The arrest of David Lucas, a Suffolk based farmer and former BNP candidate, on firearms and explosives offences this week elicited an implausible response from Simon Darby, BNP deputy chairman and spokesman.
“I would imagine that it is to do with his capacity as an agricultural rural chap. It is just one of the many things that ordinary rural people have to deal with when you have got a politically motivated police force.”
These words are roundly rejected by representatives of Britain’s shooting community.
”The shooting community in Britain is one of the most law abiding in the world,” said Christopher Graffius, Director of Communications at British Association for Shooting & Conservation. “We have no truck with people who disregard firearms law and thus put themselves and the general public at risk. To complain that unlicensed weapons are common in rural areas is to insult rural people for whom the safe and legal handling of firearms is an important responsibility.”
It is not good enough for a party that aspires to the highest offices in the land to brush off law-breaking by senior figures in its ranks.
