Colleagues,What an interestesting week.
Whilst the rest of the UK ponders its economic future the BNP boneheads continue to fall-out (great news!) and one of their number - maybe the one with the brain cell - leaks the membership list.
One brave soul has published this on the web and as you'll see if you follow the link has (as can be expected) been subject to abuse and threats. You can see the leaked membership list here: http://www.bnpmemberslist.co.uk/
There is a great assessment of the characters found on the list on today's Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/22/bnp-far-right-race
You can also find a map of the density of the party:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2008/nov/19/bnp
I think the issue I find most worringy is the number of ex and current TU activists and those identified as central and local government employees within the list.
There are many interesting perspectives here. For example, some lament the fact that data protection laws have been usurped.
Others suggest (and I tend to agree) that for years Red Watch (http://www.redwatch.org/) has menaced and harassed democratically elected leaders and representatives of the left with impunity and that it is time to return the favour.
What is your view?
Cheers
Ian
4 comments:
Ian,
This has been great news!
As a black Labour councillor and trade union activist for years I have been persecuted by these bastards and now we can see who they are!
All I can say it let's go ahead and do as much damage as we can with the details that we have.
Sunny
Ian,
Unlike your last received comment (although I can understand his ire) I am a bit more relaxed about the list and what it tells us.
My view is that the membership list, a bit like those of other political organisations, presents us with a form of hard core individuals who want to sign up to a political creed and live their lives by this.
We can beat these people at the ballot box over time and through direct intervention with voters.
And it is the electorate who feel with some sympathy with BNP political philosophy who I am more concerned about. Naturally they are always in higher proportion to those who actually join a party but in whose vote a party belongs.
I don't normally align myself with New Labourists but Hazel Blears made some useful comments this weekend about the vaccum that has been created around the interests and needs of white working class communities; a vacuum into which the BNP has neatly stepped.
They have been able to argue, with very little opposition from the established parties, that it is they, and only they, that represent the interests of these groups.
We know they are wrong, and that in truth they will abuse their trust and commitment in the way that other parties have done. The problem is the real damage to community cohesion that is done along the way.
I would never ask the Labour Party to abandon the hard fought for commitment to equalities, but this focus has to include the indigenous white communities that on many social and economic indices have fallen out of alignment with other ethnic groups.
There needs to be a rebalance of priorities so that all communities benefit from progressive policies -or else the BNP will continue to thrive.
By the way, as you said, some very interesting people on the BNP list. Even a couple of jokers who live next street to mine. Must mention something to them when I see them next!
Thanks
Alan
Hello Ian,
Can you find out what the position of NHS employers here are in relation to those that appear on the list?
I know what the issue is with police and some local/central government staff but, do those standards apply to health also?
Just by the sheer size of the NHS there are definitely some employees who vote for the BNP.
But like your last commentator said the real nuts and zealots are members and activists and it is this layer that need weeding out.
Many thanks
Jen
Hi Jen,
I'll send off an e-mail to a colleague in Thompsons and post a reply to the question asap.
Thanks
Ian
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