Remember, remember...

...the fifth of November.

Never better than today, fifth of November, to comment the polemic surrounding the BNP in the UK right now. The British National Party (BNP), a far-right party whose baselines are many “anti-“ policies (anti-Islamist, anti-homosexual, anti-immigration) had last week its fifteen minutes of glory and a few more in the British public television. The program was watched by over 8 million viewers and critics poured over the BBC soon after the broadcasting.

It all started way before the interview to BNP’s leader, Nick Griffin, was aired. Several anti-fascist protesters even breached the security of the BBC trying to cancel the program. Politicians from all the political spectra protested energically on how the public broadcaster could give time to a party that has been accused of racist, homophobic and even of being connected to Nazi and paramilitary organizations.

None of that stopped Griffin’s train. The BNP leader had his time to explain why denies the Holocaust, why he is against Europe and why he doesn’t consider London an English city anymore because of the immigration -he may be right on that.

Results to the interview came immediately. Apart from an ego boost for Nick Griffin -as if he needed it-, BNP increased considerably the intention of vote. In a survey carried over just after the program, a 4% said they would "definitely" consider backing the party, 3% who would "probably" consider it, and 15% who said they were "possible" BNP voters.

To put some perspective to that, let’s say that the BNP had in 1995 a 0.7% of the votes, but has had an ascending trajectory since then -last summer they got their first ever seats in the European elections. From the party office, they say that the night of the interview they had a record high in recruitment, with over 3,000 people who called to register in their lists.

That’s why, before this perspective, I cannot pass without remembering the fifth of November and V’s speech in the film “V for vendetta”.




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