EHRC v BNP (2009) :It’s a game of Monopoly
“The British National Party is poised to give up its whites-only membership policy after a legal challenge accusing it of racial discrimination,” reports The Times.
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6820847.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084)
The legal challenge, sought by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, accuses the BNP of breaching the Race Relations Acts (2000) due to its fundamentally racist policies.
Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone, even if dictionary definitions of the British National Party tend to shy away from deeming the party as racist or fascist. And although no verdict has as yet been reached, the legal challenge has already come as rather a nasty sting in the tail to the various factions of the BNP.
In a statement released on the party website (although it pained me to point my browser in its direction), Nick Griffin, party leader, warned that the legal action ‘is a deadly serious threat to our very existence” and ‘warned’ party members that by appealing any ruling made against them, would cost millions of pounds if the case progressed to the House of Lords. “This would effectively strip the party of its ability to fight the next general election,” it continued.
Should the court find the party in breach of the Race Relations Acts (and this is surely very likely) the party will have no choice but to rewrite certain aspects of their constitution, so that non-white and those from ethnic minorities can join the should they so wish.
This is amusing in so many ways. Firstly, what right-minded non-white person would WANT to join the BNP? Unless they hated themselves? 😉
It is a shame that Griffin has realised that on-going legal fees would bleed the party dry: to watch their party torn to legal pieces and then being unable to campaign effectively for the next general election as a result would be a celebratory outcome indeed.
It now all depends on how BNP members vote: to rewrite the constitution, complying with the verdict, or not to comply, and proceed with an appeal in the House of Lords.
Personally, I am hoping that 2/3rds vote against re-writing the constituiton. It will be like watching an opponent in Monopoly constantly landing on your hotel-lined properties and then passing Go without collecting £200.
How long before they pick the ‘Go to Jail!’ card, I wonder…