I am very concerned about the BNP. I share none of its wicked ideas, but I can see it is intelligently led and positioning itself well to take advantage of a number of factors in its favour.
The Crown Prosecution Service is making a mistake in pursuing a retrial of the BNP's leader. There is little prospect of a conviction. The further prosecution only seems vindictive and will increase public sympathy for this odious man.
Few native Englishmen bred in our liberal traditions really feel, at an instinctive level, that it is right for the criminal law to interfere in political speech or thought. Many may feel that what Griffin said about Islam is, essentially, correct - or at least worthy of debate. They may not sympathise with his racism or anti-semitism, but they live in daily fear of Islam.
I am certain that no English jury will convict Griffin for saying that Islam is "a vicious, wicked faith", after seeing Islamists marching through London yesterday with such banners as "massacre those who insult the Prophet and "to hell with free speech". The marchers chanted threats of new terrorist attacks. Jury members will have seen a leader of the march calling through a megaphone for those who insult the prophet to be killed.
Incitement to murder seems more serious to most of us than incitement to religious or racial hatred.
The conditions are ripe for the growth of the Far Right in Britain and I fear that. There is a growing sense that Muslims are not held to the same standards of conduct as the rest of us, in Britain and abroad. Griffin says Islam is wicked and vicious. He is prosecuted. British Muslims call for "massacres". They are not. A barman fails to notice a black customer waiting to be served and he will be called a racist. The Muslims of the Janjaweed militia slaughter 300,000 black Africans in the Sudan and racism is not mentioned. European papers publish cartoons of Mohammed and Jack Straw condemns them. The press in the Muslim world routinely publishes viciously anti-semitic cartoons, without a word of comment.
I can imagine a scenario in which the BNP becomes a vehicle for popular protest against double standards which condemn almost everything the white population of Britain does, while excusing everything the Muslim population does. Nick Griffin may be elevated to the status of popular hero. The Crown Prosecution Service, staffed as it is by the weakest products of our law schools, may by its lack of judgement, set him well on the way.
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The Crown Prosecution Service will have severe difficulty in securing a conviction, but they will be put upon to proceed by their political masters. It will not be so difficult in future however, after this Government has dispensed with juries trials...
Hi Tom, I totally agree and I think this weekend's inaction by the Met against Britain's Islamic extremists has been a crucial mistake and marks a new low. In one sense I do think it is positive, in that it will have brought to people's attention in full colour - the moral hypocrisy in the 'system'. I see the ideological weakness in our approach to multiculturalism as a root problem. We cant judge other cultures, because we don't put our own first.
I agree about the BNP. They come from the NF, are rooted in holocaust denial and anti-semitism, and will make massive points out of this. Trouble is, what they have been saying about Islam has hit a note with most people and a large portion of the UK public, both educated and non-, are cynical about the tired rhetoric coming out of the main parties.
To have a right and proper debate about Islamism and Islamic extremism those parties will need to include the moral consensus, and the majority public. Something that is contrary to the minority politics that have been played for so long. On current form and listening to the gutless waffle, they dont appear to be capable. Dangerous times indeed. Lets hope this weekend has been a wake-up call.
I found Rod Liddles comment in the times a refreshing read: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,24393-2025181,00.html
"I am certain that no English jury...."
With respect, I suggest that this should read " I am certain that that no native British jury, made up of twelve people who believe in tolerance & the basic decency of the British way of life......."
We must never forget that of our home-grown London bombers, 3 were British-born, and the fourth had chosen to live in Britain rather than his native Jamaica. In the absence of any reason for barring them from service, one wonders what the verdict would have been in Leeds if these three "native Britons" had been sitting on the jury.
Bryn, don't despair. The statistics still favour the majority when it comes to jury selection. My wife recently sat on one. Our home in England is in range of several Premier League clubs, so it duly included a footballer's wife. However, it did not include anyone who thought juries should be abolished, ID cards should be introduced or that any thought, speech or writing should be a crime.
I wish Britain were governed by juries, not politicians in thrall to interest groups and lobbies.
The defence of the jury system in Britain is, indeed, the last ditch. If it is lost, the game is up for our civilisation. Juries are now the only authentic voice of the British people and that voice must not be silenced.
Which of the BNP's ideas are wicked? Honestly sometimes I despair. They share all the concerns of the state of Britain that this blog does and attempt to address them in a true liberal and humane way and yet otherwise perceptive people such as yourself treat them as does our political elite and their mouthpieces in the MSM with derision and sneers
Holocaust denial? Where is that to be found in any BNP literature? As for the anti-semitic BNP - that would be the BNP which has one councillor who is Jewish as is at least one Branch organiser that I am aware of.
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