Nick Griffin and the British National Party are keen to portray themselves as on the sides of traditional British culture.  They see a gap in the market that they can fill. While other parties surrender to multiculturalism, Islam, and politically correct secularism, the BNP stand up for traditional British Christianity. This is nonsense. There is nothing Christian about the BNP.

On the BBC’s ‘Question Time’ programme, British National Party leader Nick Griffin stated: ‘If Muslims do stay in this country they must remember that Britain is essentially a fundamentally British and Christian country’. The BNP is a ‘Christian’ party that can save ‘Christian culture’

The BNP have created a front organisation called the ‘Christian Council of Britain’, headed by BNP activist and electoral candidate Robert West who leads religious services at various BNP events, including the party’s ‘Red, White & Blue’ and reportedly preaches on topics such as ‘the importance of nationalism’ and how “homosexuals do greatly err”. For West, a multi-racial society is a form of ‘Holocaust’, with immigration used to create “Lebensraum” for the Third  World. Despite initially denying any connection with the BNP, West has admitted that the BNP “encouraged and facilitated” its establishment.

Why the BNP are not Christian

-          There’s nothing Christian about the BNP’s ethics. For Jesus Christ, humanity was all part of one family. Christianity from the outset taught a universal message which dissolved the idea of race or nation, teaching that it is of no significance to God. He said that we should love our neighbour, preach the good news and understanding to all nations. He taught the parable of the Good Samaritan, to show our true neighbours were not just those from the same race. Most of all, he abhorred violence and the hatred that is fascism’s speciality.

-          The BNP use Christianity as an excuse to attack Muslims. Rather than refer to the actual teachings of Christ, the BNP’s favoured role model are the Crusaders. In a letter, Nick Griffin wrote “We will never allow our children to become a minority in our homeland! We will fight to the bitter end, just like our Crusader ancestors, to preserve our Christian culture and heritage. The spirit of the Medieval Knights lives on in all of us!”

-          The BNP’s use Christianity as an excuse for their homophobia. British fascism has a history of extreme homophobia. While the party’s policy is no longer officially to ban homosexual activity, they are always keen to claim that homosexuals are an affront to Britain’s ‘Christian heritage’. 

-          The BNP’s real ideology is pagan. Christianity, of course, is a “foreign import”, and for the extreme activists within the BNP inner circle, like all other imports it must be purged.

The BNP’s Foreign Affairs spokesman Arthur Kemp wrote in his March of Titans that “the introduction of Christianity has to count as the single greatest ideological catastrophe to ever strike Europe.”

Ever since Himmler’s obsession with the occult, there has been a strain of Paganism with fascism, as zealots attempt to reclaim a purely European religion.

Lee Barnes, the BNP’s legal director, is a particular fan: ‘Christianity is a semitic religion, it is creature [sic] of the deserts of the Middle East not the forests of the Northern Europe [sic] and its symbol the cross is an instrument of torture not of living redemption’. In place of Christianity, Barnes advocates Odinism, the worship of the Norse pagan gods of pre-Christian Europe, and he connects the Odinic ‘tree of life’ (Yggdrasil) with a religion based on race: ‘The roots represent our descent from the Gods and our connection to the Earth, the trunk represents our shared European racial heritage, the main branches of the tree our nations and tribes, the twigs on each branch represent each family unit and each single leaf symbolises an individual life’.

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Issac Newton

The BNP claim to be a patriotic party, but seem ashamed or ignorant of one of Britain’s proudest contributions to the world – our ideas.

It’s not just the British language that you can hear in every country in the world, its the influence of our leading thinkers. Britain is the proud home of Newton and Darwin, of Shakespeare and Byron, of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Tim Berners Lee.

Perhaps what we should be most proud of our political and economic ideas. Britain was the home of the industrial revolution, the greatest increase in wealth humanity has ever seen, finally freeing the world’s population from a life of drudgery on the farm. Just as importantly, we spread the idea of parliamentary democracy, of liberalism and government for the people.

The BNP’s influence on the other hand are European. Continental thinkers like Rousseau and Nietzsche. Continental philosophies of romanticism and existentialism. Continental political ideologies of fascism and nationalism. Continental economics of protectionism and corporatism.

Some of these ideas have some merit to them. Some of them were a disaster that lead to mass war and genocide. None of them are British.

British Ideas

-         Liberalism. British people believe in fair play and tolerance. That as long as you follow the rules, do you part and don’t hurt anyone, you can be part of our community. We believe that politics is important, but that it shouldn’t be an all encompassing religion. Ever since Locke and the Glorious Revolution, we’ve believe in checks and balances on power and gradual transformation, rather than violent revolution

-         Free markets. Britain is the home of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and David Hume. Our believe in open markets and free trade helped us become the richest country the world had ever seen. We believed in keeping bread cheap for the poor, rather than protecting greedy capitalists with captive markets.

-         Working with the world. Britain is the greatest country in the world – but that doesn’t mean we can just ignore everyone else. We don’t just believe in free markets, in our Empire we created the biggest free trade zone the world’s ever seen. We don’t just believe in freedom, we used our navy to put an end to the slave trade. Not least, we don’t believe in fascism – which is why stood alone against the Nazis in World War II.

BNP Ideas

-         Authoritarian nationalism. The BNP believes that the people is the nation is the state. If you’re parent and your parent’s parents weren’t born here, you can’t be one of us. Blood is everything. The tribe is greater than any individual. A strong central government is needed to lead us to greatness. Politics is all encompassing.

-         Corporatism. The BNP openly admit that they steal their economic ideas from Asian countries such as Japan, but in truth their ideas have been popular on the continent for much longer. The BNP believe in cosy dinners where government bureaucrats, rich industrialists and union leaders stitch up the future of the economy, rather than let individual workers and consumers decide. They believe in protection and regulation, tariffs and quotas and waiting lists. An economy closed to the outside world and searching after the past, rather than a dynamic, creative leader of the future

-         Fascism. The BNP like to pretend that they’re not a fascist party, but their ideas remain the same. Its not just the big ones, like hating people of different colours and races. It’s the economics, the politics and the superstitions. Both the BNP and the Nazis are corporatist, protectionist, have both nationalist and socialist influences, believe in a strong state, read Nietzsche and Heidegger, hate finance, are fascinated with environmentalism have both nationalist and socialist influences,  and Paganism, distrust modern art, want to censor the media, break up large retailers, institute national service, dislike America and the Jews,  and have leaders that admire Mein Kampf.

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The BNP like to claim that Britain’s leading fighter against fascism Winston Churchill would have supported them and their “Battle for Britain” campaign.  Not only is this a laughable misinterpretation of history , but the BNP have also regularly showed their disdain for Britain’s greatest war time Prime Minister.

The BNP are trying to take advantage of the “Battle for Britain” spirit.

As Nothing British have highlighted, the BNP are regularly making use of World War II related imagery: the Spitfire, Churchill,  and the spirit of the Blitz.

When Nick Griffin was confronted about this he claimed:

“[Churchill] would have been full-square behind the British National Party”.

Simon Darby, the Deputy Leader of the BNP, also waded into the debate. Darby said that if Churchill was alive today he would be a BNP supporter. If Churchill:

“… was here today and had a choice of voting Tory or BNP I think he’d vote for us. He would have more in common with the BNP than with the Tories, that’s for sure.”

This, of course, is nonsense and has been attacked by Winston Churchill’s family on several occasions and by Nicholas Soames MP, his grandson, during Nothing British’s Stolen Valour campaign.

The BNP thinks we were on the wrong side.

In an undercover documentary for the BBC, Mark Collett, BNP publicity director and Sheffield BNP election candidate, said:

“Churchill was a f****** c*** who led us into a pointless war with other whites [ie the Nazis] standing up for their race.”

In a January 2010 BBC interview, Chris Beverley, Andrew Brons MEP’s chief of staff and BNP candidate for Morley, told the interviewer:

“I don’t hate Hitler.”

On Hitler’s Waffen SS Griffin praised their:

“… limitless courage and sacrifice”.

David Duke, a personal friend of Nick Griffin, blames Churchill for World War Two.

In January 2010, Duke carried an article called “How organized Jewry pushed America into WWII”. The article derogatorily describes Churchill as a “Jew lackey”.

Churchill despised all fascist leaders.

Sir Oswald Mosley was a friend of Adolf Hitler and the wartime leader of the British Union of Fascists, a Nazi sympathising party.

Nick Griffin has proudly said:

“There is a strong, direct link from Oswald Mosley to me.”

Even before the war Churchill attacked what he called the “Heil Hitler brigade in London society”, which included “those like Mosley who are fascinated by the spectacle of brutal power. They would like to use it themselves. They grovel to Nazi dictatorship in order that they can make people in their turn grovel to them.” Churchill regarded Mosley a Fifth-Columnist (a traitor) and felt “not the slightest bit of sympathy” towards him.

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Nothing British is launching a new campaign on why there is nothing patriotic about voting for the BNP. This blog series will reclaim patriotism and British identity from the clutches of ethnic nationalists. It will show how rather than being patriotic – creating a common identity for all – the BNP is a party that seeks to divide Britain.

The BNP’s shameful use of respectable icons, symbols and institutions like Churchill, the Union Jack and the Church to cover up for the fact that it is a party mired in corruption, criminality and violence is a disgrace.

In no particular order, our new series will show how in Britain there is nothing British about:

1. Exploiting wounded soldiers and veterans for political capital.
2. Denigrating the contribution of non-white soldiers.
3. Admiring the enemies of Britain.
4. Selling out British interests to foreign extremists.
5. Abusing the Queen and the Royal Family.
6. Using authoritarian and wealth-destroying ideas from the Continent.
7. Roughing up journalists.
8. Tolerating misogyny, sexism and homophobia.
9. Sneering at injustice.
10. Accepting anti-Christian behaviour.
11. Romancing foreign fascists.
12. Denigrating our heritage.
13. Breaking the law.
14. Destroying individual identities through collectivisation.
15. Dividing our country.
16. Isolating Britain from our friends.

Patriotism, as George Orwell defined it, is a “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people.”

The BNP, however, is not devoted to our “particular” way of life. It is committed to its own hate-filled, racialized version of Britishness. Nick Griffin’s political vision is un-patriotic. It looks backward not forward. It is closed not open. And it is divided not united.

During the European elections nearly 1 million British voters were so concerned about their future they decided to vote for Nick Griffin and the British National Party. For a country that is a tolerant and respectful believing in fair-play, this was deeply shocking.

Nothing British’s Policy Focus series has already exposed the BNP’s loony policies and shows how Nick Griffin - among other things – would:

1. Cost jobs, particularly amongst the working classes.
2. Push up prices and reduce choices for consumers.
3. Divide Britain into an apartheid state.
4. Isolate us from the our friends around the world.

Put simply: this series will show how voting for the BNP is about as British as voting for Sinn Fein, Anjem Choudhury or Fidel Castro

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