British National Party
By Letters To The Editor Robert Locke (02/04/06)
Dear Editor:
I read with interest Andrew Williams's letter asserting that I have been gulled by the British National Party into believing it has reformed its ways. Since I published my original article on this question, I have received a number of letters asserting this, but they all suffer from the same flaws:
1. They take incidents of several years ago as "proof" of where the party stands today. I never denied in the article that the BNP used to be a dreadful pseudo-Nazi sort of group. It was. But past incidents no more prove they are one today than Boris Yeltsin's party membership card of 1985 proves he is still a communist.
2. They take actions of individual activists as evidence of the position of the party itself. There are thousands of Democrats and Republicans, Labourites and Tories in JAIL for various crimes; you can't condemn their parties for this. The BNP today expels any members caught engaging illegal or violent activities.
3. They dogmatically assert that "once a Nazi, always a Nazi," or something similar. But given that China, Russia, and half of Eastern Europe are run by ex-communists, I simply cannot believe that, no matter how *evil* the ideology in question, there is some mysterious force which deprives human beings of the free will to change.
My journalistic reputation is on the line with this article. I will publicly denounce the BNP if anyone can show me real evidence they are still what they were in the bad old days -- and if I don't live up that pledge, the possessor of such information is can take it to any anti-BNP media outlet they like for publication. But after several months of making this challenge, no-one has presented me such evidence.
Regards,
Robert Locke
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