The British National Party's senior members have voted "overwhelmingly" in favour of allowing a party-wide ballot on membership rules.A change in constitution would bring the BNP in line with the recent Equality Bill, and would allow non-white people to join.On the first day of the party's annual conference in Wigan, delegates debated whether its membership policy should discriminate on the grounds of race or religion.The BNP's leader Nick Griffin was present at the "closed for business" debate, at the Legends Bar in Hindley Green.
The British National Party's senior members have voted "overwhelmingly" in favour of allowing a party-wide ballot on membership rules.
A change in constitution would bring the BNP in line with the recent Equality Bill, and would allow non-white people to join.
On the first day of the party's annual conference in Wigan, delegates debated whether its membership policy should discriminate on the grounds of race or religion.
The BNP's leader Nick Griffin was present at the "closed for business" debate, at the Legends Bar in Hindley Green.
Several politicians due to speak at the conference, organised by the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), were alarmed to learn the background of fellow speaker Krisztina Morvai, a Hungarian MEP and leader of the far-right Jobbik party in the European parliament.The fledgling party, which recently formed an alliance with the BNP, has attracted fierce criticism for its links to a grassroots militia and the controversial views expressed by some of its supporters towards gay people and and Jews.But it is Jobbik's attitude towards Hungarian Gypsies that has attracted the most controversy. During this year's European elections, the party blamed the country's Romany population for the decline in Hungary's living standards, and says on its website that "voters have had plenty enough of Gypsy crime".The Hungarian Guard militia, which is backed by Jobbik, has marched through Romany ghettoes in Hungary, increasing community tensions. Militia members wear uniforms emblazoned with a striped red-and-white symbol, a version of which was used by the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party that ruled Hungary for a brief but brutal period towards the end of the Second World War. Morvai has been photographed wearing the uniform of the militia, an organisation ruled illegal by a Hungarian court and described as "Hungary's shame" by a former prime minister of the country, Ferenc Gyurcsány.
Several politicians due to speak at the conference, organised by the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), were alarmed to learn the background of fellow speaker Krisztina Morvai, a Hungarian MEP and leader of the far-right Jobbik party in the European parliament.
The fledgling party, which recently formed an alliance with the BNP, has attracted fierce criticism for its links to a grassroots militia and the controversial views expressed by some of its supporters towards gay people and and Jews.
But it is Jobbik's attitude towards Hungarian Gypsies that has attracted the most controversy. During this year's European elections, the party blamed the country's Romany population for the decline in Hungary's living standards, and says on its website that "voters have had plenty enough of Gypsy crime".
The Hungarian Guard militia, which is backed by Jobbik, has marched through Romany ghettoes in Hungary, increasing community tensions. Militia members wear uniforms emblazoned with a striped red-and-white symbol, a version of which was used by the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party that ruled Hungary for a brief but brutal period towards the end of the Second World War. Morvai has been photographed wearing the uniform of the militia, an organisation ruled illegal by a Hungarian court and described as "Hungary's shame" by a former prime minister of the country, Ferenc Gyurcsány.
("Gypsy crime" should be "Gypsycrime": a neologism created by an associated webpage. And the Hungarian Guard was created by Jobbik, though claiming organisational independence was a legal fiction they tried to use when the Hungarian Guard was banned.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
