Rosa Prince, Telegraph (London), June 23, 2009
In a letter from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, was told that he had less than a month to provide written undertakings that the party would abide by race relations legislation.
John Wadham, legal director of the Commission, said that the watchdog was concerned that the BNP’s constitution and membership criteria could be in breach of the law.
Party membership was said by the Commission to be restricted to those with white skin and a small number of other ethnic groups.
In a statement, the watchdog added: “This exclusion is contrary to the Race Relations Act which the party is legally obliged to comply with. The Commission therefore thinks that the BNP may have acted, and be acting, illegally.”
There were further concerns over the requirement on new staff to be party members, and fears that elected BNP representatives would be unwilling to provide help and support to non-white constituents.
If the BNP does not provide written undertakings by July 20 that it will make the changes required by the Commission voluntarily, then the watchdog said that it would apply for a legal injunction which would compel them to comply.
Any breach of a court order would be a criminal offence and leave the party’s leaders open to prosecution.
Mr Wadham said that the Commission had a legal duty to ensure that political parties were not breaking the law by discriminating against ethnic minorities.
He added: “The legal advice we have received indicates that the British National Party’s constitution and membership criteria, employment practices and provision of services to constituents and the public may breach discrimination laws which all political parties are legally obliged to uphold.
“Litigation or enforcement action can be avoided by the BNP giving a satisfactory response to our letter.”
The BNP has been ordered to provide a written undertaking that it will not breach race relations laws in its “employment, recruitment, procedures and practices”.
On the BNP’s website, applicants for party jobs are asked to supply a membership number. The Commission said that this amounted to a potential breach of laws which ban parties from refusing employment on the basis of non-membership of an organisation.
Earlier this month, two BNP members, including Mr Griffin, were elected to the European Parliament, the highest office enjoyed by party representatives to date.
The Commission said that it was concerned that they and the party’s local councillors did not intend to provide their services on an equal basis to all constituents irrespective of race or colour.
A spokesman for the BNP said that the party would not be commenting.
[Editors Note: The letter from the so-called Equality and Human Rights Commission can be read or downloaded as a PDF document here. ]
Original article
(Posted on June 23, 2009)
Comments
On the BNP’s website, applicants for party jobs are asked to supply a membership number. The Commission said that this amounted to a potential breach of laws which ban parties from refusing employment on the basis of non-membership of an organisation.
Instead they can now go through a testing process to ensure that they have native Britons’ interests at heart. They’ll have to be willing to lie to get the job. Then they’ll have to live a lie to keep it. This will keep their numbers to a minimum if done properly, as few non-whites will be willing to sacrifice their pride.
I don’t know the laws in Britain, but there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip. Is it legal for the BNP to ensure that whites are as well represented in the BNP as they are in Britain’s population? If so, the BNP could easily maintain control of their party while satisfying this illegitimate law.
You would have to be completely brain-dead to be a white Briton and not see what’s going on around you. A political party is formed to protect the interests of the native white British, in their own country no less, and it is mercilessly demonized and attacked at every available opportunity. In the meantime, your privacy and civil rights are stripped away while your country is inundated with inassimilable third-worlders who are hostile to the very culture in which they beg to live.
This action is not only anti-white and anti-British - it is anti-democratic and anti-freedom. It is a transparent ploy to set the stage for outlawing the BNP, just as the Belgian political class did to the Vlaams Blok, and is now trying to do to its successor, Vlaams Belang. It is an outrageous and Orwellian “thought police” exercise which should not be tolerated by a free, white, Western people. If I were the rank and file of the BNP, I would press not simply to defy this arrogant ukase, but to pledge in the BNP program to abolish this so-called “Equality Law” (according to which every non-white alien arrived yesterday in the UK is “more equal” than native British whites) and its Chekist enforcers in this “Commission.”
I think i speak for everyone who reads AR when I say that Whites should have their own groups. But in the case of the BNP this kind of thinking puts people above ideals. On march 30th there was a story here on AR concerning an anglican bishop named Michael Nazir-Ali who announced his resignation from the church after he was attacked in the MSM for acknowledging the existence of Muslim neighborhoods in British cities in which non-Muslims couldn’t enter without having to fear for their safety. The majority of comments on that story were supportive of Mr. Nazir-Ali. Unrestricted Muslim immigration poses a danger not just to Whites but to non-Muslim minorities. The warning of the non-Muslim minorities are of much value in the struggle to convince the populace at large to abandon their illusions concerning immigration (this is why i believe Mr. Nazir-Ali should be supported even though he has since spoken out against the BNP). This is not to say that the BNP should have to accept non-white members, but if they ignore and/or marginalize non-whites who agree with them on key issues they do so at their peril.
Did they send a similar letter to the Tory Party? Last I looked, it was almost all white.
From the BNP:
by BNP News
The Equalities Commission hysteria over British National Party membership is nothing but a PR stunt which has no legal grounding whatsoever, said BNP leader Nick Griffin MEP.
Reacting to the news that the Equality and Human Rights Commission, headed up by black arch-racist Trevor Phillips, had written to the BNP demanding that it change its membership and employment criteria, Mr Griffin said it was obvious that the whole thing was just a publicity stunt engineered by the far left and Labour Party front organisations.
“It is all a bit of liberal hysteria couched in legal terms,” Mr Griffin told BNP News. “The fact that the letter was served on us through the mass media shows that it is actually not legal in intent at all.”
Mr Griffin said the BNP was an exempted organisation under Section 25 and Section 26 of the Race Relations Act which allow for exclusive ethnic organisations with a membership of 50 or more. “The BNP has never been in breach of any of the provisions of the law in terms of its membership and Mr Phillips knows this to be the case,” he said.
“It is a ridiculous PR stunt by Mr Phillips, who is yet another unelected member of the Labour Party who has been promoted beyond his capacity, just like his good friend Mr Peter Mandelson.
I like the idea proposed by a member on another forum, in that:
* The BNP should accept “ethnic minority” members, but
* Stringently tighten it’s policies, both towards “indigenous Britons” etc and other principles and proposals
* The failure of members to accept and/or follow these policies being grounds for expulsion.
By doing so limiting the degeneration of the BNP into another “non-racist” UKIP that just wants less immigration and greater sovereignty, whether the majority of the population ends up resembling Middle Easterners or not.
(I mean - with the expulsion of members that do not believe in the principles of the BNP - how many non-indigenous-Britons are going to join a party supporting “voluntary repatriation” of non-Muslim non-Britons and a “repatriation-for-non-interference” policy with Middle Eastern countries?)
“If the BNP does not provide written undertakings by July 20 that it will make the changes required by the Commission voluntarily, then the watchdog said that it would apply for a legal injunction which would compel them to comply.”
Well, one wonders, how many general BNP supporters are employed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission? For that matter, how many of the demanded black or Asian BNP supporters will be employed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission once they gain membership?
Countermeasures must be taken, if only to demonstrate that diversity is an immeasurable and even impossible criteria when all factors are considered.
I know, I know, that is an almost childishly idealistic concept…but it does make a point!
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
As always, God help us all!!!
The next step is this:non-whites become members of the BNP with the intent of destroying it. Get a job with the BNP, then complain that the BNP has a racist work envitonment because of the BNPs pro-Native English politics…then put the whole BNP in jail for racial hatred for not accomodating the racial needs of non-white BNP members-workers.
I just don’t understand how this could fly because, as in this country, blacks and ALL other groups have their own groups that exclude Whites and they’re not asked to admit other ethnic groups
Of course. White people for White interests the world over will never be able to form their own political party or anything else for that matter until we stand up and DEMAND it and quit backing down to these traitors. Here in the States I wonder if Whites will be allowed in the Black Caucus or how about the Hispanic caucus? How about allowed in La Raza or the ADL?
This is political repression, pure and simple. As in the USA, throughout the UK there are many minority organizations that don’t let in whites, or if they do, make those whites feel unwelcome. By singling out the BNP this way, the government is practicing discrimination against a political organization that was meant for the native population that has been living there for many thousands of years. This violates freedom of association for whites and whites only. Essentially, this makes self-defense illegal for whites. No other group of people are targeted for accusations of discrimination and racism than whites are in the West. Decline of the West? That title is too passive for what’s going on here. It’s more like a senseless and vile destruction of a people and a culture through demographic genocide, and all “free-market democracies” in the West practice it.
The anti-immigration party that Pyrm Fortyn led before he was murdered had an immigrant from africa as the second in command.
So it is not out in left field for BNP to accept non-whites. They would have many of the same interests.
The lefies in Britain have not thought this through. If the BNP are forced to accept non-whites, these non-whites will be the most militant and most anti-immigration members. Do they want this?
There will be unintended consequences of this action.
This is a “fishing expedition” by the Leftist multiculturalists.
How can they threaten legal action for not helping non-British constituents when they havent actually taken up office yet ? How can they take the BNP to court for representing British indigens when there are hundreds of ethnic organisations (often receiving Government money). What message will a ban send to the indiginous Brits if they, alone, are denied representation based on ethnicity ?
It may well backfire.
The BNP can challenge the right to exist of many ethnic groups, the UK’s committment to the UN Declaration of Rights for Indiginous Peoples and the EU laws on freedom of Association, expression and thought. Any new black members will swell the Party’s funds whilst being held to an impotent 10% representative proportion.
For too long the BNP has been seen as aggressively anti-black.
No longer - it has learnt to play the “victim” game, so well used by ethnic groups for years.
The obvious answer is that white people the world over should apply in their thousands to join Islamic/black/ethnic organisations and then sue on the grounds of racial/religious/ethnic discrimination if they are refused.
If they are allowed to join but are not treated equally, or are denied promotion etc based on racial/religious grounds, then sue the organisation involved.
This is called ‘beating them at their own game’.
Just one in a long line of wake-up calls. But I hope people are paying attention to this one. A foreigner is telling indigenous Britains that they do not have the same rights in THEIR OWN COUNTRY that foreigners have. If you don’t stand up, it only gets worse. If not now, then when? When they are raping your wife and murdering your children and the cops are blowing it off? Well, its already happening. So stop being afraid to support organizations who support you. GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND JOIN SOMETHING! Work hard. Work together. And if someone doesn’t like it then show them what your middle finger looks like.
And don’t forget to vote BNP.
The BNP for a long time has had Indian supporters on stand by ready to join the party if they are forced to admit non-whites. They have been aware and planning for this possibility for close to 10 years.
“ Instead they can now go through a testing process to ensure that they have native Britons’ interests at heart. They’ll have to be willing to lie to get the job. Then they’ll have to live a lie to keep it.”
At least one political party - a left-wing one - will only accept members is they agree with the party’s statement of principles. Prospective new members must demonstrate their familiarity with those principles and state that they agree with them. Membership of any organisation with aims that conflict with those principles will lead to expulsion, or refusal of membership. The same goes for any statements or actions which show disagreement with the statement of principles.
It’s pretty time-consuming but a possible option.
Reading this just makes you reflect on what a wise and prescient critic George Orwell actually was, yes he described the World 0f 2009 perfectly in 1948.
The terms ‘newspeak’ and ‘thought police’ sum up the situation well ie In the name of ‘equality’ and ‘liberty’ one of the most basic of all liberties - the freedom of association - is to be deemed illegal.
Another choice phrase of Orwell’s was his description of the future - an endless film loop of a human face being relentlessly ground down by the heel of a jackboot.
Does Britain have a legal code for racial and ethnic identification?
This tactic is reminiscent of COS (church of scientology) methods. Tie up any protest or opponent in myriads of legal wrangling simply to wear them down by spending time and money preparing rebuttals just to drop them minutes before the issue becomes before the court. Just like COS, who have lots of tax deductible lawyers, the government have lots, especially from BEM quarters, all paid from the public purse. Could cost the BNP a fortune. Makes me wonder why this challenge was not mounted sooner. Possibly because it was totally unexpected in government circles that 2 BNP MEPs would be legally elected by nearly a million voters. So, what to do? I would agree to everything put forward, one thing at a time, as it comes. Then amend the Constitution, membership rules and recruitment policies to suit. I would then no longer advertise vacancies, jobs can be filled in-house without public announcement. New members can be sponsored by two long-standing members, not unusual within many organisations. Re-word the constitution but declare that those who have ever belonged to, or currently belong to, racist organisations, clubs or any networks which state a preferred non-White colour (any black or asian organisation) would be barred from membership on the basis of racism. The black police organization would be exempt as one has to be police to join and BNP members are not permitted in the police!
I like the alternative of the BNP. If I lived in UK, I’d probably vote for them, even at the expense of ‘wasting’ my vote. But on this issue I vote for the establishment, even in the way they’ve handled the issue. It’s just ‘amusing’? that the establishment has to force the BNP into a move that makes them more respectable, and can surely only lead more people to vote BNP.
“In a statement, the watchdog added: “This exclusion is contrary to the Race Relations Act which the party is legally obliged to comply with. The Commission therefore thinks that the BNP may have acted, and be acting, illegally.”
This law is in the identical spirit of past racial laws tyranizing people against their will - in 1930’s Nazi Germany.
so will minority groups be forced to hire BNP members? oh that’s right bnp party membership is cause for firing in many state jobs.
Will gay groups be forced to allow conservative christians who think homosexuality is a sin? Oh that’s right you can jailed for that in Britian.
Does any AMren reader think we have anything like a ‘democracy’ anymore in the west, anywhere?
Whenever any serious challenge to the liberal-neocon elite rises it’s quickly squashed, perhaps with more sublte methods than we see in Iran, for now, that is.
BNP should allow non-whites to join. You’re not going to kick out all non-whites in the Isles — it’s not going to happen! So having those nonwhites — who won’t be much in numbers anyhow — who share our politics, well then we could use them! Just as black and Hispanic groups USE their white members to advance their group interest through LaRaza and the NAACP….
Think of a BNP style Michelle Malkin type spokesperson. A real one, no paid actors. Hell that would do PR wonders! Besides if you can find nonwhites like Michelle Malkin, we can find room for someone like her to join our fight — with good will.
Remember…. The racial element in this “battle for the West” is just that — one element. Albeit a large element. If we can use racial aliens to further our cause — why the hell not?
discrimination laws what a joke!
They are fine and dandy when your the majority, but as soon your the minority human nature prevails and at White’s expense.
Ex. California - 50% White if that in my local county
I went to a temp agency to get a second job, well first of all applicants were mexican, all workers were mexican. The job was posted on the 9th. It was the 18th. First I go and stand at the window with the receptionist standing right in front of me for a good three minutes, she wouldnt even acknowledge my existence, the woman standing behind her looked me square in the eyes and just kept talking. finally she opens the window I ask for hat openings are left and she says “oh that position was filled several weeks ago”………. That is funny being it was posted only a week prior.
Second experience So i am looking a some part time work at my local city college and after reading the details it states “No employee can start work until authorized by the diversity/human resources.”…….. first off what the h%ll is diversity/human resources. Second california isnt even predominately White! so why do you even need a diversity council in the first place!!!
Enjoy America! I just showed you a glimmer into the future of America. We have become outcast in Our own country, everything our ancestors worked so hard for was in vein and to be used against us.
Maybe one way to get round the “law” is by inserting a disclaimer to the effect of ” We welcome membership from all ethnic groups. However, it is common knowledge that our policies may be offensive to many people. Please read our manifesto very carefully, and if you are offended, or disagree with any of our policies, we strongly advise you not to join. If you do join, you may be required to promote views and opinions that you may find offensive, and run contrary to your personal views”. On the other hand, why on earth would someone from an ethnic minority WANT to join the BNP? It would be like a CEO of a nuclear power company joining the Greens, or the head of a multinational bank joing the Socialist Workers Party.
— IrishBloodEnglishHeart wrote..
On the other hand, why on earth would someone from an ethnic minority WANT to join the BNP?
~~~~~~~~~~
I have no difficulty imagining reasons why someone of that sort would want to join the BNP. No difficulty at all!……
“Think of a BNP style Michelle Malkin type spokesperson. A real one, no paid actors. Hell that would do PR wonders! Besides if you can find nonwhites like Michelle Malkin, we can find room for someone like her to join our fight — with good will.”
I just don’t see how that would work. The BNP is appealing to White people as a party representing their future in Britain, if indeed they have a future. Putting a Michelle Malkin or a Colin Powell’s face on the BNP as a marketing tactic would be a show of weakness, because it would project the image that an ethnic spokesperson is better well-received by Whites than a White spokesperson.
The BNP is appealing to White people, it isn’t appealing to Multiracial England because it doesn’t want a Multiracial England, so why would we want Multiracial spokespeople?
‘Out on the Farm’,
You’ve got it entirely and completely wrong.
The BNP is really a single-issue party, all that it really stands for is the return of an overwhelmingly majority White nation, such as Britain was prior to 1945 say.
I also cannot accept that a return to the demographics of 1945 is impossible.
Everything else is an also-ran.
It is for this reason that accepting non-Whites - even if they mouth the right platitudes - is anathema.
Are the Brits going to tell the Orange Order, and Ulster Defense Force to accept Irish Republicans into their Organizations, too?
“I also cannot accept that a return to the demographics of 1945 is impossible. Everything else is an also-ran. It is for this reason that accepting non-Whites - even if they mouth the right platitudes - is anathema”
Personally, I think Scottland and Wales will be a final refuge for preserving - for a reservation for whites in the UK. However, what you propose seems desireable. And for the non-whites, hey, there were even some of those living in a healthy UK before 1945. You can’t accomplish this all at once… Baby steps… You think black activists in the US started out mouthing a grand plan to displace and disenfranchise all white males as official policy? Baby steps. Small and constant pressure from every angle and every source.
I am sure that this journalist is right about the likely public reaction to a prosecution. There will be a lot of resentment and it will be felt even by many who do not support the BNP.
“The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an £80m super-quango led by the insufferably smug Trevor Philips, and if you wanted an organisation to make the BNP look sympathetic, you could not do much better. The EHRC, and I’m not sure they’re aware of this fact, are hated by most Tory-voting white people, or members of the Anglo-Viking-lager-drinking community - hated. They represent everything the English resent about the jobs-for-the-boys-and-girls, doesn’t-matter-what-colour-you-are-so-long-as-you-went-to-Oxbridge-or-LSE mentality of the quangocracy.
The BNP know this, and I bet they’re desperate for their day in court. In fact, from what BNP supporters have told me, the only reason they’ve kept this pointless membership rule (how many non-whites are going to apply, anyway?) is because they want a case exactly like this.
Not only will it turn them into martyrs, but it will expose the hypocrisy of the establishment’s attitude to race. As “James1_, a BNP voter who has posted on this blog, points out, if whites-only groups are wrong why does the multi-cultural state tolerate, and in some case subsidise, these groups: (A long list of groups for ethnic minorities followed).
So even if the EHRC win, what do they hope to achieve - to confirm in the minds of working-class whites that there’s one rule for them and one for us, and that they’re the lowest form of life in the minds of the establishment?
Strange that the people who compare the BNP to the NSDAP are giving its leader the chance of martyrdom before the People’s Court.”
http://tinyurl.com/kk4zlj
A phony issue {its no one’s business the race of the officials of a political party} imposed by a phony party { the labor party isnt the party of the majority of the whites in Brittian and as such is a phony party, with no legitimacy} to create a phone impression {the phony impression being that BNP are already discriminating against people on the basis of race. They aren’t. It is merely an attempt to put the BNP on the defensive, so they have less resources to get their message out}
How about a similiar standard requiring the Labour party to NOT DISCRIMINATE against WHITES, not discrminate against Christians?
Can you imagine what such a headline would do to Labour ?
It would hurt both their support and their fund-raising and would make it harder for them to win seats!
What we have is a phony country ( it claims to allow different political parties, but it doesnt} that favors a phony ideology {the phony ideology is that people of all races in England are equally English in Culture and values and assimilation and in loyalty and in common hopes for the future. They aren’t. Each group is out for themselves. At the moment they band together to take power against the native-born English. Once they have that power they will fight against themselves.} that will bring about a phony utopia { The plan of having different races all work harmoniously together was already tried! And it failed! Consider that when the English were in Hong Kong, and they wanted to have a multi-ethnic city, did the people in Hong Kong decide ” OK, we will stop viewing things in a racial prism and magically treat people who happen to be English as equals ?” Or did they basically get kicked out and forced to go back to Engliand ? It was the later. So this idea was tried in Hong Kong, India, Rhodesia, and many other places. Yet the result was that everyone in those places now have an independant country that favors their own native-born and discriminate against the English. While, these very same groups, once they move to England, demand equal rights.}
Ajit Rao