Right Pillocks

The British National Party (BNP) are busy complaining that its members are facing intimidation after its membership list was published on the web. Good, is my immediate reaction. If the reaction of ordinary citizens to the news that their neighbours, relatives, workmates or friends are members of an extremist political party is to shun them, then it restores my faith in the great British public. Moreover, as someone who recalls the kind of intimidation meted out to ethnic minorities by right wing extremists groups which preceded the BNP and its attempts to present itself as a respectable political party, it seems only fitting that these bastards are getting a taste of their own medicine. (Yes, I know that the BNP itself has never organised or encouraged such campaigns of hate, but I'll wager that a fair proportion of its membership were also members of the National Front and other neo-Nazi organisations, which were involved in such activities).

Of course, the BNP's reaction to the release of its membership list raises the question as to what sort of a legitimate party is it whose members don't want people to know that they're members? Surely they should be proud of their knee-jerk nationalist beliefs? After all, they're always telling us about how 'proud' they are to be 'British', white and isolationist. So why aren't they prepared to be open and honest about their political affiliations? I know there's the little matter of it being against the rules for servicemen or the police to be members, but I'd hope that anyone joining either organisation would be committed to the democratic values of equality and non-discrimination, and therefore not interested in joining something like the BNP. No, one can only conclude that they're ashamed of their membership (and so they should be). This in turn suggests that, deep down, they know that the BNP and its aims are wrong.