British National Party

An extreme right-wing political party in the UK. It is in favour of racial apartheid, giving priority to native Britons in the job market, and repatriation of immigrants, eventually leading to an all-white Britain. They generally stand in seats where an opposing candidate belongs to an ethnic minority, or where there is racial tension.In the 2001 General Election, they polled 16% of the vote in Oldham (the scene of allegedly BNP-incited race riots earlier in the year), putting the Liberal Democrats into fourth place. It can only be hoped that those who voted for them were doing so out of dissatisfaction with the mainstream parties, rather than out of actual sympathy for the BNP. On Election day, the Oldham council were keen to prevent the BNP from promoting their views, but didn't want to be seen to censor any particular party. In the end, all candidates were banned from making their customary speech after the results were announced. In protest, the BNP candidate (Nick Griffin, the party's leader) wore a gag at the count.The government claims that outlawing the BNP would be bad for democracy, setting a precedent for the censorship of other political platforms. Maybe so: but is it not equally undemocratic to condone the promotion of anti-democratic views?

See also: The problem of democracy.

The BNP recently got a great deal of publicity (entirely out of proportion with the scale of their success) after winning two council seats in the British elections. What many people don't know about them is that alongside their more famous immigration policies they hold a number of other positions which are, in my humble opinion, just plain nuts. It may be worth pointing these out for posterity:

• corporal punishment for petty criminals
• withdrawal from EU and NATO!
• excluding foreign imports - any economist will tell you that's suicide
• cut fuel tax and 'say no pollution' - not sure how they intend to combine those two
• no international aid to third world
• end to ulster peace process
• anti-mixed race relationships
• ban on foreign ownership of british media
• return to national service
• ban on 'public promotion and shows of homosexuality'

They try to present themselves as reasonable people but the truth is, even when they get away from their racist agenda they are entirely lacking in coherent sensible policies. They are not only unelectable because they are bigoted: they are unelectable because they are stoopid.