
Or the people who now live at the addresses which members have since moved from?
What justification do you offer for those people?
Also;
I can recall the days we used to get some decent debate in here, nowadays it's "U R TEH PR1X0rZ3Z!!1 LOL SWARE WURDS DURP DURP"