BNP Membership Leak

The BNP trusted someone with the membership details who has broken the law and released this into the web, calling their leaders reliability and fitness into question. While its difficult to feel much sympathy for the racist party, their members should be entitled to the same rights as the rest of us. I think that while it is too late to shut the barn door, nevertheless the sites that are happy to reveal confidential information should stop.

There are two people with links to the Green Party from this list;
1. The Rev Stanton who was also an ex member and Cllr with the Liberal Democrats in Rochford in the 1990s, and five years as a Conservative in the 1970s. He also spent some time as a UKIP member before joining the BNP in 2007. So he seems to have tried almost every party. He admitted he was "stupid" for not knowing what the BNP really stood for when he signed up to the party about a year ago, and seems to have wanted to quit.

2. Keith Bessant, who ran for MP in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 2001 and 2005. Then he quit and joined the BNP. This may call his judgement into question, but not ours.

Barrie Davey of the Isle of Wight, is noted as having run in a local election as an “Independent Green Party” candidate. He has never been a member or candidate of the Green Party, so isn't relevant here. The list includes 11 former Conservative councillors and four former Labour ones!

Green Party chairman James Humphreys said in a statement: "The Green Party stands against racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and bigotry of all kinds. We consider the BNP and their extremist views an affront to British values of tolerance, equality and solidarity. The Green Party is aware of the past membership of Mr Bessant and Rev Stanton. Both left the Green Party a number of years ago.

In one of the twists of the affair, BNP leader Griffin was forced yesterday to admit that his party was hoping to rely on the right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights in its attempts to limit further publication. The BNP is opposed both to the Convention and to the Human Rights Act that incorporates it into British law.

Some bloggers conclude that there is a link between the greens and fascism! You could argue the same with Labour/Tory/LibDems/UKIP. Some Labour politicians have recently strayed onto BNP territory, PM Gordon Brown said 'British jobs for British people', so he would discriminate against foreigners. Margaret Hodge MP and ex Minister spoke of families 'who have lived in the area for three generations' being given preference on housing. She said voters in her constituency may be tempted to vote for the British National Party (BNP) in the May 4 2006 local elections because "no one else is listening to them" about their concerns over unemployment, high house prices, and the housing of asylum seekers in the area. Labour vice chair and MP Martin Salter speaks out against travelers and Eastern Europeans, implying they are thieves. Martin Salter MP said Poles "have been stealing fish for gain or for the table".

As important as this is, lets not let it distract us from reducing climate change, and making the world a better place. And that means being the opposition to the major parties who are not brave enough to risk short term political profit policies that are vitally important for future generations.

Some links:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5197862.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/8048671
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5193723.ece
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3092578.html?menu=
http://www.24dash.com/news/Communities/2008-11-20-Buckingham-Palace-worker-denies-BNP-links
http://lolgriffin.blogspot.com/ Spoof BNP website
http://www.localgibson.com/bnp/ A BNP postcode finder!
E.ON
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2008/11/brewhaha-in-britain-over-leaked-list-of-bnp-members/
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/openhouse/2008/11/green-fascism.html